As far as I know, Return of the Living Dead, was the first zombie movie where the zombies craved human brains instead of flesh. No explanation is given for this different craving during the movie other than eating brains eases the pain zombies feel from being dead. It really says something about the success of this film when most people today still attribute brain eating to zombies.

Return of the Living Dead also features talking zombies. I don’t think that this movie is the first zombie movie to use such an effect, but it helps Return of the Living Dead standout from other zombie movies. The scenes where zombies use radios to call for more paramedics and police officers are wonderful, making the zombies in Return of the Living Dead some of the smartest zombies ever. As well, the scene when zombie Freddy is trying to break into the attic is made much more effective by the creepy things he’s saying as he hits the attic door.

Another trait that makes the zombies in Return of the Living Dead standout is the fact that they can run. The remake of Dawn of the Dead gets a lot of credit for the use of running zombies, but everyone needs to remember that this movie was made around twenty years earlier. As well, the zombies in Return of the Living Dead can’t be killed, which is a trait no zombie movie that I know of has tried to imitate since. It really adds to how trapped the characters are when they know that they can’t even kill or outrun the zombies outside.

The acting in Return of the Living Dead isn’t going to win any awards anytime soon. The older actors are fine, but the younger actors aren’t overly inspiring. I think the director, Dan O'Bannon, knew he had some weak actors, so came up with ways to distract us from it. One of these distractions was when Trash, played by Linnea Quigley, decides to strip her clothes off while dancing. I wasn’t offended by use of the nudity in that scene, but I think someone would have an easy time arguing that the nudity there was a bit gratuitous.

There’s a continuity issue that bothers me in Return of the Living Dead. When Trash is bitten by the zombies she eventual turns into one, and the results are we get a naked blue zombie chick running around causing mayhem. However, other characters get bitten and killed, but never turn into zombies. This issue isn’t big enough to ruin the movie for me, but other viewers will probably be bothered by it too.

O’Bannon also has a strange directing style at times in this movie. He seems to like using the first person view in a lot of shots, which I think some viewers might find a bit disorienting. There are also some moments when the makeup/special effects are sub par. The Tar Man looks awesome, but the skeleton that comes out of the ground in the cemetery looks obviously fake. As well, I’m bothered by the fact that Trash becomes a blue zombie, but the zombie cadaver at the start of the movie is yellow. It makes me wonder if they had a zombie for every color of the rainbow.