I remember renting The Return Of The Living Dead from a small video store in my home town. This was likely early 1986 and I wasn’t sure what sort of film to expect. This was years before I had seen Night Of The Living Dead or even Zombie Flesh Eaters in fact The Return Of The Living Dead might actually be the first zombie film I ever saw. I remember loving the movie and finding it so insane, that it made me want to rewind the VHS and rewatch it straight away (which I actually did)  Id seen the film a few times in the 80s on VHS but until very recently I hadn’t revisited the film. Arrow Video have a bluray release of the film now and its amazing!  The film look great with its restoration, the soundtrack still kicks butt! and the special features on this release are stunning (and theres lots of them)  But for those who arent familiar with The Return Of The Living Dead, lets venture into what this film actually is.  What was initially conceived as a follow up to the 1968 Romero classic Night Of The Living Dead, Return of The Living Dead turned out very differently indeed. Taking the genre that George A Romero invented and turning it on its head, Dan O’Bannon (who wrote Alien) made his directorial debut after the films original choice of director Tobe Hooper was busy with another film dropped out. 

Freddy (played by Thom Mathews) is on his first day of work at the Uneeda Medical Supply Warehouse when his co-worker Frank (played by James Karen) decides to show off the airtight canisters filled with human remains in the basement, lost by the military long ago. One of the canisters unexpectedly leaks a poison gas and sets into motion a full-scale uprising of the undead, against which warehouse boss Burt (played by Clu Gulager), mortician Ernie (played by Don Calfa) and Freddy’s punker friends (including scream queen Linnea Quigley) may be the last defence. If the zombies don’t eat their brains first!

Made for around $4m US, Return of the Living Dead would go onto make over $14m at the box office, and then over the years I’m sure a truck load more on VHS and other formats. Over the years its a film that is still talked about and is still very much loved and adored by film fans all over the world (including me)  I loved it when I first saw it in the mid 80s and I still love it when watching it in late September 2025 (in the run up to its release, I was fortunate enough to see a review disc of the film and its extras) This release is packed! With four full length commentaries, those alone add up to nearly 6 hours. of insight into the film from various angles of production.  Those enough would mean this purchase is a must, but Arrow Video havent finished…..theres so much more. As you’ll see below there’s a large amount of featurettes included within The Return Of The Living Dead release and those featurettes total around 3 hours and 20 minutes. PLUS! There’s the great documentary More Brains which runs for 1hr 59 minutes, so you can take that 200 minutes and add on another 119. nearly 5 and a half hours worth of extras for this 90 minutes film.  Amazing!  Could The Return Of The Living Dead be the best physical media release of the year? Well its still early October, but The Return Of The Living Dead is definitely the front runner for that ‘award’ 

4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Orlando Arocena
• Perfect bound collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Gary Smart and a preview of the forthcoming sequel comic Revenge of the Living Dead
• Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Orlando Arocena

DISC ONE – FEATURE (4K ULTRA HD)

• 4K restoration from the original negative
• 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Original★ lossless mono audio plus DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio commentary by writer-director Dan O’Bannon and production designer William Stout
• Audio commentary by Stout and actors Don Calfa, Brian Peck, Linnea Quigley, Beverly Randolph and Allan Trautman
• Audio commentary by actors Thom Mathews and John Philbin and make-up effects artist Tony Gardner
• Audio commentary by fans and filmmakers Gary Smart and Chris Griffiths
• The Origins of the Living Dead, an archive interview (from 2012) with author John Russo (15 Minutes)
• The FX of the Living Dead, an archive featurette (from 2012) on the special effects (33 Minutes)
• Party Time: The Music of Return of the Living Dead, an archive (from 2012) featurette on the film’s soundtrack (29 Minutes)
• Horror’s Hallowed Grounds, an archive (from 2016) tour of the locations by Sean Clark (10 Minutes)
• The Dead Have Risen, an archive featurette (from 2007) with Calfa, Peck, Quigley, Randolph, Trautman, Clu Gulager and James Karen (20 Minutes)
• Designing the Dead, an archive featurette (from 2002) with O’Bannon and Stout (13 Minutes)
• The Decade of Darkness, an archive featurette (from 2007) about 1980s horror classics (23 Minutes)
• Deleted scenes from a VHS workprint (29 Minutes)
• Theatrical trailers and TV spots

DISC TWO – MORE BRAINS! (LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE BLU-RAY)

 High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation of the 2017 feature-length documentary (run time 1hr 59 minutes) about the making of the film, featuring extensive interviews with cast and crew
• A Conversation with Dan O’Bannon: The Final Interview (30 mins)
• Deleted scenes from the documentary (15 Minutes)
• Return of the Living Dead in 3 Minutes (3 minutes and 4 seconds)
• Resurrected Settings: The Filming Locations Today (10 Minutes)

★ The song “Dead Beat Dance” by The Damned has been replaced due to rights issues beyond control.

In summary The Return Of The Living Dead is a gem of a film, funny, nostalgic, and a great nights entertainment and with the special features contained in this set its an amazing release that is a treat for physical media fans and those who love great popcorn movies.