When I first came across Return of the Living Dead, I mistook this movie as one of the original Romero classics. Well, once I started watching it, I realized it was a far cry from Romero's gloom and doom scenarios. That is not so say this movie is bad. Oh no, RoTLD was an absolute delight to watch, setting itself into a niche of its own.

It's still about Zombies, right? Yes, the movie is about your typical zombie infestation - a whiff of strange chemicals, teens running amok in their wild and youthful ways and then, teens running in a panicked frenzy away from the zombie flesh eaters. That's pretty much the story right there. Arguably, that is the story of almost every zombie movie. More importanty, the elements of an epic zombie gnawer really depends on the director.

And admittedly John Russo does an excellent job with this one. Firstly, he throws in the strangest bunch of characters for the movie. And so, don't expect to find any cliches where characters are concerned. Well, to be fair, you do get the young rebellious teens who happens to love punk. How can you tell? I suppose the costumes were a dead giveaway. And then there are the real gems, the one who are my personal favorites: Ernie, the gun-toting, pragmatic mortician; Frank, the twitchy and neurotic foreman; and Burt, the cowardly boss with excellent survival skills. For me, most of the humor in the movie came from interactions between these three characters.

Secondly, the zombies in the movie defy classification. Simply running about, gawking, growling and then eventually, gnawing off someone's foot is not enough for them. No, no, no, these guys have personality, pizazz and street smarts. For instance, look out for the 'original' zombie that starts the infestation. Known lovingly asTarman , he scuffles about the warehouse screaming "Brains!!". He knows what he wants and he wants it now! Then there are the devious graveyard zombies. After successfully feasting on some paramedics, the ever hungry zombies snap on the radio and mutter "Send more paramedics!!". By the way, this went on for a while before people caught on.

Thirdly, if nothing else, the music makes the movie work. RoTLD throws in plenty of great 80s punk, a lot of which work rather well with the 'run for the hills' moments. It certainly added extra charm to the mass zombie revival scene in the graveyard.