Prime Video added 56 new movies this month, meaning it’s the best streaming service if you want to check out some great new movies in August. Among these new additions is a title I very nearly missed, and it’s a great horror comedy.
The Return of the Living Dead joined Prime Video this month and if you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth your time. With a 76% Rotten Tomatoes critical score, it was a seriously impressive debut for director Dan O’Bannon in 1985 and now you can watch it in the comfort of your home.
It’s the first in a series of five movies but unfortunately the follow-ups weren’t good at all, with the second one receiving only 5% on Rotten Tomatoes from the critics, so this is the only one worth checking out in my opinion.
Why you should watch The Return of the Living Dead
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If you’re a zombie fan, there’s plenty to enjoy here as The Return of the Living Dead has done a lot of for the genre. In fact, it’s known for introducing a lot of tropes that have been used in subsequent zombie movies.
Examples include zombies eating specifically brains, not just humans in general, as well as zombies being invulnerable to a gunshot to the head, both of which you have definitely seen before in some of the best horror movies.
It’s low budget and shows but that’s all part of the charm to me, as The Return of the Living Dead has everything I love about 80s horror movies in particular; the fashion, the rock music, the monsters that look fake for modern audiences but were groundbreaking at the time – there’s so much to enjoy.
The Return of the Living Dead definitely embodies all of these things as we follow a warehouse owner who is accompanied by his two employees, a mortician friend and a group of teenage punks, as they deal with the accidental release of unkillable, brain-hungry zombies.
The plot is both ridiculous and terrifying: it follows Freddy, a new worker who accidentally unleashes a toxic gas, which creates rainfall that reanimates corpses in the nearby cemetery.
It’s gory, silly and great to watch with a crowd, even to this day it’s a great time and even superior to some modern day zombie movies.
Even if you’re not usually a fan of zombies, I’d recommend trying this because its influence on the horror genre can’t be ignored and there’s a reason it’s become a cult classic with a very healthy critical consensus.
The Return of the Living Dead is available to stream on Prime Video and Hoopla, one of the best free streaming services, in the US. If you are in the UK or Australia, the movie is available via the MGM+ add-on channel, but not the base Prime Video package.
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