Return Of The Living Dead 3 Blu-Ray Review (Vestron Video Collector's Series #4)
By Paul Rudoff on Oct. 18, 2017 at 11:30 PM in Home Video, Horror

(Since Halloween is fast approaching, this seemed like the best time to revisit some of my past horror movie reviews. I'm revising and reposting a few of them, such as this one.)
Vestron, Vidmark/Trimark, Live, Artisan, Media, New World, Goodtimes... If you grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, you will instantly recognize these names from the boxes of some of your favorite VHS cult classics. Lionsgate, who owns a few of these labels, has revived the Vestron name for the Vestron Video Collector's Series of Blu-ray releases. As described on the case, "Vestron Video has been a leader in providing the most unique and wide-ranging selection of films. We honor the spirit of Vestron Video by presenting the Vestron Video Collectors Series - a line of classic genre films newly remastered and with a wealth of supplementary features." I have reviewed several other titles in the series.

Original VHS Ad (courtesy of Critical Condition)
Return of the Living Dead 3 is the fourth in the Blu-ray series (they are all numbered on the spine), but it will be the first one I review seeing as how it is a personal favorite of mine. I believe that I first saw Return of the Living Dead 3 on television in the middle of the night sometime around 1995/1996. I caught it mid-way through, and was enthralled, even though I didn't fully understand what was going on because I missed the set-up at the beginning. Later on, I bought the Unrated VHS, which I held onto for many years until it was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy back in 2012. Although the movie was available on DVD, I steered clear of it because it was the R-Rated cut. Thankfully, this new Blu-ray release contains the Unrated cut (difference comparison), which runs for 1:36:54.

The film centers around teenagers Curt Reynolds (J. Trevor Edmond) and Julie Walker (Melinda Clarke), whose love is put to the test when a motorcycle accent causes Julie to no longer be a member of the living. Curt takes Julie's body to his father's not-so-secret highly INsecure military laboratory in order to use the 2-4-5 Trioxin gas to re-animate her. The military was using that gas, the only connecting link to the previous two films, to create unstoppable zombie soldiers. Needless to say, Julie isn't the only thing to come back to life. While the military has its hands full with the other walking dead, Curt and Julie make their escape.

It isn't long before Julie starts to get the "hunger", though she can't quite figure out what she's hungry for. It's certainly not regular food, as they stop at a convenience store and Julie devours all of the Twinkies and assorted snack cakes without satisfaction. There they have a run-in with a street gang, whom Curt hits by mistake. From there, Curt and Julie have both the military and the street gang after them. They eventually make their way to the sewers, where they meet Riverman, a vagrant who takes them in and hides them.

All the while, Julie realizes that - surprise! - it's human brains that she's hungry for. She tries her best to kill the hunger pains by piercing, poking, cutting, and severing herself with spikes, nails, and shards of glass. Eventually, she emerges with all of the aforementioned items protruding from her face, fingers, breasts, and other parts of her body, giving her a rather alluringly disturbing appearance, which was used as the movie poster imagery. She's Freddy Krueger's wet dream. For fear of spoiling the movie any further, let's just say that lots of gory deaths ensue and Curt and Julie get a "Romeo & Juliet ending".
Although the story is serviceable, and often sad at times, it's not going to win any awards. There are more plot holes and implausibilities than I care to count, not the least of which is the lack of security at the military base, that the street gang can track down Curt and Julie so easily and would spend the whole night going after them, and that it takes the gang a seemingly long time to go through the same sewer entrance that Curt and Julie went though just across from where the gang was taunting them a few feet away. Yeah, I can fully believe the dead reanimating, but stuff like this stretches my Suspenders of Disbelief.

Honestly, there are two main reasons to see this film. (1) Melinda "Mindy" Clarke. She might be best known now for her roles on the television shows "The OC" (as Julie Cooper) and "Nikita", but this is where I first saw her, and she brings a lot of life (pun intended) to her performance. Instead of portraying Julie like the usually decaying feet-dragging zombie, Julie is a junkie looking for her fix, and you really feel for her. You squirm a little when she starts twisting metal springs into her hands, and you are taken aback by her demented, albeit kinda sexy, transformation. It doesn't hurt that Melinda is gorgeous, with stunning eyes, and is not afraid to show her breasts, both before and after the piercings. She truly presents a vulnerable side, something she comments on in the bonus feature interview. By the way, how prescient is it that Julie's last name is Walker, which would later be what the zombies are called on "The Walking Dead".

The other major draw of the film are the gore-iffic practical special effects. No CGI or other crap like that here. You have real fake blood and guts, make-up effects, puppets, and all of the other fun stuff that give movies like this that special charm that's missing in the more sanitized computer effects worlds of today's films. The effects are done by a variety of artists, not least of which is Steve Johnson. I single him out not because he's better than the rest, but because he's also responsible for Slimer and the zombie cabbie in Ghostbusters.
Return of the Living Dead 3 is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer. There is a light amount of grain here and there, but nothing more than you would expect for something shot on film. Picture is crisp and clear with no issues that I noticed. On the audio side, there's a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0/Stereo track, which is loud and clear. I'm not sure if it's just my TV speakers, but it did seem like the music and sound effects were louder than the dialog.

A whole slew of all-new special features were created for this release, most of which are interviews with the principle cast and crew, and all of which are in HD. These were all a joy to watch, and were highly informative. A few of them include some brief behind the scenes home video footage. Kudos to Lionsgate for spending the time and money to put together a nice collection of supplements for a film that, in other hands, wouldn't have been given more than a barebones release.
- Audio Commentary with director Brian Yuzna.
- Audio Commentary with actress Melinda Clarke and special make-up effects artist Tom Rainone.
- Ashes to Ashes (26:48) - a conversation with director Brian Yuzna and screenwriter John Penney.
- Living Dead Girl (18:56) - an interview with actress Melinda Clarke.
- Romeo is Bleeding (17:21) - an interview with actor J. Trevor Edmond.
- Trimark and Trioxin (13:33) - Interviews with production executive David Tripet and editor Chris Roth.
- The Resurrected Dead (18:47) - Interviews with special effects designers Steve Johnson and Chris Nelson.
- Storyboard Gallery (5:51) - two scenes with movie audio: "Julie's Accident" & "Into The Fire".
- Still Gallery (3:54) - 41 images: movie stills, concept art, production stills (all nearly full-screen; there's a little bit of a border/background image).
- Theatrical Trailers (2:45) - two trailers.

Although Return of the Living Dead 3 is being presented under the Vestron Video banner, it still retains its original Trimark Pictures logo before the film. The film contains 12 chapters and includes English SDH subtitles. The first print run includes a slipsleeve. For some reason, the copy that Lionsgate mailed to me had the security sticker placed on the disc itself, instead of on the inside of the case, as seen in the above photo. Thankfully, it came off without ruining the disc.

While this is the third in the Living Dead series, it is essentially a stand-alone film that has nothing to do with the first two or the ones that came after it. Should you be interested in owning the entire Living Dead series - and be forewarned, that the first two are more humorous in tone - ROTLD1 has two Blu-ray releases: a Collector's Edition from Shout Factory and a lesser Blu-ray/DVD Combo from MGM (which doesn't have all of the bonuses as the other release). ROTLD2 is not on Blu-ray, so you're stuck with either the DVD with replaced music or the VHS with the original music. The fourth and fifth films, which were both direct-to video, are also only on DVD: Necropolis and Rave To The Grave. Honestly, you'll be best to avoid them and just stick with the original trilogy. And if you really can't get enough of the dead, "The Complete History of The Return of the Living Dead" book oughta satisfy you more than any brains could.
Final Verdict: Recommended.

As of right now (updated 10/18/2017), the Vestron Video Collector's Series includes the following Blu-ray releases, all of which contain new bonus materials just like the one I reviewed.
- Chopping Mall (September 27, 2016)
- Blood Diner (September 27, 2016)
- Waxwork 1 & 2 (October 18, 2016) - Double Feature
- Return of the Living Dead 3 (November 22, 2016)
- C.H.U.D. II: Bud The CHUD (November 22, 2016)
- The Lair of the White Worm (January 31, 2017)
- Parents (January 31, 2017)
- The Gate (Febuary 28, 2017)
- Wishmaster Collection (March 28, 2017) - Quadruple Feature
- The Unholy (June 27, 2017)
- The Warlock Collection (July 25, 2017) - Triple Feature
- Slaughter High (October 31, 2017)
Images used come from the still image gallery on the disc and the publicity site. Blu-ray provided by Lionsgate for review on this site.
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