Home for Horror: Return of the Living Dead (1985) · R

Punk, funny, and surprisingly scary, Dan O’Bannon’s zombie classic makes the dead talk—and crave brains. A hilarious, gruesome riot. Dan O’Bannon’s punk-rock riff on the Romero zombie mythos does what Romero would not: it makes the zombies talk, and it makes them very much want brains. A pair of medical supply warehouse workers accidentally release a mysterious gas, and things unravel from there — with a killer soundtrack, a wicked sense of humor, and some of the most inventive practical effects work of the decade. Wonderfully weird, and much scarier than its comedic edge suggests.