James Karen, Thom Mathews, Michael Kenworthy

Curious kids open a barrel of green gas linked to a mysterious military experiment, and soon a tenebrous green cloud of fog is making its way through the creepy town cemetery. Knowing exactly where t...( read more  read more... )his is headed is, of course, part of the fun in this tongue-in-cheek zombie sequel. Maybe it's not as fresh as its successful predecessor, but all of the key zombie ingredients are still well preserved in this second installment: ravenous "undead" in search of human brains, severed limbs with a life of their own, and lots and lots of shrieking! Taking a hackneyed premise that is a close retelling of part I, director Ken Wiederhorn (Freddy’s Nightmares, Shock Waves) rejuvenates the genre with sporadic genuine scares, lots of plain old silliness, and some literally eye-popping special effects. Followed up a few years later with the equally enjoyable Return of the Living Dead Part III, this is a fun franchise that reminds you of what '80s horror was all about: bad synth music, and perms. --Matt Wold

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49% liked it

18,321 ratings

R, 89 min.

Directed by: Ken Wiederhorn

Release Date: January 8, 1988

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DVD Release Date: October 5, 2004

Stats: 668 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (668)


  • September 29, 2009
    A fun and quite silly horror comedy! You know it?s good though when a zombie gives you the finger!
  • October 24, 2008
    I enjoyed this tremendously. It was one of the first zombie films I saw, and first of the Return series. A mix of horror and comedy can so easily be done wrong so this time out, Director Weiderhorn decided to go all out on pure entertainment-almost a light-hearted comedy on the u...( read more)ndead. Some jokes fall flat (severed hand giving the finger, probably lifted from Evil Dead 2) but the fun of the film will draw most in and bring back nostalgic memories of the 1980s. The opening credits have recieved a lot of crap as they don't set up the plot the same way the first Return's did. But I like the song (Julian Cope's Spacehopper) and it really caught my attention and got me in a silly mood. The song is probably this film's equivilant of the first's PartyTime sequence.

    Some might call it lame, but they're just being too cynical. This is a good sequel in most respects and a lot of fun to watch. Like the first, it's dated in many respects but it's still a load of fun.
  • February 2, 2008
    a disappointing followup, Rave to the Grave might be better
  • January 21, 2008
    Good flick, it could be better
  • July 8, 2007
    It seemed to have better zombie effects, characters, story and humour than the first. I really got into this one, whereas I could never get into the first one.
  • October 7, 2009
    actually still retained the comedy part of the first film. not bad the addition of the old guy was pretty good he was probably my favorite with his humor ha! the two guys from the original film make it back only to die for a second time i thought that was bs but they still were p...( read more)retty funny
  • September 23, 2009
    me la vi hace años es muy buena de las q me daban miedo d verdad
  • September 7, 2009
    "Do you wanna die? Okay, they seem to like brains, so maybe they'll leave you alone."

    For some reason, the zombies here remind me of the Thriller video. The way they look and sort of dance walk across the screen. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing. I thought the zombi...( read more)es in that video were very well shot and captured that horror factor. You also have some returning actors from the first film in the graverobbers. It would of been nice to cast two different people for their roles. They died in the last one and saying "part 2" is pretty irrelevent here. It just doesn't add up. I thought the beginning of the film was much better than the last, even though it still revolves around the green mist. The gore is still here and the intelligence in the zombies as well. It was random to see a zombie stepping on another zombies hands and it feeling it. Even one needing its glasses to see. Plus, these can't die from a head shot. The same went for the last part. We have some kind of invincible zombie here that loves watching girls doing aerobics on TV. Comedy is still wrapped up in the plot, but it works so well with the series that it's a welcomed treat.
  • August 31, 2009
    best zombie sequel i've seen (arguably thats not saying much). Also gotta give credit to the best use of actors from the 1st movie ("I can't help feeling this is all familiar" :0)
  • July 23, 2009
    Pretty entertaining and harmless fun, though a lot more could have been done with it. I did like it though.

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