Trivia / The Return of the Living Dead

• Completely Different Title:
  • Denmark: The Corpses Do Not Care
  • Germany: Dammit, the Zombies Are Coming
  • Greece: Zombies Are Not Vegetarians
  • Japan: Battalion
  • Netherlands: They Are Back and Hungry
  • Taiwan: Chicago Ghost
• Dawson Casting: Despite portraying teenagers, Linnea Quigley (Trash), Jewel Shepard (Casey), and Thom Mathews (Freddy) were 27, Brian Peck (Scuz) was 25, Mark Venturini (Suicide) and John Philbin (Chuck) were 24, and Beverly Randolph (Tina) and Miguel Núñez (Spider) were the youngest at 21.
  • Not to mention, Frank is said to be 45 in the original script, whereas James Karen was 64 when he played the part.
• Playing Against Type: The nightmare-inducing Tarman is performed by Allan Trautman, a prolific puppeteer, who is best known for his lighthearted work with Jim Henson and The Muppets.
• Reality Subtext: America was still in the Cold War by the time of this movie's release, and most Americans at the time feared that nuclear war was imminent and would end in Mutually Assured Destruction for both sides. All of this make the dark Nuke 'em ending rather fitting, especially because the bombing kills a lot of civilians and doesn't even solve the zombie problem.
• Star-Making Role: For Miguel A. Núñez Jr. ('Spider'). Though none of the cast went on to become A-list celebrities, Miguel has enjoyed the most career success and longevity. As of 2023, he remains relatively popular having appeared in numerous predominately Black films and television programs over the years. He currently co-stars on the urban crime drama The Family Business, streaming on BET+. Linnea Quigley ('Trash') and Allan Trautman ('Tarman') have also been quite successful. Quigley is widely regarded as a "scream queen" due to her frequent horror film appearances, and Trautman is a highly-regarded puppeteer and educator.
• Throw It In!: Frank's self-immolation scene was suggested by James Karen, who didn't wish to shoot any scenes in the cold Los Angeles rain.
• Troubled Production: To say there was tension between Dan O'Bannon and the producers is an understatement. To further intensify things, the original effects producers, Bill Munns (who handled most of the makeup work, including some of the Tarman and Yellow Zombie sequences) was fired and company Applied Entertainment(who had zero experience in films, but rather sets and animatronics for the likes of Chuck E. Cheese, and was contracted to do the dog model, first skeleton and the half-corpse) shuttered their doors during production, forcing the producers to hire Kenny Myers and then-newcomer Tony Gardner to complete the effects.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Ernie didn't intend Burt's favor to be to "watch [his] ass out there" after leaving the funeral parlor with Spider. The workprint reveals that he intended the favor to be more of a Meaningful Echo to the very first scene:
  Ernie: Burt, that favor you still owe me... no matter what happens, don't name it after me.
  • Frank was supposed to be completely transformed into a zombie and join the zombie mob. See Throw It In! above as to why it was changed.
  • Trash's original name was Legs and Spider was called Meat.
  • Dan O'Bannon wrote the role of Trash for Jewel Shepard, who plays Casey, because she was a stripper and Dan met her in a strip joint. Jewel had enough of being naked in public and she chose to play Casey instead.
  • Another actress was offered the role of Trash, but dropped out because she was pregnant.
  • The paramedic who was played by Drew Deighan was originally cast with someone else (Deighan was just meant to be a stand-in for the film). However, the original actor wasn't able to hit his lines due to being distracted by the behind the scenes politics. Therefore, the unconfirmed actor was fired and replaced with Deighan.
  • O'Bannon himself was going to play Frank and even wrote the part with himself in mind. This changed however when he saw James Karen's audition. O'Bannon still cameos twice in the film as the helicopter cop and voiced the scream of the bum that Zombie Trash kills (he didn't play the bum physically).
  • On a minor note, when Burt gets the idea to chop up the cadaver and asks for the bone saw, James Karen thought it would be funny for Frank and Freddy to turn to each other and mouth "Bone saw...". There was apparently no time to film it.
  • Also, with the half dog model that Frank beats on, the dog was intended to be one of the larger dogs seen earlier when Frank is inducing Freddy. The larger dog wasn't going to be finished in time for filming so the special effects crew switched to the small one seen in the final product.
  • The biggest is that the original intent was for a serious 3D sequel to Night of the Living Dead (1968), but when O'Bannon replaced Tobe Hooper as the director he also requested a total rewrite to make it stand apart from the Romero canon. But it's doubtful few are complaining about what we got instead.

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