MOVIE REVIEW : Humor Meets Terror in ‘Living Dead Part II’

At the beginning of “Return of the Living Dead, Part II” (citywide)--an intentionally hilarious horror picture--a couple of large kegs roll off an army truck and land in a storm drain near a new housing development.

Some neighborhood boys can’t resist opening them, unleashing a couple of zombies pickled in a sinister greenish vapor. Watch out: These creatures are hungry for fresh human brains. Writer-director Ken Wiederhorn serves up the usual pus and entrails with an unapologetic but light-hearted glee.

Wiederhorn, however, does more than this. He displays an engaging sense of the cinematic, melding images, dialogue and pacing with a flair, energy and economy that should strike envy in film makers working in more serious and respectable genres. “Return of the Living Dead, Part II” has more genuine artistry than lots of prestige films, and it’s fun besides.

Wiederhorn’s hero is a bright, sturdy and resourceful 12-year-old, Jesse Wilson, played with an irresistible naturalness by Michael Kenworthy, in his film debut. Jesse’s the new kid on the block, the one who cautions a couple of headstrong bullies that it might not be the smartest idea to open those army kegs. Jesse keeps his head while countless others quite literally are losing theirs. “I know that voice,” says Jesse much later on, realizing he’s being asked to risk his life. “It’s like Mom’s when she’s expecting me to volunteer to do the dishes.”

That greenish vapor raises the dead at a nearby ancient cemetery, and fleeing with Jesse are his nagging older sister (Marsha Dietlein) and a young cable installer (Dana Ashbrook). Also on the run are a grave robber (James Karen), his reluctant young assistant (Thom Mathews) and Mathews’ shrill, redheaded girlfriend (Suzanne Snyder, who deserves special kudos for her sustained hysteria and great Fay Wray screams), as well as a tippling local doctor (Philip Bruns).

Surely, the special effects are cheesy on purpose, which undercuts their terror and heightens their humor--the funniest moment occurs when a lively severed hand, a veritable Beast with Five Fingers, is let loose in the rear seat of a crowded car. (Even so, the film’s R rating should be respected in regard to young and impressionable children). While the film is intended as a hoot, Wiederhorn subtly enlarges his perspective to portray a community that has been evacuated in the face of calamity, abandoning these few people to fend for themselves the best they can. Wiederhorn cuts the jokes two-thirds of the way through to celebrate the way in which a handful of people summon the courage and ingenuity in their attempt to escape those implacable creatures.

Since “Return of the Living Dead, Part II” is two decades away from George Romero’s scare classic “Night of the Living Dead”--Romero had nothing to do with this film or its immediate predecessor--it’s to be expected that chills give way to laughs. In any event, we probably haven’t seen the last of the Living Dead.

‘RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, PART II’ A Lorimar Pictures release of a Greenfox production. Executive producer Eugene C. Cashman. Producer Tom Fox. Co-producer William S. Gilmore. Writer-director Ken Wiederhorn. Camera Robert Elswit. Music J. Peter Robinson. Visual consultant Raymond G. Storey. Special makeup Kenny Myers. Film editor Charles Bornstein. With Michael Kenworthy, James Karen, Thom Mathews, Dana Ashbrook, Marsha Dietlein, Suzanne Snyder, Philip Bruns, Thor Van Lingen, Jason Hogan, Sally Smythe, Jonathon Terry.

Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

MPAA-rated: R (under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian).