For personal reasons, Return of the Living Dead disturbs me greatly but I still love it. More Brains! A Return to the Living Dead is a documentary on the making of the classic and influential 1985 zombie punk rock splatterfest. The documentary is also therapeutic and a proven psychiatric tool for me because it helped me to first realize and then to conquer my fears of ROTLD.

This documentary is a charming, funny, and nostalgic look at the production with outrageous and sometimes painful stories from the cast and crew. The hilarious true story surrounding Linnea Quigley's genital-obscuring latex plug (their term, not mine) alone is worth the price of admission. More Brains! also has a huge amount of production stills and home video taken on the set which really gives one the feel for what it was like to be a part of the making of the film.

If you love Return of the Living Dead, if you hate Return of the Living Dead, or if you've never even seen Return of the Living Dead, this documentary will still be fascinating for you. This is one of the most comprehensive documentaries on a film I've ever seen and I think the DVD is absolutely essential for fans of the film. My therapist says that More Brains! is responsible for all the progress I've made in the last few days and that he refuses to accept any more of my money. Now that is one powerful documentary.

DVD Stuff

I often struggle to get through the extras on most horror DVDs. I am very interested with most aspects of filmmaking but few special features have a narrative flow like the extras on More Brains! A Return to the Living Dead. This disc is addictive! Every time I think I'm done, I find more cool shit. First up are the shorter documentaries on the first two sequels of Return of the Living Dead. These are excellent though I wish the one on Part 3 was longer. It is interesting to see what happens when true fans of the horror genre, who work in the film industry, clash with the Hollywood machine. Then there is the final interview with ailing director Dan O'Bannon who talks at length about his side of the production and gives a heartfelt goodbye to his fans.

There is a collection of deleted scenes from the documentary with some stories from the cast and crew that didn't make it into the doc. I like these but I wish there was a 'play all' option. Next up is a music video from Stacey Q, where she sings her famous song from the film, SSQ's "Tonight (We'll Make Love Until We Die)". The video consists of her lip-syncing the song at what I'm guessing is a film screening. It's pretty cheesy and is probably cool in a 'you had to be there' kind of a way. Also cheesy but really fun is the extra where Beverly Randolph and Brian Peck visit locations in Louisville, Kentucky where the original film was shot.

The last significant (and that's being generous) special feature is "Return of the Living Dead in 3 Minutes" where the cast reenacts some of their dialog from the movie. It's kooky and Brian Peck (who also narrates the documentary) is quite a character. Lastly, there is a trailer for the documentary as well as one for Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy. The DVD is in anamorphic widescreen and has subtitles for the hearing impaired.