Melinda Clarke and J. Trevor Edmond Kent McCord) The story is a loose and grungy re-telling of romeo and juliet at its core. A couple of leather clad star-crossed lovers break away early from their friend's and a night of brooding in the desert for some adventurous trespassing at the local secret military base. The young lovers() gain entry using a key card the boy swipes from his father (. While they are playing some real life Metal Gear Solid in the top secret government building the two happen to witness the fathers doomed zombie rehabilitation project in action. When all the excitement is over Julie and Curt climb down from their hiding spot, escape the facility and return home for some love making, 90’s style. Unfortunately date night is cut short by the news that the Curts father had been reassigned due to his zombie taming being a bust, as they had witnessed earlier. There is a frustrating teen drama moment between parent and child that ends with the couple storming out. Having decided it’s better to run away than face separation at the hands of another relocation from the Air Force, the duo descends on rebellious and sexy trek. Unfortunately during the dramatic ride on Curt's motorcycle, high speed foreplay causes a near collision with an oncoming semi truck and Julie is thrown into a telephone pole. Curt awakens to find Julie deceased and stricken with grief, he sees his fathers super top secret government ID card in the dirt and decides to bring her body to the base. Unable to resist, he uses his father's experimental process to resurrect his love and the two go back to running away, now with the added burden of Julies increasing zombie-ness. After the base, the two piss off a group of gang members and then Julie bites some fools. At some point in their adventures it's discovered that her hunger for brains can be temporarily subsided by pain which leads to an awesomely brutal scene where Julie takes up arms by shoving glass shards into her skin. If you refuse to watch this movie for any reason, watch it for the zombie DIY glass-shard armor, super mega-evolution at least. There is some undead exo-suit action, some more fools get bit and everybody lives happily ever after (Shakespeare style, which means not really).



Along with the dramatic tone, the film also attempts something else the other films in the "Return" avoided: character development. A dark love story and mediation on "the turning" can be picked out between soapy dialog and awesome gore. At points in the film I feel for the doomed couple, despite the cheese and retro moodiness. I am not a fan of Hollywood's constant injection of romance into every cinematic tale and a lot of mainstream films could do just as well, if not better, to lose the bullshit boy-meets-girl set up, but ROTLD 3 is a trashy example of special case. It takes zombies, Shakespeare, some Rebel Without a Cause and rolls it into a nice doobie-blunt, in my opinion. Cliches are plentiful but varied in source and played well through Yuzna’s gruesome lens. The zombie effects, while noticeably different from the first films, work particularly with the more dramatic flavors of the film well. The effects, executed by various teams(including Steve Johnson and Wayne Toth ) pairs with the colorful lighting to push the soap opera feel to an enjoyably trashy and safe place.

Love is a fucked up feeling, I assume slowly turning into a zombie is a pretty bad trip too. What better way to spend the most romantic of months than snuggled up around a corny but ultimately tragic love story involving the undead? Its a underrated classic date night flick. Then again, I did once include Love is a fucked up feeling, I assume slowly turning into a zombie is a pretty bad trip too. What better way to spend the most romantic of months than snuggled up around a corny but ultimately tragic love story involving the undead? Its a underrated classic date night flick. Then again, I did once include Hellraiser (1987) on a list of “good romance films” so you might not want to take relationship advice from me.