Trivia for
The Return of the Living Dead (1985) More at IMDbPro »

• Tobe Hooper was originally slated to direct and it was supposed to be filmed in 3-D.
  
  
• The two heroes of the movie are names Burt and Ernie, obviously an ironic reference to the popular "Sesame Street" (1969) characters, right? Wrong. Turns out Dan O'Bannon didn't know he was using the names of the two beloved children's show's puppets (from liner notes in the Collector's Edition DVD).
  
  
• The nuclear cannon at the end of the film was actually a WWII German Howitzer.
  
  
• The eye-test poster (seen most clearly after Frank and Freddy run into Burt's office after hearing the first re-animated cadaver) in Burt's office actually reads "Burt is a slave driver and a cheap son of a bitch who's got you and me here" if you put the letters together.
  
  
• Director Dan O'Bannon was originally supposed to play Frank and he wrote the part with himself in mind, but when 'James Karen (I)' came in to read for another part, O'Bannon was simply blown away and hired him on the spot.
  
  
• The executive producers attempted to contact George A. Romero several times in order to offer him the choice of producing the movie, but he never answered.
  
  
• John A. Russo wrote a script called "The Return of the Living Dead" at the same time that George A. Romero was doing Dawn of the Dead (1978). An independent producer, Tom Fox, bought Russo's script. He set up production and gave the script to Dan O'Bannon. O'Bannon refused to direct it as it was written. He felt that it was too much of a serious attempt at making a sequel to Night of the Living Dead (1968), and did not want to "...intrude so directly on Romero's turf." It was re-written with more humor.
  
  
• Some of the zombie extras were paid more to eat real calf brains in the film. Dan O'Bannon didn't want the actors to do anything he wasn't willing to do and ate some raw calf brains first in front of them.
  
  
• The cemetery is called "Resurrection Cemetery".
  
  
• The combination to the lock on the freezer door is 22 (right) - 4 (left) - 10 (right).
  
  
• After the "rabid weasels" are brought into the Resurrection Funeral Home and the tarp is removed, what is actually in the bags are those motorized toy monkeys that have the cymbals. The cymbals were removed for obvious reasons.
  
  
• In the early 1990s, a longer work print version of the film surfaced that ran 24-minutes longer that the released version.
  
  
• The film's German title is "Verdammt, die Zombies kommen", which is roughly "Oh Crap, the Zombies Are Coming" and the Danish title is "Ligene er ligeglade" which is roughly "The Dead Don't Care" - playing up the comical aspect of the film.
  
  
• Linnea Quigley (Trash) wore a crotch-covering, flesh-colored prosthetic during her strip scene.
  
  
• On the back of Freddy's jacket, in the theatrical version, the words "Fuck You" are displayed. After realizing that the shot could not be used in case it was ever shown on TV, a second jacket was made that says "Television Version" and can be seen in the TV version of the movie.
  
  
• When Frank and Freddy are carrying the "rabid weasels" into the Resurrection Funeral Home (before Burt removes the tarp), Clinton Hartley, brother of assistant art director Clayton Hartley and future brother-in-law of actress Beverly Randolph, is actually under the tarp lying on the stretcher to give credibility to the weight of the body parts.
  
  
• Director Cameo: [Dan O'Bannon] The homeless man that the crew walk past after arriving at the warehouse. He also voices the helicopter officer.
  
  
• Richard P. Rubinstein of Laurel Entertainment didn't want people to think this film was part of George A. Romero's "Living Dead" series. He even got an injunction to stop them from using "Living Dead" in the title. But the MPAA arbitrators ruled in favor of the movie's producers.
  
  
• The character Ernie (Don Calfa) is thought to be a Nazi due to him sharing his name with Ernst Kaltenbrunner among other indications in the film (such as the character listening to the German Afrika Corps march song "Panzer rollen in Afrika vor" on his Walkman while he embalms bodies, carrying a German Walther P38 and having a picture of Eva Braun in his morgue). Dan O'Bannon, in the DVD commentary, mentions that Ernie was intended to be an escaped Nazi in hiding.
  
  
• In an unprecedented move, a fan of the film started an internet campaign to get the movie released on DVD. Going beyond simple fan petitions, Michael Allred created a web page consolidating every bit of news relating to the film, and contacted many of the film's principals including the writer and director Dan O'Bannon. He went on to put O'Bannon in touch with MGM (the studio that owned the film) and work began on getting the film released on DVD. O'Bannon and others who worked on the film credited Allred and his campaign for getting the movie released on DVD.
  
  
• The glass breaking on top of the chemical drum during the "melting tarman" scene at the beginning of the credits wasn't planned at all. It just happened to shatter due to the heat of the effects at the perfect time.
  
  
• On the DVD commentary, Dan O'Bannon claims he was surprised at how many women were in the initial audiences and said if he'd known he'd have such a large female following he would have shown Suicide (Mark Venturini) naked as well.
  
  
• The lead pipe that Clu Gulager uses in the movie is actually made of rubber. He initially used a real pipe but the crew snuck it away from him and replaced it with a rubber one as Dan O'Bannon was worried about Clu's frequent angry and sometimes violent outbursts.
  
  
• In the tradition of previous zombie movies, the word "zombie" is never mentioned - except once, by Spider (he also coins the term "tarman" for the creature from the tank).
  
  
• The zombie, Tarman is the most prominent. He first appears at the very beginning of the film as a regular dead body in a barrel but when the Trioxin is released he melts in thick black tar and when he is shown on-screen for the first time (which occurs in the middle of the movie) he can pronounce "Brain!" but he has no lips so it would be hard for him to even say the word "Brain".
  
  
• 'Allan Trautman' said in a DVD commentary that one of the main ingredients for the 'tar' of his costume was Methocel. Methocel is a thickening agent used in milkshakes and also one of the main ingredients for The Blob (1988).
  
  

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