Return of the Living Dead: Rave To The Grave

So here I go taking a giant leap into Hell.  I'm taking a risk ruining a series for myself that I've fallen in love with by watching one of the sequels every fan of the series I know has told me to avoid.  Did I listen?  No... it just made it seem more appealing.  Surely no movie can be that bad...

And honestly - it really wasn't that bad.

Going into this I was expecting a cringe-worthy piece of crap that would be impossible to sit through.  So imagine my surprise when I actually enjoyed it.  Now don't get me wrong, it is a piece of crap, but it's a fun piece of crap.  The only comparison it has to the 1st 3 ROTLD movies is the name and the zombies repeating the word 'BRAINS' over and over.  In no way whatsoever does it even deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as the 1st 3, but if you can take it for what it is then you might enjoy it like I did.  It's a fun, trashy popcorn movie and shouldn't be viewed any other way.

I'll start off with the bad points - there are a few.  First off, the zombies looked like crap.  There was no effort put into making them look like zombies at all.  The make up was weak and it came out looking like regular people with chalked faces and a bit of red around the lips.  There was only 2 cool zombies (one that died instantly after suggesting promise and the other just sorta stood by a highway trying to get a passer by to pick it up and drive it to a rave).  Now onto the gore.  It isn't the best, but it's cheesy and fun enough to enjoy.  There was a really nice death with a screwdriver (or a pencil, I can't be sure) and there was a couple of fun decapitations.  However, the zombies died as a result of these as well as gun shots.  Everyone knows that ROTLD zombies are trickier to kill than this.  The humor is another weakness, but it's also a strength.  By that I mean that the attempts to make us laugh are so unfunny that we end up laughing at how unfunny they are.  It isn't LOL but it helps remind us that we shouldn't be taking it seriously.

I can't think of any strengths.  It was the weaknesses that made me enjoy it.  I wouldn't recommend this to someone who's expecting anywhere near on par with the 1st 3, but if you enjoy mindless, daft, immature fun with a bit of terrible zombies thrown in then you'll get a small kick from it.  Just think of it as just another zombie movie, because if you're a big ROTLD fan then this sequel might offend you.