Film review: RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD: NECROPOLIS (2005)

 RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD: NECROPOLIS (2005) USA/Romania 1hr 28mins

Director: Ellory Elkayem

"Whenever there is an outbreak of zombie reanimation we lead the charge in containment" - Hybra Tech advertisement.

"Lead, follow... or get out of the way." - Julian

"Send more security guards" - Zombie.

The first three RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD movies are true classics, yes... even part two, but unfortunately they fall outside of my review catchment being made before the year 2000 so luckily for them, they escape my pitiful scribblings of which I am sure they are grateful for. However, twelve years later writers William Butler and Adam Strongoni decided to resurrect the franchise. They enlisted the help of EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS (2002) director Ellory Elkayem and created two more RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD movies but the question here is did they do them justice and did we really need them in the first place?

RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD: NECROPOLIS (2005) is set 10 years after RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD 3 (1993) and starts off at Chernobyl where head mad scientist for dodgy pharmaceutical company Hybra Tech, Charles (Peter Coyote) arrives with some shifty Russian mafia types to purchase the remaining missing Trioxin barrels, now known as Trioxin 5 (which instantly grinds my gears (why change the name?)). True to form, one of the Russians manages to get some of the gas from the barrel on his hands and instantly turning into a zombie and attacking his comrade meaning Charles can escape with the barrels free of charge. Back in the states we find out that Charles is guardian to his two nephews, teenager Julian (John Keefe) and his kid brother Jake (Alexandru Geona) affectionately nicknamed Pyro, after their parents died in a car crash. His nephews are unaware of Charles' role at Hybra Tech but even as a family there is an awkward undertone between the kids and their Uncle. Once Charles gets back to his lab at Hybra Tech he starts reanimating severed arms and corpses without realising that the gas has leaked into the basement of the building and is reanimating the local hobos. When Julians friend Zeke (Elvin Dandel) is injured in a motorbike crash he is intercepted by Hybra Tech and brought back to the labs for experimentation. Julian and his gang suspect foul play when Zeke does not make it to the hospital and head to Hybra Tech to bust him out. They discover all the experiments on the dead and see all the reanimated corpses locked away. In an attempt to free their friend and flee the building a security system failure releases all the undead test subjects and in a gruesome twist of fate Julian discovers what really happened to his parents.

The only thing that really links NECROPOLIS to the rest of the franchise is the barrels of Trioxin and they already ruined that by changing the name of it to Trioxin 5. I know what you're thinking... they'll still have Tarman though won't they?? Erm, we'll come back to that. I guess that these are the ONLY things they can really link back to considering the majority of the main cast of the first three movies were all killed off (sometimes twice). I just don't think they really considered the appeal of the characters and actors in the first few movies when it came to casting this one which for me is one of its biggest let downs. Instead of choosing crazy, wild characters or big personalities of which the first three movies have in spades they decided that having bland, floppy haired, dull stereotypical teenagers that look like they've just stepped off the set of DAWSONS CREEK would be a better idea. Weirdly, considering the first movies are from the 80's and 90's the terrible 00's hair do's and and baggy clothes in NECROPOLIS seem to date this movie worse than the others. All the characters are incredibly insipid and yawningly dull you could not care less what happens to them, in fact you hope they all get eaten. I can see how this was a straight to TV movie at the time as I'm sure if you had to pay to see it at the cinema you would be asking for your money back. The acting is really quite awful with the relationship between Uncle Charlie, Julian and Jake being the most uncaring, disfunctional family of all time. The plot has as many holes in it as Swiss cheese, however considering that the acting is so bad you kind of expect the plot to be crap too, so it's not as much of a distraction as it could be. 

The zombies are pretty awesome though! I'm hoping they made this a conscious effort to spend a good amount of the budget on the zombies. This is the only RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD movie not to feature a Tarman character which in my opinion is a massive oversight. How can you have a RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD movie without Tarman??!! Despite this there is a lot of zombie action right from the start so whilst on one hand they are trying to lay down plot, no matter how boring or confusing it is, you can bet on a bloody, gory zombie, reanimated rodent or rogue limb turning up for some entertainment value. They look pretty cool and due to the advancement  in visual FX and make up they have a more subtle style whilst still being the cloudy eyed, mouldy, gooey cadavers we all know and love. The scene in the lab with a bunch of cloned zombie babies is also kinda cool but unfortunately doesn't really go anywhere. The zombies still have that signature trait of groaning for "Braiiiinnnns!" and biting people directly on the skull. There is one great moment where they squeeze in a tribute to the first ROTLD when one zombie, after consuming the brain of a security guard discovers an off the hook telephone and asks for them to "send more security guards". There are also some uber soldier zombies kitted out with gatling guns and saw blades which again is a bit of a continuation of the end of part 3 and what the army were trying to do to Riverman. The kills that the zombies make are gruesome but not really on screen for long or that detailed so it is lacking in gore. The kills that Julian and his his team make on the zombies are unadventurous , it's just them shooting them all over when they know that they are supposed to bring them down with head shots or running them over and burning them.

It is supposed to be fraught with tragedy and Julian loses not only his best friend, his girlfriend but also his brother. However, because of the way it is all portrayed and how Julian is played as a character no one on screen really seems to care so why should you? It is important to note that by the end of the movie the SWAT team eventually turn up Julian, Uncle Charlie, Cody (Cory Hardict) and science nerd Becky (Aimee- Lynn Chadwick) all make it out alive as it would seem their zombie encounters are not yet finished. This annoying open ended finale leaves you hoping there won't be another but also knowing that, sadly, there will be more to come. The soundtrack is a collection of rap and rock artists that were cool at the time which again seems to date it terribly but we have some Godsmack, Powerman 5000, Coolio and Alice Cooper. RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD: NECROPOLIS (2005) was not a welcome addition to the franchise at its time of release and does not get any better as time goes on. I feel a bit sorry for William Butler as he had high hopes for this and RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD: RAVE TO THE GRAVE (2005) but his ideas never came to fruition and now he will forever be associated with the two worst movies in the franchise. At the end of the day the ROTLD franchise was best left as a trilogy and these two that followed should be best thought of as a way of cashing in on the name only. I didn't jump to watch this when it first came out and left it quite a few years before disappointing myself. After I had watched it I had pretty much forgotten everything about it which meant I had to rewatch it for the purpose of this review and the only thing I did remember about it was the ending... that's how memorable it is. I give RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD: NECROPOLIS (2005) a score of 2 brains out of 5. (That's 1 brain for the abundance of zombies and 1 brain for the "send more security guards" line).

I don't advise it,  but if you wanted to watch RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD: NECROPOLIS (2005) it is on YouTube for free... luckily. I wouldn't recommend spending money on it.