Nerds That Geek Movie Review – ‘Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

There is no sadder moment for a nerd or a geek, than when they are forced to watch a beloved franchise fall to pieces right before their very eyes. Because in that moment, one truly comes to realize, that there is no hope for the saga in question. It’s reached rock bottom, no one will want to see another entry in this franchise and that means, hardcore fans of the series have to come to terms with the fact that the movie they are currently watching, is the one that put the proverbial nail in the coffin and that just makes for an awkward experience.
 
But alas, it is unavoidable when you truly love a particular saga through and through and well, that moment arrived for me the instant I popped Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave into my DVD player all those fateful years ago. Because this is hands down, the worst movie in the franchise, and this is the one that killed the saga with its missteps and low-production values and poor acting and well, it was extremely hard to sit through this one after all these years, because I outright forgot about all the elements that straight up made this movie a cringe worthy experience. However, trying to talk about every single problem that plagues this film would be a ten-part series in its own right, so rather than go on a true tirade, let’s just keep it simple today and look at two key elements that fail this film and the franchise, the first one being, the fact that the movie doesn’t know what genre it wants to be a part of.
 
Because while other films in the saga were either focused on being scary, as was the case with ROTLD 3, or were proud to be a balanced horror/comedy such as the first two films, this one struggles to figure any of that out. For at times, it tries to become a straight-laced horror film, and the camera work and special effects scream that something terrifying should be coming your way. But an oddly placed joke, or a goofy sequence taking place during the scare leaves the audience in an odd place because they simply cannot tell if the movie is trying to be funny or terrify you and to make matters worse, the comedy elements simply are not funny in the slightest, even when they play out on their own and really, this awkward problem is due in large part to the ridiculous plot present in this film.
 
For in essence, the story revolves around a bunch of college kids, getting their hands on one of the Trioxin tubs and they discover that the gas can be used as a potent drug that they sell on campus and of course, disaster ensues and well, this is just a terrible idea through and through. For starters, this movie tries to live within the means of the canon that was established in the last movie, in that, zombie outbreaks have happened before and the tanks are the reason as to why, so to see the characters be totally fine with using a Trioxin canister and its contents to get high, is just next level ridiculous and it makes every single character in this story look like an idiot and it, along with the bad acting and boring gore and effects, completely remove the audience from the story, to the point where the big finale, is meaningless.
 
If anything, this is a movie that simply should not have been made, and the lack of effort that went into telling this story shows when all is said and done and this, this was it when it comes to the ROTLD franchise ladies and germs. For there have been no sequels following this one, nor has there been talk of a reboot or a remake of the original for that matter simply because, a movie this bad leaves a franchise radioactive for years on end. But, while the franchise ended with quite the embarrassing whisper, the only solace that comes out of this, is that Necropolis and Rave to the Grave can be outright ignored and the good films, the ones made before this dark era are available for us to enjoy, whenever we wish.

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