The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Horror, Comedy, Science Fiction • 1h 31m
Overview
When foreman Frank shows new employee Freddy a secret military experiment in a supply warehouse in Louisville, Kentucky, the two klutzes accidentally release a gas that reanimates corpses into flesh-eating zombies. As the epidemic spreads throughout the town, and the creatures satisfy their hunger in gory and outlandish ways, Frank and Freddy fight to survive with the help of their boss and a mysterious mortician.
Director: Dan O'Bannon
Cast: Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, Thom Mathews, Miguel A. Núñez Jr., Brian Peck, John Philbin, Linnea Quigley, Beverly Randolph, Jewel Shepard, Mark Venturini, Jonathan Terry, Cathleen Cordell, David Bond, Derrick Brice, Paul Cloud, Michael Crabtree, Robert Craighead, James Dalesandro, Drew Deighan, Leigh Drake, John Durbin, Ed Krieger, Bob Libman, Allan Trautman, John Stuart West, Terry Houlihan, Robert J. Bennett, Jerome Coleman, Cherry Davis
Director: Mike Flanagan
US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray (similar encoding)
Director: Mike Flanagan
US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray (similar encoding)
Director: James Foley
Director: James Foley
Director: Richard Fleischer
Director: Richard Fleischer
Director: Terence Young
US Arrow > UK StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray, better color grading
Director: Terence Young
US Arrow > UK StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray, better color grading
Director: John Woo
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray > US Shout! Factory, better encoding by Engine House and redone opening credits, errors present in Shout! Factory fixed
Arrow 4K Blu-ray, mono is from an alternate higher fidelity source than Shout! Factory.
Director: John Woo
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray > US Shout! Factory, better encoding by Engine House and redone opening credits, errors present in Shout! Factory fixed
Arrow 4K Blu-ray, mono is from an alternate higher fidelity source than Shout! Factory.
Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray > Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber US Blu-ray, see caps
Capelight and Arrow both have good compression, but Capelight has the edge. Kino is very poor.
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Image Entertainment LaserDisc
(Arrow is a port of the LD track, see spectrograms)
Capelight and old Arrow BD included the original stereo mix, but with excessive noise reduction rendering it much less detailed. Kino only included a downmix of the 5.1 remix.
The best and most accurate of the 5.1 mixes is from the 2003 Special Edition DVD in AC3 form.
Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray > Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber US Blu-ray, see caps
Capelight and Arrow both have good compression, but Capelight has the edge. Kino is very poor.
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Image Entertainment LaserDisc
(Arrow is a port of the LD track, see spectrograms)
Capelight and old Arrow BD included the original stereo mix, but with excessive noise reduction rendering it much less detailed. Kino only included a downmix of the 5.1 remix.
The best and most accurate of the 5.1 mixes is from the 2003 Special Edition DVD in AC3 form.
Director: Joel Schumacher
US/UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray has both the original Dolby Stereo 2.0 mix in its best quailty and the original Dolby Stereo 4-track discrete stems in 4.0.
Director: Joel Schumacher
US/UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray has both the original Dolby Stereo 2.0 mix in its best quailty and the original Dolby Stereo 4-track discrete stems in 4.0.
Criterion 4K Blu-ray scheduled for October 2026 release
1991 Orion LaserDisc vs 2024 Arrow 4K Blu-ray
Criterion 4K Blu-ray scheduled for October 2026 release
1991 Orion LaserDisc vs 2024 Arrow 4K Blu-ray
More Horror on Blu-ray
UK 88 Films 4K Blu-ray in October
Australia Imprint Blu-ray?
Germany Filmjuwelen 4K Blu-ray is disappointing with AI upscaling
UK 88 Films 4K Blu-ray in October
Australia Imprint Blu-ray?
Germany Filmjuwelen 4K Blu-ray is disappointing with AI upscaling
Director: Paul Schrader
Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray has DNR applied and encoding could be better. Possible issues in Dolby Vision
Great source, poorly encoded but it does look significantly better than the Blu-Rays.
Director: Paul Schrader
Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray has DNR applied and encoding could be better. Possible issues in Dolby Vision
Great source, poorly encoded but it does look significantly better than the Blu-Rays.
Director: Iain Softley
Director: Iain Softley
Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray Sept. 2026
Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray Sept. 2026
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Umbrella 4K Blu-ray, part of Alejandro Jodorowsky Collector’s Edition, scheduled for November 2026 release
Severin 4K Blu-ray has bad encode
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Umbrella 4K Blu-ray, part of Alejandro Jodorowsky Collector’s Edition, scheduled for November 2026 release
Severin 4K Blu-ray has bad encode
Director: Michael Mann
Theatrical/Director's Cut: Shout! Factory Blu-ray
Hybrid Theatrical Cut: Anchor Bay "Theatrical" DVD
Final Cut: upcoming UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical/Director's Cut: Shout! Factory Blu-ray
Hybrid Theatrical Cut: Anchor Bay "Theatrical" DVD
Final Cut: upcoming UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
Director: Michael Mann
Theatrical/Director's Cut: Shout! Factory Blu-ray
Hybrid Theatrical Cut: Anchor Bay "Theatrical" DVD
Final Cut: upcoming UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical/Director's Cut: Shout! Factory Blu-ray
Hybrid Theatrical Cut: Anchor Bay "Theatrical" DVD
Final Cut: upcoming UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
Director: Wes Craven
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has color space error but otherwise an improvement upon previous Blu-rays. See caps
Maybe the included standard Blu-ray is better?
Director: Wes Craven
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has color space error but otherwise an improvement upon previous Blu-rays. See caps
Maybe the included standard Blu-ray is better?
UK 88 Films 4K Blu-ray See caps
DE Nameless 4K Blu-ray is an extremely poor AI upscale. See caps
UK 88 Films 4K Blu-ray See caps
DE Nameless 4K Blu-ray is an extremely poor AI upscale. See caps
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