Return of the Living Dead 4 & 5 (Double) Review Country : USA Year: 2005 Genre: Horror Format: Theater Running Time: tbc Distributor: Aurora Entertainment The original is a cult classic. In that view horror writer (and fan alike), William Butler, wanted to give the fans the sequels they wanted. The vision from the writers was present, but did the director pull it off? Credits Directed by Ellory Elkayem. Written by William Butler & Aaron Strongoni. Starring Aimee-Lynn Chadwick, Cory Hardrict and John Keefe. First, let me begin by admitting that I am a BIG fan of the Return of the Living Dead franchise, and William Butler. I realize that this makes me a mutant in some people's eyes, but I get fanatical about other things that fans of ROTLD may not. And other than the Romero trilogy, I always thought ROTLD was the best of the zombie best. Well, the latest and now my least favorite of the series. Necropolis had the potential to be great, but falls flat on it's face. Written (and very well written I might add) by Guts and Gory fave William Butler (Madhouse) and Aaron Strongoni and poorly directed by Ellory (Eight Legged Freaks) Elkayem. The story goes like this - Julian, Zeke and friends are typical high school seniors enjoying ordinary teen lives until a motorbike accident lands Zeke in the hospital from which he mysteriously disappears. When his friends start to search for him, everything points to mega corporation Hybratech. Deciding on a rescue attempt, these seniors are unaware that Hybratech has been conducting radical experiments on humans with a mutated chemical compound called Trioxyn-5. This chemical is re-animating the dead! And now Zeke is one of their test subjects. As Zeke’s friends break into the facility they stumble upon serious trouble in the form of reanimated and released zombies all hungering for fresh brains!! But an even worse dilemma is in store in the high security levels of the facility, where one of the gang discovers a horrible secret about his own family. It seems that this rescue mission will have deadly consequences for these kids. This is where I yell STOP! There is so much wrong with this movie, it's not funny. Really... first of all, since when can you kill or even slow down a ROTLD zombie with a head shot, punch, or neck snap? You have to totally annihilate the zombie with fire or acid to stop them correct? Even William Butler has said on his GAG forum, and I quote "I want to kill that director! WHAT A PIECE OF SHIT THIS NECROPOLIS is - Have these fucking people who produced this film heard of a fucking looping stage?? Is everyone in this movie Romanian???? God what shoddy work - they cut out like 70% of the zombie scenes LOL!!!" So why did Ellory Elkayem take it upon himself to change the whole mythos? Why? Because he could care less about the series. William Butler should have directed it and then just maybe we would have greatness. Who decided the guy that directed Eight Legged Freaks should direct over the guy who directed one of the best horror (Madhouse) films in the last five years? They should be shot, reanimated with 245trioxin (not Trioxin 5), then eviscerated with acid. This movie plays out more like 'Scooby Doo and the Witches Ghost' as the bumbling cast make there way through Necropolis, and as William Butler would say... 'is everyone in this movie Romanian'? What a shame that one of the best franchises ever has been disgraced with such an entry. Maybe, the will let ROTLD rest in peace... oh, no wait... there is another entry called 'Rave to the Grave'. And rather than do two reviews... I'll go ahead and talk about Rave as a companion piece. So, what... did two people direct these films or what? Did the cast forget about the events that just went on? They act like it didn't happen... or maybe it didn't and we are now waking up from some horrible nightmare. Lets call 'Rave to the Grave' part 4 and forget about Necropolis totally. This one is actually a lot better, but not much. In 'Rave', Julian and the few friends who managed to escape from Necropolis are all now in college and putting their Hybratech experiences behind them. But that doesn't’t last as accidentally Julian and Jenny discover a sinister chemical canister hidden away in a secret room. Trying to dissect this chemical, labeled as Trioxyin-5, they leave it with their friend Cody for analysis. Unfortunately, Cody quickly sees the potential to create a new party drug out of it and make himself some easy money. He lies to Julian and produces a huge batch of ‘Z’ that he sells across the college campus. As the drug becomes more and more popular and Halloween approaches, practically everyone in the college has taken a little ‘Z’. As hundreds of innocent college students become brain hungry zombies, holiday costumes make it difficult to tell who is still alive and who is one of the living dead! As the rave party begins, the zombies start to take over till it’s uncertain if anyone will escape this rave to the grave! So yea, like I said it's a much better film and has some great moments. No kung-fu crap, and no cheesy Peter Coyote, well not for long anyways. They should seriously consider burning the master of Necropolis and just putting this one out, or just let the ROTLD franchise R.I.P. for good. The vision was totally there, but once again executed poorly by Elkayem. I will watch them both again uncut on DVD and make my final determination. 'Rave to the Grave' is in limited theatrical play right now and multi-plays can be caught on the Sci-Fi channel all month long. OFFICIAL SITE BILL BUTLER SPEAKS! WILLIAM BUTLER FORUM Review by John Gray, for Pitofhorror.com