Sam Ashurst's House Of Horror: Return Of The Living Dead Special
Brand-ꦦnew interviews with the cast of the punk-zombie classic...
Hello fright fans, my name's Sam Ashurst and I'm a huge fan of 70s giallo movies, '80s VHS trash classics, '90s serial killš¦©er flicks and '00s foreign chillers.
It's been a while since my last column, so I've put together a special feature to celebrate the release of Return Of The Living Dead on Blu-ray on 4 June.
Below, you'll find an oral history of Return Of The Living Dead , featuring brand-new interviews with the cast.
Scroll down for Linnea Quigley going in-depth on her graveyard dance scene, Jewel Shepard describing her strip club meeting with Dan O'Bannon, and Brian Peck revealing his intš²ense passion for horror flicks.
You'll also get Beverly Randolph talking about how Return left her brušised and bą¼attered, Don Calfa comparing a fellow castmember to a penguin, and the whole lot remembering what it was like to watch the film with an audience for the first time.
So, take off your raāzor-tipped gloves, hang up your cobweb-covered hat anꦺd gently rest your bone-blunted axe beside the door.
And welcome to my House Of Horror...
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Don Calfa: Well, when I read the script, I just had a feeling about it that it was right on the money, and yeah, I honest to god thought it was really good on the page, and I knew a little bit about Dan OāBannon, I knew that heād acted in and written Dark Star , and I said āBoy this thing could be funny and scaršy,ā so I really thought going in this could be good.
Linnea Quigley: I thought the script was really cool beź¦cause I like punk and I was plaāying in a band at that time, and even before that I was punk, so I could relate to that.
Itās, like, weird, I think actors always read their parts and then they read the rest of the scršipts, I think most of us do, if they even read the whošŗle script, yāknow?
But I thought it was a really cool concept, and I considered myself pretty new in the business, even though Iād done some things, I still felt pretty new and this was a bigger movie than š»a lot of āem Iād done.
Brian Peck: Itās funny, Iāve said this mašny times before, and I canāt emphasise it enough, Iām a huge horror movie fan.
Yāknow Iām a movie geek, Iām a guy from a very early age grew up in movie theatres, I didnāt play sports, I didnāt spend a lot of time outside in the sun, I sat in movie theatres and watched movies, or was in my familyāą¶£s TV room and would watch old black and white monster movies.
I grew up in the sixties, so as a child I was there for that sort of re-explosion of monsters, yākź¦now āthe popularity of monsters that happened in the sixties.
I watched all the classic Universal monster movies on TV in black and white, and I built all of the Aurora monster models, my favourite thing in the sixties was monsters, so all of my toys were monster-related and my favourite TV show was The Munsters .
Iāve just been a ālong time movie lover, but a real lover of monster movies. If I ever had any free time, my favourite pastime was turning my bedroom into a haunted house, in my opinion it was a haunted house, yāknow, an attraction, and I would get my mother and maybe two fź§riends to walk through it.
So, I go way back with a love of horror so as an actor that was always a real dream of mine to actually get to be in a horror film, and I had been a very big fan of The Night of the Living Dead and the Dawn of the Dead andꦬ the Romero zombie māovies that had come out at that time.
So when I got this particular script and I thought the script was very well written, I had a lot of admiration for Dan OāBannon, and Alien was in my top five movies of all-time, and I have to laugh because when I read the script and actually got the role, I had an Alien poster over my bed at the time.
I was shivering with excitement at the prospect of even geą¶£tting to be in this movie.
Beverly Randolph: When I first the read the script I was really excited because Iād only rš ead five short scenes of it for intervą¼ŗiews, so when I finally saw the whole script it was really exciting, I thought I was getting into something more than I expected.
When I first read I didn&rsquą“o;t laugh, I didnāt really have any emotion, I was just so excited to have gotten the part, I just readš¼ every line and devoured every scene to just be prepared for our rehearsals and our shoot.
Jewel Shepard: Dan met me in a strip joint and he was looking for basically tiāts and ass in general, then he got speāaking about this upcoming movie he wanted to do, so he was looking for that.
Then he wanted me for a particular part, then when I took my clothes off and did naked dances in front of him - the kind of things that go on in strip joints - he said excitedly āI have this character role, itās called Legs.āš« That šwas the Trash part, only it wasnāt Trash at the time, it was Legs.
So he offers me this naked part and Iām just thinking āI canāt be naked on filmā because Iām doing this strią²p joint stuff on the quiet, but maybe I can be a movie star or whatever but I canāt be naked in movies because thatš³ was frowned on at the time.
Then he went around to the next girl with these very long legs and her name was Legs in the actual strip joint, the strip jointās name was The Ball in Santa Monica, then he offered it to her and she wasnāt very interested because you hear āHey you wanna be in movies?ā all day long and she thought it was jušst scamming.
And then he went to another girl, she wš as called Bebe, and she was like āYeah šIāll do it.ā
Bebe looked like Bettie Page at the time and then āwhen he came back to her about 6 months later she was like 6 months pregnant so she couldnāt do It.
So I said āI read the script and I really like this girl here because sheās a party chick and Iām really a party girį£l and I like to partyā and heās going āBut itās not a very large part, what about this other thš ing?ā
Bš ut I really didnāt like have the temperament for the role that later became Trash so I just didn&rsquoš§ø;t do it.
I was taking drugs at the time, basically I was doing drš³ugs at the time, and I related to that, yeah, thatās what you do.
Linnea Quigley: I remember that Stanzi Stokes, whoād cast me in Silent Night, Deadly Night called me and I read for heār, and then they had me come in and read for Dan OāBannon and Graham Henderson, and they had Miguel Nunez there.
I did that little āDo you eveą¼r fantasize?ā scene and then I had to do a little impromptu dance to show I wouldnāt freeze up with the nudity, because back then, unlike today, š„women were told in the industry āItās death if you take off your clothes, donāt do thatā and now itās crazy how many people do it.
Don Calfa: I came in wearing the long jumpsuit and I had some earphones on and I was boogying to some outrageous music and all that and I came in and š¤Ŗknocked āem out.
My hair was long and dark and I had a long moustache at the time, and Dan said āWould you mind shaving the moustache?&rādquo; I said āAbsolutely noāt, and because heās German American Iāll dye my hair blondeā and he said āYou got it!ā
Brian Peck: The project actually first came to my attention because a friend of mine, an actress, my previous film was a kind of teen sex comedy called The Last American Virgin , and I had become very good friends with one of my co-stars from that film,š and she was actually in the running for the part of Tina that Beverly Randolph ended up playing.
So, she was the one who said āHey, Iām auditioning for this movie, and boy, I think itās right up your alleyā, so she actually lent me her script and thatās how I rź¦ ead it the first time.
I called my agent and said āHey,š get me in on this movieā and the funny thing is thaą± t my agent actually refused to set up an audition because after reading it he said I wasnāt right for any of the roles.
He sort of had this one track mind that, because I had played the nerd in Last American Virgin who was picked on for the whole movie, the only thing I could be was losers and nerds, anź§ d he said āTheyāre looking for punk rockers and street rockers and you know youāre not that guy.ā
Very frustrated, I relayed that story back to my friend Kimmy Robertson, and she said āIām going in for a callback, let me take your picture and resumeā, so she actually hand-delivered my resume to theą² director and said āHeās this friend of mine, we did this movie together, heās a really good actor, heād be really good for this movie, and for some reason his agent won&rsquoš²;t set up an audition but you should see him.ā
The casting people callļ·ŗed my agent, I donāt think he ever fš¬igured out how I got the audition, and I went in.
So getting in was a bit of a hurdle but once I got in I have to say the audition process was pretty standard, I auditioned for the casting director and about a week later I went in for a call-backš¼, which was where I met Dan OāBannon for the first tiā me, and there were other actors there that were in consideration for some of the other roles, and we kind of did a mix and match of some of the roles as a group audition, and that was it. I only auditioned two times.
The strange part was that there ended up being some delays on the movie over the titles and the copyright between John Russo and George Romero, so I when I knešw officially that Iād gotten the part, the next thšing I knew the movie was on hold because of these legal issues, honestly eight or nine months went by, and Iād not really forgotten about it but just assumed it was never gonna happen, then in June of 1984 I got a phone-call out of the blue, calling me to come in for a wardrobe fitting!
A) I didnāt know the movie was finally back up on its feet, and b) that was the first confirmation that I even heard that I had even got the part.
So, I was like āWhat? really? Thanks fšor this movie, itāll be fantasticā and next month we start shooting.
Beverly Randolph: That was a long process, it took nine months, so we didn&rsqš¹uo;t find out thatļ·½ weād be cast in the picture ā the core group of us ā until nine months later when we read about it in the paper.
The start of it was reading the lines withš¦ the casting director, then moving on to meet the producers and reading for them, then reading for the directors and everybody, then doing a screen test, so it was a very lengthy process.
Brian Peck: I would like to say that I was a brilliant actor, to have brought more to the character than was on the page, but I definitely played the role as it was written, I have to give Dan OāBannon the cāredit for creating the character on the page.
I think what I brought to it, or at least what I tried to bring to it, was a sense of realism to this punker character, I was nothing like that in real life, and I ām often asked if I was into the punk scene wš¦©hen we made the movie, and I take that as a huge compliment.
I definitely wanted it to be a real character, in an unreal situation obviously, that was the thing I was pretty adamant about, and in that regard I was really involved in creating the look of the character and my costume, theyād originally in the wardrobe just had me in a whole bunch of leather, preꦿtty mucź¦h the same type of look they had for the character of Suicide, and I just ended up looking like a miniature version of Suicide, and I was the one who suggested the trenchcoat, the buttons and the Mohawk.
The day I actually went and got my hair done there was some discussion about doing my hair as a makeup effect, and I just right off the bat said right off the bat āNo, no, no itās got to be realā and they said āAre you willing to do that?ā āšYeah of course!ā
Jewel Shepard: I had blonde hair, I looked hot, and Dan just came to me and said āWell, just chop it offā and you gotta understand from a girlās perspective when youāre twenty-something years old you just donāt chop off blonde hair so I jusš·t said āWell, Iāll wear a wigā
So basically it was a wig and then they coloured it in those colš„ours blue, red, and whatever thš¹ey were.
They had a series of four wigs, I would have to wear when it got wet the ones that looked wet and it was the same thing with the outfit,ź¦ they wanted something bright and at that time it wasnāt the kind of stuff that was being worn and he said āWell, you donāt want to be sexy or attractiveā and I said āItās not like I didnāt want to be sexy or attractive, I just didnš³āt want to be naked.ā
So I ended up in that potato sack of an outfit.
Beverly Randolph: I came ušp with the idea tšhat Tina was a little good Catholic girl, dating the bad boy.
So, I did bring that aspect to it, although Iām sure it doesnāt show āon screen which is fine.
൩That was my plan, š³to play this really good girl who truly was in love with this bad boy who wanted to fit in with these people and win his heart.
Don Calfa: I brought props, I have Ava Braun in the backgrouną¹d, I have a caricature of Goebbels in the backgrošund. And I brought props and things and all that. I had a hand in picking the costume.
OriginallšŖy when I got the part my name was Ernie Kaltenbrunner - I didnāt realise that it was Burt and Ernie - it was a little homage that heād gotten in the movie.
And a friend of mine said āWhatās your characters namš¼e?ā and I said āErnie Kaltenbrunnerāź§ and he said āGet out of here!ā he said āErnst Kaltenbrunner was a high ranking Nazi and he was trialled at Nuremburgā and apparently the guy was an aristocrat, he was into duelling and swords and fencing, he was a master at it.
I said āOh my god I didn&rsquošø;t realiseź¦ thatā so when Dan did the autopsy he gave me the tape that I could listen to in rehearsal and it was āWhen the Panzas go Rolling Alongā which was a German marching song, the Panza being a tank, thatās why my head is jerking, Iām listening to marching music.
Jewel Shepard: When it was time to film Trashās big graveyard dance scene, up thereš with the road flares, I was just watching her dancing for just endless hours and Iām thinking āThank god I donāt have that partā haš ha!
The producers would come and sit there and stareꦔ at her and āOh damn sheās naked.ā Like, yeah.
Linnea Quigley: I remember I was reallyš happy because we werenāt under the rain machine so we were warm, and, of course being nervous about it.
I just made up the dance as I went and then I remember they were going around underneath me with the road flares, and the sulphur was making me a little biź¦t dizzy becausą·“e that is not the nicest smell, and of course it was going right up my nose.
And I remember them gluing the patch on me ā the Barbie doll ź¦patch they called it ā and that was odd, but I felt like I had something on at least.
Don Calfa: She wore a merkin, which is a fake pussy! Itās a fake pussy! It was a fake shaved pušssy, somebody said to me āWhatās a merkin?ā and I said with a Texas accent āWell, a merkin is a fur piece from the real thang!ā
I thought she was great. WšÆhen she got up there, she was butt naked.
Bevery Randolph: Oh my gosh, yeah that was a shocker, because I had read the script but I didnāt expect Linnea to be that naked, and god bless her for it, just to have no inhibitions whatsoever, when we got up at night with thź¦e lights and the road flares and the smoke it was just amazing.
It was an amazing scene, and the music that they were playing, I waās like āOh my gosh I canāt believe išt!ā
It was pretty neat, it doesnāt compare to these huge movies we do today, but at that time tš§øhat was somź¦ ething special to see.
Brian Peck: At the time we shot it, of course I was dancing around in road flares whilst she was doing it, I just remember at the time thinking āOh thisāll be coāol, people will like this!ā
If I did a movie now and did a scene like that in twenty twelve, I would be shocked. Because you know now if you see one set of boobs briefly in an R-rated movie itās like āWow! They went there&ź¦rdquo; and itās just so stupid because in the seventies and eighties you knew when you bought your tickets there was gonna be tits and ass and guys were gonna get naked and we were gonna see lots of it, it was gratuitous and it was why we went, you know?
Not to sound like a perv, but I like that stuff in those movies, and I just think it sort of sucks now that that has become more of a rarity, so I thought it was great and when she was doing it, you know Linnea was vāØery sexy totally hot and she was up there dancing around and giving it the shimmy, and I just thought āThis is a cool scene.ā
Linnea Quigley: It was just filming as usual, I thought, it was actually a good nigāht because there werenāt any rain machines and there were some fun scenes with Suicide pushing me aside, having some respect for the dead yāknow? Tina being Tina being mad that I was on drugs yāknow? It was just fun.
Jewel Shephard: When I actually saw it on the big scrāeen, my first thought was like āFuck I got the wrong partā, it was really like āOh shit, that is what makes the next careerā move.ā
As soon as it came out Linnea got, like, 50 million calls and I thought āDamn it! Man, I should have kept my clothes š¼off, man, that was what they wanted!&rdāquo;
Don Calfa: Linnea and I worked together later in Treasure of the Moon Goddess . Sheās a fab girl.
Beverly Randolph: The night shoots were hard, it was cold and wet, and as soon as you walk out the trailer they would soak you down again, or youād havꦔe to get under the cold sprinkler they were pumping out, so the night shoots were reaālly rough.
One time I fell asleep in my chair, because y&rsquoļ·½;know you have to quickly adjust, and I fell asleep in my trailer,
I woke up and I guess I looked a little sleepšy, and oh did Dan let me have it for that, āwere you sleeping?ā, I said āoh yeah sorry I just dropped offā, and he was livid, āyou look like youāre sleepy, oh my god you canāt look like thatā, I said āDan, as soon as that cold water hits me I promise Iāll perk upā, I was already scared when he came in my trailer.
Jewel Shepard: Iād known Danš· the longest out of everyone. I knew him from the strip club, and from when we would go and get comic books, he and I always got along really well.
I understood he was a very tšalented, very finicky very different kind of guy, and you know from a working perspective I understooād his strangeness, it was hard for others who didnāt have that, he was very abrupt, very rude, very in your face, like, if he didnāt like something, he told you.
You know thatās hard š¦©when someone is not very familiar with that, I come fromą¹ that background so to me I donāt take it personally.
Don Calfa: Dan did not like Beverly at all, he treated her like shit. At the timā e he was having a bit of an affair with Jewel Shepherd, she was the favourite, Jewel admitted that Dan met her in a strip club.
But for some šreason he tšøreated Beverly like shit, and sheās wonderful in the film.
My favourite moment, when weą“ were in the attic and Thom comes in the attic, which is a freeze frame, itās the end of the movie, and Iām up there with her and I said āDan, look, weāre gonna die with him or whatever or weāre gonna get blown away by a rocket, we donāt know, but weāre assuming at that point weāre gonna be devoured by a zombie and to gāet the emotion going I had a tape that I used to get emotions going and I played it for her and she started to cry like crazyā¦ā
Beverly Randolph: ź¦I just loved that one, I šgot to pour out the emotions to play that.
Don Calfa: āā¦And I said āWhat if I bringā the gun to her head?ā
And he loved it like Iām gonna kill her, like šIām gonna mercy kill her. And he went for that, and he loved it.
Beverly Randolph: We probably only did about five takes of that scene because a hatch came down and landed ൩on Tom Matthewsš ā head, the guy who played Freddy, so he had to go to hospital and get stitches in his head so we didnāt get to do too many takes of that one.
Don Calfa: Then there was the scene with the broken step. Dan did something you should never do. You donāt do thaā±t to an actor. Beverly got hurt, she hurt hāer back.
Beverly Randolph: The scene where I fall through the stairs, that one was really hard, because I guess I was anticipating thą¹at step and going tšhrough and we didnāt rehearse that one too much so I didnāt know what to expect and I was a bit fearful of falling through and so Dan had sent me off to make-up, and when I came back, I didnāt know why but it was a little funny, all their faces were looking down.
It turned out he had replaced the third step with the fake step and we went right išnto shootingšØ it.
And so I didnāt know I was going to fall through aānd I did.
No-one had told me how to fall, we hadnāt practised and I went right down, it was a fairly decent fall, now today if they had done that they ź¦would be in huge trouble, but back then nobody was gonna say &lš„dquo;Booā because I was just a kid, and yāknow I was fearful.
But I was black šŖand blue from my hip to my ankle, yeeeah, it wasnāt very nice.
And everybody was just shaking their heads like āI cannot believe he juą²st did thatā, but he was a bit of a rough director.
Don Calfa: I swear to god if he didnāt think he had the scene right, he would say āStand over thereā and he would act the scene out, which for an actor ⦠I mean Clu would not stand for that, I mean Clu š¦was like āWhat the fuck is this!?ā
The only time Dan ever said anything about me āDo it differšently, blah blah blah and then take the gun, blah blah blahā and Clu jumped across the table and he went at Dan and Jimmy Karen and Thom Mathews held him down.
He wanted to beašt up Dan! Yeah, he went for him and said āDonāt you ever talk to Don that way, heās one of the finest actors āin North America!ā
And Dan was sļ·ŗhaking from head to toe, we had to take Dan in the next room and say āDan, he got it off his chest, heās not gonna hit you, itās gone, heās already done it, itās done, it happens, donāt worry about it, heās not gonna hit you believe me, itās gone.ā
I had to live with this!
Linnea Quigley: He was good with me, I could tell the stress he was under, I mean he started losing weight, he had a little tic with his head goinā on, and he had a lot of adversity because they wanted to keep it onšŗ budget, on time.
Dan wš®as a very, very artistic person and a perfectionist so itās hard for a person like that to work like a factory worker, so there were always little things. Thereš was a tension there, and for Dan it was very hard, but my relationship with him was good.
Brian Peck: Dan in some ways gets a really bad rap, because a lot of people talk about how difficult he was and I get that perspective from somš ŗe of the actors, he was definitely toughź¦er on the women in the cast than he was on the men, I donāt know why, he just was.
But for me, I came into the project alršeady a fan of his, like I said, there was the Aź§lien picture hanging over my bed when we were doing the movie so I was just excited to be doing a movie with Dan and had such admiration and respect for him to begin with that I had no issue with him whatsoever, Dan was a guy who very detail orientated, knew what he wanted and was not real open to compromise, and I actually admired that about him.
You know, hereās a guy who wrote the movie, he wrote the script, directing, doing what he wants, I think heās kind of a genius, Iām just here to do what he wants, and I think some of the other actors were a little more resistant and kind of wanted to be like āWhy don&rsqu൩o;t we try this? Or why canāt do this?ā and Dan would be like āNo!ā and I think some of the other actors were a little put off by that, but I had no problem with it.
I also think that Dan figured out very early on that I was so excited to be there and I was like āIām your puppet, do what you want with me and Iām here to give 150%ā and I think he appreciź¦ated that about me so he and I absolutely no issues whatsoever.
We got along famously and I would even go visit him in the editing room months after weāā¤d finished shooting because I was so interested in the entire process and Dan welcomed me to the editing room and asked me my opinion on certain edits he had made, he knew I was a cinephile and this extended beyond š¦¹my own performance, he and I got along very well.
I thought he was a terrific guy and really taleź§nted, and I thought it was really unfortunate for him that his social skills werenāt a little better bāecause he could be your total worst enemy at times, but I just thought he was great.
Linnea Quigley: I think my toughest sceš²ne was when Iām resurrected, they made a hole and then I got in the hole, not in the foetal position, but, like, oh my gosh, yāknow, crouching down to the ground with my knees tucked under, and then they start shovelling the mud on me, and I couldnāt breathe or anything, and they have to start the rain machine, which takes a few seconds to get going, and I couldnāt hear anything, yāknow āActionā or anything, and it was very slippery to stand up in mud.
I said āI got give this one take because this is creepyā and I did it in one take, and I didnāt slip all over the place, because if youāve ever been in mud barefoot, rešally wet mud, and I was supposed to be coming up gracefully, it could have been pretty funny, but it workšed, so we got it in the one take.
Brian Peck: I was just so excited and happy to be there, and happy to be making the movie that I would happily šjumped off a building on fire I thought it would loošk cool on film.
So in a weird way it seems the tougher the scene the more fun I had, so when we were out in the graveyard set out on the location, yeah we were out there all night and it got a little cold, and we were tired and then they would turn on the rain machine and we were soaking wet, I would say that thatās all fairly miserable conditions but I was jusš¦t so excited to be in a graveyard getting rained on.
The scene where Beverly Randolphās character Tina kind of trips and fall in a big puddle and then myself and Miguelā± Nunez who played Spider came sloshing in and we had to grab her and pick her up out of this bź¦ig mud puddle, Beverly will tell you that we did that scene over and over again, and Dan seemed to take some particular pleasure in kind of torturing Beverly, she was incredibly unhappy and miserable and cold and didnāt like doing it.
But then again it was so cold and miserable and wet I kind of loved it, so I was so excited we were doing it multiple times because I was just so happy to be in tš ŗhis kind of movie.
Don Calfa: The kids kinda suffered withź¦ the night shoots, but all our stuff was indoorsš. I only went out to shoot the little kid, the little guy.
They foundš him on Hollywood Boulevard dancing with a hat, oh god yź§eah, he was something there, he was like a penguin, a penguin!
He had the flippers and two flipper feet, and he ate brains, he ate tāhe ovum, raw meat, liver or whatever it was. Išt might have been brains.
He was eatinš¹g brains, and ꦦhe was wonderful at it, itās a very creepy scene, I emptied a gun on the guy practically.
And thatās where I used the music.
I had to run inside before we did it, and I said give me five minutes so I could play the music, and they left me alone, and then it just brought me, it just rocked me, so I came running up and when I did the scene I could barely talk, Iām so shaken, but that brings the reality donāt you think? An extra edšge.
Jewel Shepard: Nothing about the shoot was fun, there was nošthing fun about it, there were rain-trucks, we had š¦¹two weeks of that.
Danā and Clu got into a huge quibble of an argument and Dan threw things at Clu, and he walked off the set and that š„really upset Dan.
There were financial issues that they kept on saying āTāhereās not enough budgetā and tą¦hey would come in for thatā¦
It was a horrāible shoot, it was probably one of the worst shoots, but, from a drug perspective, I would just sit there and I woušÆld just do coke because thatās what people did to get through the day at that time.
It was so noą¶£rmal that š·it wasnāt even like you were doing drugs.
Linnea Quigley: I didnāt ešven know there were drugs on set. No, yāknow I always never see that, people alwaāys tell me about it.
I just did a music video, a rockš band paid me to be in their video, and the director told me āOh, they were doing cocaineā and this and that, and I didnāt see any of itꦔ, I did see the drinking but I didnāt see any of that, I never see that, I donāt know why!
Beverly Randolph: Watching it with an audience for the ź¦first timeš§ was pretty crazy.
I think I saw it in another state in Wisconsin whš¦©ich is kind of a dairy farm area, so it was out of Hollywood and just with the normal people, and yeah it was pretty wild to see them clap and get eꦫxcited, it was just surreal.
Don Calfa : You know the picture was aź¦ little over 2 million to make, with all the marketing and that I think it was a little over 3 million but it looks like a 25 million dollar picture, doesnāt it?
It was thrilling watching it with an audience, they laughed, they⨠screamedā¦
A reviewer said āItās funny until it takes a turnā, Yeah, thatās the point idiot, you laugh until you go āWait a minuteā and letās face it, there are laughs in Night of the Living Dead, which isš³ a masterpiece in its own right.
Linnea Quigley: It was amļ·ŗazing. I was totally shocked, even now you can sort of tell, but you donāt know, really know, what a filmās gonna turn out like, you donāt know with the editing will do, you donāt know what the musicās gonna be like, you donāt know with a lot of things.
Some days youāre not there when theyāre filming something, so I was shocked, and like I said, I was kind of new, and I wish I would have done like Brian did and hung out more, but I was pretty exhaustš„ed from all the night shooting.
There&rsšÆquo;s so much going on that you catch later, they had a lot of different things going on, not just one, like they had the eye chart, the butterfliesš§ that start moving, just things that when you watch it the first time, maybe you donāt see them, and then you watch it again, and you go āWait, whatās that?ā
And then my favourite scene, when Jaꦦmes Karen decides to end his life, and I donāt know, that always gets me, I knoš¦©w itās a horror comedy film but that always gets me, it almost makes me cry, just the way he did it and everything, it was just brilliant.
Don Calfa: I lošved the special effects. That half corpse is a work of art, the dead man with the prosthetic and the blood pooling and all that. Iāve had several morticians come up to me and call me and say: āBoy, it was right on tš§he money.ā
Jewel Shepard: Well, I walked up and down to get popcorn, toš get candy, because I wanted to be recognised.
I went to the Mann Theatre in Westwood and it was reasonably full and I thought āSomebodyās gonna point me out in the aisleā, so I literally walked up and down the aisle in the screenings and not onš“e person in the theatre, not outside, nowhere did they recognise me,
Thatās what you work for aās an actress when youāre young and youāre ignorant, you think fame is important.
And then thereās this big moment - the release - and you wź§ant to be acknowledged and I wasnāt, yet, everyone laughed, so I thought āAh, it must be a goš“od movie.ā
Brian Peck: It was funny for mše, I donāt know about the rest of the cast, but when we filmed the movie I didnāt realise that there was as much humour in it as there was.
When you read the script the there is stuff in the movie that is vš ery very funny but wheź¦n you read it on the page you didnāt necessarily get what was funny, yāknow when you read that a zombie crawls into the cab of the ambulance, grabs the radio transmitter and says āsend more paramedicsā, well, that read kind of creepy, and it sounds kind of creepy but in actuality itās hilarious, and itās great hilarious.
So when I saw the movie for the first time there was all this laughter that I wasnāąµ²t expected, and I was a š¹bit taken a back because I didnāt know if it was a good thing or not.
I thought &lš§dquo;Oh god theyāre laughing at our movieā, and James Karenās performance which was so over the top, when we were filming it I thought āOh , I donāt know, itās kind broadā whereas in the movie heās brilliant, heās hilarious.
I have to say my very first screening of the movie with an audience I had really mixed feelings, and I thought, āGod, people really laughed a lotā, and I was expecting it to be more of a straightꦬ-forward horror movie, well, obviously years later, thatās the reason weāre still talking about the movie 28 years ꦬlater, thatās what so great about it, and what was so great about the humour was that it was just in the tone of how it was played.
It wasnāt like Dan wroteš° jokes in the script which is why I say you could read that moment ā āSend more paramedicsā ā as straight in the script, but then in the movie itās purposely hilarious, Dan didnāt hit you over the head with it but it was all in there.
That was the problem with Part 2, they were like āOh itās a horror comedy so let&šrsquo;s write a bunch of goofy zombie jokesā and they just kind of fell flat.
Don Calfa: Itās stood the test of time because itās good, itās tight you know, itās just tight, it work like a Swiss watch, everything, the timing, it justā± takes off like a rollercoaster.
Beverly Randolph: I think it survived the test of time because ofā the music and the unique look of the film, and it had comedy in it, and I think itās just kind of fun to watch, I think the look of it is really unique compared to other horror films of the eighties.
Linnea Quigley: It was just all in the stars lining up right, it was everything, the cast, the director, the music, the editing, just everything, the timing of when it came out I guess, it was just really something that I donāt šthink could ever be repeated, at least if they tried to make another one or anything like that, which āI donāt think ever works, remakes, I donāt think remakes ever work.
Jewel Shepard: I think itās a good script. I think that with each character someone looking at that person can š§øidentify with that š kind of personality.
Youāve got the good girl, the geek kind of guy, you&š§rsquo;ve got the zombies, and this is the first kind of film I guess where zombies could run.
I didnāt know there was a difference but then now people bring it to my attention - āDonāt you know that usuą·“ally zombies are really slow, but in your movie they ran?ā And Iām like, āOh wow. Ok.ā
Brian Peck: I canāt tell you the number of people Iāve met who have some form of the Return of the Living Dead tattoo on their body, that artwork from the original one sheet poster Iāve seen tattooed on about twenty people or more. Or Linnea naked, thereās that tꩵype of fan.
And then thereās the 45 year old guys who come in with their wife and kids who look like the average family man, middle America and they say I saw the movie in high school and itās my favourite movie of all-time, hereās my daughter, hereās my son, Išāve made them watcź§h it 10 times.
Then thereās the really young fans, Iām blown away by how young they are, but theyāve seen it somewhere along the line, most of the time I say āWhen didš you see the movie?ā and invariably they would say āOh, my dad showed me the movieā and some rare occasions āMy mom showed me the movieā, and I would say āYour parents are very irresponsible, thatās awesome!ā
The fanbase is very diverse, I have to tell you itās such a cool thing to have the opportunity to meet the fans, there are some peš§ople who say āThis is my favourite movie of all timeā or say āThis movie changed my lifeā and Iāve met people that it influenced them to go into the movie industry or some area of make up or special effects.
Jewel Shepard: Do you know how many Tar Mans Iāve seen? So, I have to sit there and I have to take all these photos with Tar Man, so I have to contend with slime all over me, so if somebody comes dressed as Tar Man, Iām always: āIt&rsqš uo;s on my breasts you Tar Man you.ā
Linnea Quigley: The horror fans are normally pretty good. But I did have one weird eź§ xperience.
When I was doing Return I started getting these calls like [adopts Scream -like voice] āI&rꦺsquo;m gonna call you three times and on the third call youāre gonna be dead!"
And I started freaking oušź¦t, and then, the second night I woke up and the lights were out, all the lights in the house.
Because the guy was still calling, and I thought the guy had cut the wires. I actually went out and⨠bought an M1, a rifle, because I got scared and I let the prāoduction office know.
I have no idea what𦹠that was about, it could have been random, it could haāve just happened, but it was right around that time.
Don Calfa: You know the fans are thrilled, theyāre thrilled to meet you, they wanna ką¶£now what š¤”I said in German, they wanna know everything about the film, and they tell you their favourite moments and all that and then you take pictures with them and theyāre excited, and Iām thrilled.
Itās great to be on the road going to dāifferent cities and all that and itās not a pain in the ass for me, I donāt think it is for any of us.
Beverly Randolph : The film has a lot of female fans, because there wā±as three strong and unique individual female charaš¶cters and probably because they would like to relate to them, like when I read a book I put myself in place of one of the characters places.
I think it was fun because all of us were so different, and I šthź¦ink thereās a character for everyone, for every girl.
Linnea Quigley: I think girls like it because it wasnāt the typical horror film where⤠somebody has sex then dies and thereās thš“e real weak character that canāt get by without a guy.
Yeah,ą“ at least Trash was strong, she came back to life and started eating people.
Brian Peck: I often sź¦ay that if the movie had been a total flop and had come and gone in the blink of an eye, it would still be one of the greatest experiences of my life.
Jušst getting to work with Dan, getting to be in a zombie movie, I just had such a good time making it, the fact that itās still a classic and still remembered is an added bonus.
But if I had to pick one moment, it would have to be the day that zombies heads were bursting the mortuary windows and I wašÆs hitting them with sledgehammers because that was just such a on the nose thing I had dream about doing as a lover of horror movies.
I had seen so many movies where the monsters are trying to get in the window, or the zombies are trying to get in the winź¦ādow and theyāre trying to beat them back, I just thought āThis is so cool Iām getting to do this.ā
Those were the moments to me where I thought āWow, Iām actually doing this, Iām ą¼ŗreally in a zombie film, Iām really in a horror film, and this is a dream come true.ā
Beverly Randolph : My happiest memory would be the crew, they were kind to us, especially since they knew we were having a hard time, well, some of us were having aš³ ź¦hard time with the director, you know not everybody?
So they were extra kind to you, and on my birthday, the camera crew were like āBeverly, clap the bšoard for us todayā, and I said āWell, sureā, so I clappedꦫ the board, and they came back later on with an 8x10 still of me clapping the board for my birthday.
I remember some of the guys coming up to see us when I was having trāouble with Dan and they were like āItās not always like this, hang in there you&rsquš¼o;re being a good sport, donāt take it too hardā, it was just so warm and nice.
Linnea Quigley: My ź§happiest memory? Just being able to work with these amazing people and getting to know them and getting to know the body of work that Don haāØdā¦
It was a real honour to get to work with these people, and I think it was just interesting because we still go to conventions and know each other, and some of the characters are just like the people, yāknow. Some of āem are, but š some of āem arenāt.
Jewel Shepard: My happiest mź¦emory?š The pay cheque. Iām serious.
In the Screen Actors Guild, you got paid seven days after the first day oź§f the shoot, so that came in and it was like āDamn, I canš¹ eat now.ā
Return Of The Living Dead will be released on Blu-ray on 4 June
Sam Ashurst is a London-ābased film maker, journalist, and podcast host. He's the director of Frankenstein's Creature, A Little More Flesh + A Little More Flesh 2, and co-hosts the Arrow Podcast. āØHis words have appeared on HuffPost, MSN, The Independent, Yahoo, Cosmopolitan, and many more, as well as of course for us here at GamesRadar+.