ZRC Salutes: Dan O’Bannon!
George Romero may have created the template for the modern zombie film, but horror/ sci-fi writer-director Dan O’Bannon helped shape the future of zombie cinema with the 1985 release of his zombie masterpiece, The Return of the Living Dead. His film gave the genre a much needed jolt and added fresh ideas to the rich history of cinematic zombie lore. His film was the first to feature the idea that zombies eat brains (to deal with “the pain of being dead”), their bites do not infect the living, the ability to speak (“Send…more…paramedics…”) and reason at times and introduced a number a new problems, including the fact that shooting them in the brain does nothing to them. ROTLD was O’Bannon’s love letter to the original Night of the Livng Dead (even going as far as referencing it in the film as an actual historical event) and the classic tales of EC Comics.  The ZRC thanks you for not only making one of the best zombie films of all time, but for also giving it one hell of a soundtrack.
 We leave you with a tribute to The Return of the Living Dead, by the thrash metal band Engorged:
Army chemical remains -
They’re opened again
Toxic gas escapes – 245 Trioxin!
The two are in pain -
The change begins
No one survives but the unlucky few
Smell the gas, breathe your last
Send the cops, gory props
Munch the brain, down the pain
Covert Ops, bodies dropBrains!Acid rain, atomic blast
Deadly earth, masses gassed
The dead have risen from their graves!
On the hunt for human brains!
Deadly – Hunger Satan spawns a deadly force, a mindless
zombie army
In your town, underground,
undead await the party
A military blunder causes
catastrophic change
The teeming masses can’t be killed with bullet
or a bladeAnd the dead re-animate!
Army of corpses
They rise from the graves with a hunger for
human brains!
Board up the windows,
barricade the doors
The zombies are comming,
they can’t be killed!
And the live will breathe their last -
And the dead will most!
Blood flows and toxic gas -
You will hunger for brains…
