RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD novelization by John Russo
In 1978, the same year George A. Romero brought us his Night of the Living Dead follow-up Dawn of the Dead, his Night co-writer John Russo sent his own sequel out into the world in the form of a novel titled Return of the Living Dead. The following year, Russo was already shopping a Return screenplay he had crafted with Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead cast member Rudy Ricci and Russell Streiner – who produced Night, but is better known for his on-screen role of Johnny. The screenplay sold, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre director Tobe Hooper was attached to bring the story to the screen for a while... but when Hooper stepped away, the directing job went to Alien co-writer Dan O’Bannon, who also did a page one rewrite of the script. In an effort to make sure he wouldn’t be stepping on Romero’s toes as he headed into production on Day of the Dead, O’Bannon presented his zombies in a completely different way from Romero’s, making them running, speaking brain-eaters rather than shambling, moaning flesh-eaters. O’Bannon’s film The Return of the Living also ended up being completely different from Russo’s initial story, but that turned out to be to Russo’s advantage. That meant he could write a novelization of O’Bannon’s film that would be nothing like his Return novel. And that’s how we got two separate John Russo novels titled Return of the Living Dead.
If you’re familiar with the set-up and characters of O’Bannon’s film, you’ll recognize much of what can be found in this book. Punk rocker Freddy gets a job at the Uneeda Medical Supply warehouse, and during a day of work – right before the Fourth of July weekend is about to begin – Freddy is informed by his co-worker Frank that there’s something very strange in the basement of the warehouse. A barrel of something called 245 Trioxin, mistakenly delivered to Uneeda by the Army, part of the clean-up effort from a minor zombie outbreak that supposedly inspired the making of Night of the Living Dead (but while Night is name-checked in the dialogue of the film, Russo chose not to.) The barrel busts open, the gas inside poisoning Freddy and Frank while re-animating a cadaver and other formerly living things in the warehouse. Slowly becoming zombies themselves, Freddy and Frank try to clean up their mess with the help of their boss Burt and mortician Ernie, who cremates the living dead body parts for them. Unfortunately, a rain storm causes the chemical smoke to saturate the ground of the surrounding cemetery, causing the dead to rise. Paramedics, police, and Freddy’s punk friends get caught up in the nightmarish zombie outbreak that ensues.
That’s all in this book, but there are some differences that make reading the novelization unique from watching the movie. Obviously Russo wasn’t working from the shooting script, because the characters Spider and Trash still have names they had earlier in the development, Meat and Legs. Ernie is 36 years old, substantially younger than O’Bannon (who liked to hint that Ernie was a Nazi in hiding) envisioned the character as being. Once Legs / Trash is attacked by zombies in the chemical-infused rain, she never comes back. However, a couple of corpses in the mortuary that weren’t directly exposed to the gas or the rain do somehow come back to life. There are sexual pairings among living characters that didn’t happen in the film. Things play out very differently with Frank once he becomes a zombie. And more differences can be found along the way.
Interestingly, Russo found a middle ground between the Romero and O’Bannon presentation of zombies. Like O’Bannon’s zombies, the ghouls in this book can be speak, luring more police and paramedics into the cemetery. They’re also quite intelligent, as demonstrated in a moment where one purposely knocks out the mortuary’s electricity. But they don’t run like O’Bannon’s zombies did. They shamble like Romero’s. As for what they eat... they have a strong craving for brains, like O’Bannon zombies, but also get some benefits from eating flesh like Romero zombies.
The biggest difference is a two chapter subplot in which it’s revealed that the 245 Trioxin barrel ending up at Uneeda was not an accident, but rather a plot crafted by Communist spies, who had even recently sent KGB agents to Uneeda to check on the status of the Trioxin. O’Bannon was flippant about the Army’s involvement in a way that I suspect might not have sat well with Russo, who served in the military. Reading these subplot chapters, I had to wonder if Russo just decided to drop them in there so the zombie outbreak wouldn’t just be blamed on a “typical Army” mistake. Because they seemed ridiculous and unnecessary to me. But that's a small gripe.
I love The Return of the Living Dead, so I enjoyed experiencing a slightly different version of the story and characters in this book.
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