After the juvenile "Return of the Living Dead 2" I didn’t expect much from this sequel. Well, leave it to Brian Yuzna to pick up the franchise and slap it back on its two un-dead feet. Where the first film had a dark humorous tone, the second had childish sight gags, this one goes for the straight up serious and it works. Yuzna is on top of this one like Rob Lowe on an underage teen girl. Thank you, my good man!

"Return of the Living Dead 3" is more than just a Zombie flick filled with blood and body parts. At the core of it all is a very strong and developed love story. Fortunately for us, the well-written love angle is backed by two strong leads actors (Edmond and Clark). Now I don’t know if I’m being overly-perceptive but I even managed to pick up on Kurt’s (Edmund) selfishness in regards to his beloved: “he didn’t do what he did for her, he did it for himself”. I appreciated that subtle, realistic and negative light on Kurt and that made him so much more layered and believable to me. In real life, love is flawed and it can be self-serving. I caught echoes of that here.

Now fear not because there’s obviously more to this flick than just a “lovey-dovey” thang. The flick slaps all kinds of crazy zombies our way and constantly tries to top itself creatively. I really dug the idea of physical pain stopping Julie’s hunger for grey matter. That gives way to a very unique “S&M”-like zombie piercing get-up that winds up looking scary but dead sexy at the same time. Now that’s what I like to see in a horror movie! Courage! This film goes for the gold. The flick also takes the elements established in the first one and takes them one step further. We understand why the Zombies need to eat brains and we also find out what the military’s intentions are in regards to the un-dead gas (sick fucks).

Now this beeyatch isn’t perfect, I did have a few problems with some of the weaker special effects (see gore section) but my main beef is with the mid-section of the movie. Once the set-up is done, the bulk of the action moves to a pretty bland location: the sewers. They could’ve thought of a more interesting location in which to un-ravel the story. I was expecting a Ninja Turtle to pop out at any moment! KAWABUNGA! Of course the sewer location brought with it the freaking rats. We get to meet Riverman (Wallace), the most over-the-top street bum you’ll ever meet and a gang of Spanish hoodlums who act like stereotypical putas. The film was doing so well in the “novel” department, I didn’t need these clichéd buffoons stepping in. The tunnel sequence also brought with it a huge plot hole that I couldn’t swallow. SPOILERS “You’re trying to tell me that Santos, seeing the state that Julie was in would be interested in nailing her?” No way! What’s wrong with this guy? The screenwriter could’ve thought of a better way of luring Santos to his demise. Way too convenient. END SPOILERS.

Pia Reyes who plays the annoying female gangbanger was the November 1988 Playboy Playmate of the Month.

Mindy Clark turned down the role of Tatum in “Scream" because she didn’t want to be typecast as a “Scream Queen”. She also turned down the role of Zena in "Xena: Warrior Princess".

Mindy has a daughter named Kathryn Grace.