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Relate the first time you saw The Return of the Living Dead


ROTLD is my favorite horror film, period. Share your experience of the first time you saw it. When, how old you were, what you thought of it, etc.

For me, I can never forget it. It was a Sunday night, the night before 7th grade was supposed to start, to be exact. Earlier that day I was at the video store with my dad and he allowed me to rent this film, as my parents were always lenient with my movie choices. I was 12-years-old and the year was 1995. I popped the tape in, and lemme tell you, from the opening text about this film being true, I was frickin' hooked. Captivated. In awe. And scared outta my goddamn mind! The punk soundtrack, the characters, the snappy dialogue, the set design, the damn zombies that could run and talk, the unhappy ending - I'm telling you, I was floored.

Since that day Return of the Living Dead has been my favorite horror movie. No other horror film has been able to top it (lots have came close, of course, including Day of the Dead and A Nightmare on Elm Street, both of which I also saw & fell in love w/ around the same time).

Before returning that tape, I think I may have watched it at least another good 3-4 times. I don't think prior to that I had ever seen anything scarier than Tarman. And I'd seen a lot of horror films prior to that point. Ironically, I had seen the sequel first, back in the theater back when it originally came out! Dunno what the hell took me so long to finally catch up with the original. It's not like I hadn't seen the VHS cover dozens of times at the video store before.

One of the things I always find funny when I think back to those first few viewings over 20 years ago is I absolutely did NOT see the humor in any of it. I didn't find one iota of this film funny and it actually wasn't until a few years later, around '98 or '99, when I rented it again that I got how silly and hilarious it was. I'm pretty sure I had seen it in the intervening years on Monster Vision with good old Joe Bob, but still failed to find it funny!

I ended up making a copy of that rental tape with two VCRs and loaned it to a friend boasting about how awesome this movie is. He didn't find it to be anything special, so naturally out frienship just didn't last much longer, LOL.

In '99 the family finally got a computer and once I discovered eBay I bought an original Thorn/EMI clamshell case original that I kept until just a few months ago when I needed the cash. This was before DVD when all these older movies were out-of-print and for a popular film like Return of the Living Dead I believe I had to drop like some $40 on it. Crazy, huh, when nowadays you can get it brand new, in a much more convenient manner than going through a bidding war, for half that price?

Obviously I hold this film dear to my heart. So, what's your experience?

The calls are coming from inside the house.

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The first time I saw ROTLD was in the year 2003 (13 years ago). I was about 9 or 10. I remember walking in my grandma's room and she was watching it on Showtime. Incidentally, I walked in on the Tarman scene, specifically the part where he looks up at the others and joyfully shouts "MORE! Braaaains!". Mind you this was the deep-voiced Tarman, not the original higher pitched voice.

I was slightly creeped out yet fascinated by the creature I had just saw on screen. My grandma told me to come in and watch it with her but I said No because it looked scary. She assured me that it wasn't, it was Funny. So I came in and watched the rest with her and indeed it was funny. I think like the very next day we bought the DVD from Walmart. From then on, we used to watch it all the time. Hell, we watched it so much I got obsessed with it and the idea of death and zombies itself. Granted, my mom was disturbed by it said I wasn't allowed to watch it anymore. I'd sneak and watch it anyway Lol.

BUT here's when all the fun and games ended...One night it was thunderstorming and I was home alone with my best friend Jeremy. I can't remember where my grandma was, but my mom had left out to go get us a Pizza Hut pizza. In the meantime, me and Jeremy said we'd watch this in the dark. He had never seen it before. We were enjoying it until once again, the damn Tarman scene came up. His initial appearance when he utters "Braaaain!" at the sight of Tina, scared the crap out of Jeremy and he didn't wanna watch it anymore. Before I could cut it off, the damn power goes out! We're alone in the dark in the middle of a storm crying and screaming. Then we hear something jingling at the door in the garage. Our naive 9 year old brains no pun intended think it's Tarman coming to get us. It was really my mom trying to get in but she couldn't see. She kept banging and hitting on the door. Why didn't she just call my name? I have no idea. Me and Jeremy creep up to the door with a wiffle bat, and just as she opens the door she lets out this frustrated groan (UGGH!) in a deep voice me and him SCREAM at the top of our lungs, she screams too. Then we realize that it's only her. She thought it was hilarious later because she told me to stop watching this movie and I did it anyway saying "That's what you get!". The same night, I had a nightmare about Tarman and ever since I've had nightmares about him every so often. I'm 22 now... Matter of fact, yesterday, Jeremy saw the new BluRay from Scream Factory and sent me a picture of the cover art. Freakin' Tarman is front and center on the box with his mouth wide open (Brains!).


In conclusion, I can no longer enjoy this movie because of that traumatizing night. I can't even stomach the sight of Tarman without cringing or my heart racing. Thanks alot thunderstorm for ruining this Awesome movie for me! LOL

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Thanks for sharing, auteur! Awesome story!

But c'mon, man....you can't let Tarman scare you away forever. Give in to the muck. The ooze. The slime!

I think he's hilarious now, but credit to the actor for Tarman's movements - to this day the way he moves IS still a little bit creepy!

The calls are coming from inside the house.

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My story is not as exciting as you guys but this movie brings back memories epecially since the plot of the movie took place on my birthday. I remember the first time I saw ROTLD was in 88 maybe 89 can't remember the year exactly. Anyways I used to go to my dad's during the summer and each weekend we go to the video store and there's where I saw it, and the cover intrigued me and I had my dad rent it. I got home and I popped it in and enjoyed it. I was literally glue to the TV didn't want to take my eyes off it However since I was at a young age back  it ended up causing me to be afraid to sleep and I would watch out the window of my dad's house and across the church where there was a lone tombstone. I would watch and make sure nothing comes out, and when my dad would go to work we would pass a cemetery and I would slide down into the seat lol even though it scared me it was what made me fall in love with zombie movies, and every summer I would rent that movie. Now I'm older and own the movie on dvd.

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Saw it at 8 years of age in the late 80s. Was creeped the fk out. I remember being especially disturbed by the split dog and the Tar man scary as hell. But I watched it completely. Seeing it now almost 30 years later I find it hilarious as fk.

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I saw it for the first time yesterday and I'm 33 years old. So nope, nothing exciting from me.

I thought it was hilarious, but I'm too old to have a good story about it.

Poorly Lived and Poorly Died, Poorly Buried and No One Cried

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I actually saw Part II first (Pretty sure thinking it was a sequel to NOTLD) and liked it. A Little later, I found out about the original ROTLD and had a friend tape it off of cable for me. Really dug it. Probably moreso on repeat viewings.

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Pretty basic story here. I was 15 when I first saw RotLD. My family had just bought their first DVD player (how time flies) and I was a burgeoning horror fan. I had never heard of Return of the Living Dead and mistook it for a George Romero film, a director I was familiar with. I remember being immediately taken aback when the characters referenced the Romero movies directly, acknowledged that they were movies, but that there were nuggets of truth to them and the world in which RotLD took place in was the real world. I remember really liking the concept and then really enjoying how offbeat it was. I had no idea then that it was a horror-comedy. I then went out and rented (yes, rented) Return of the Living Dead II on DVD, enjoyed it for what it was, and sought out the uncut VHS of Return of the Living Dead III on eBay (and I still have it). I can't believe it's been 13 years since I first saw this movie and it's been a total of 31 years since it was originally released.

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My oldest sister was having a slumber party with all her friends and they rented The Return of the Living Dead. My mom made them let me watch it with them. This was '86 or '87, when it first came out on video.

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I rented it from the video store decades ago and immediately fell in love with it. Now it's my favorite movie.

Horror_Metal

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