Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis (2005)

Film Title: Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis
Released: October 15, 2005 (US television premier)
Directed by: Ellory Elkayem
Written by: William Butler & Aaron Strongoni

Starring: John Keefe, Aimee-Lynn Chadwick, Cory Hardrict, Jana Kramer & Peter Coyote

Plot: A group of teenagers attempt to rescue one of their friends from a secret facility and unleash a hoard of zombies in the process.

IMDb: 3.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: No score
My Score: 1.5/5

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

The fourth installment of the series, Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis attempts a return to the comedy/horror formula of the first two films but fails pretty miserably in all aspects. Poorly acted with a ridiculous script, from start to finish its hard to find any redeeming value in it. The effects are okay but nothing special and even Peter Coyote stinks up the screen. A teenager (Elvin Dandel) involved in a minor dirt bike accident is inexplicably taken to the Hybra Tech research facility code named Necropolis instead of the hospital. When his best friend (John Keefe) inquires about him at the hospital, he's told that his friend died due to a drug reaction in the ambulance. But the boy's ex-girlfriend (Jana Kramer), who works in the Hybra Tech security office (!?!?), sees him on a monitor being wheeled toward the research center so she knows he's not dead. What's a group of friends to do? Break into the facility, of course! Duh! Unbeknownst to the group, Keefe's uncle (Peter Coyote), guardian of him and his little brother following their parents death, is an evil scientist who works in the Necropolis facility with zombies. He travels to Chernobyl to buy the last known trioxin canisters from some Russians in the opening sequence. Oh yeah, Keefe's little brother, who seems to be eleven or twelve, is nicknamed Pyro because he builds flame throwers in the front room. I wish I was making this up. The sexy blonde of the group (Diana Munteanu) seduces one of the security guards with a terrible pick-up line ("Hey big boy, ever get your freak on with a triple-jointed, Sagitarian gymnast?") and then proceeds to have sex with him off camera as there is no nudity in the movie. After the group sets off a security alarm, Kramer accidentally releases all of the zombie subjects from their cells while trying to silence it. They also come across Coyote, who tells Keefe that his dead parents are in the bio-weapons division of the facility. When Keefe finds them, he discovers that they have been turned into zombie cyborg killing machines. You think the kids are going to have to fight them later? If you said yes, you'd be right because Coyote releases them for no apparent reason other than to watch zombie cyborg killing machines kill their own children. Ever see a zombie in a fist fight? No? Well after you've watched this movie you will have. Of course most of the kids end up dead by the end, including Pyro surprisingly, but then the SWAT team shows up to save the survivors from the zombie cyborgs with their tank. But not before Coyote escapes with some barrels of trioxin for the sequel. Its pretty funny to me that the best actor in the movie is not an actor at all. Right before the credits roll, award-winning anchorman Harold Greene delivers a newscast wrapping up the events of the film. Not being from Southern California where he spent most of his illustrious career, I didn't know who he was but was impressed because he acted and sounded like a real anchorman. Hey! There it is! Harold Greene is the one redeeming thing in the movie.