History NightmareFuel / ReturnOfTheLivingDead

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV1FKU9Oihw Tar Man.]] Oh dear ''God,'' Tar Man. The other zombies are no slouch in the nightmare fuel department either, especially the zombie in the mausoleum in II, and all of the zombies released from the Trioxin canisters in III.

** That also makes them possibly the most terrifying zombies in fiction. In most versions, becoming a zombie seems to be pretty much just death. Your body may get back up, but it's not you anymore. At worst, there's some animal part of you left that is hungry but that's all. To become this version of a zombie is to be in agony forever, and all zombies are driven to do something that dooms more people to suffer the same eternal agony in return for just a brief stop to their own agony. This is the one version of zombification that disturbed me and had me cringing every time a protagonist was in danger of being infected.

** Actually, electrocution and burning kills them. You just shouldn't do the last one because that just turns the virus airborne as well.
*** Only if the smoke comes out a tall chimney and mixes with rain clouds. The soldiers in the second film burned the "surviving" zombies with flamethrowers, and there was no mention of further spread.

** That also makes them possibly the most terrifying zombies in fiction. In most versions, becoming a zombie seems to be pretty much just death. Your body may get back up, but it's not you anymore. At worst, there's some animal part of you left that is hungry but that's all. To become this version of a zombie is to be in agony forever, and all zombies are driven to do something that dooms more people to suffer the same eternal agony in return for just a brief stop to their own agony. This is the one version of zombification that disturbed me and had me cringing every time a protagonist was in danger of being infected.

* The whole reason zombies endlessly crave brains is as much nightmare fuel as it is Tear jerking. Being a decaying living corpse is painful beyond belief. The only relief is the chemicals found in a living brain. They aren't mindless monsters. They are people who have been driven mad and desperate by constant pain.

* And these are ''smart'' zombies. They figure out how to ambush victims, and when they get at the paramedics and the cops responding to the crisis they get on the horn and tell the dispatchers to ''send more''.

*** Only if the smoke comes out a tall chimney and mixes with rain clouds. The soldiers in the second film burned the "surviving" zombies with flamethrowers, and there was no mention of further spread.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/return_of_the_living_dead_nightmare_fuel.jpg]]

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rotld2.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''Brains...'']]

* The Half-Zombie's conversation with Ernie is genuinely creepy and brings up some rather disturbing possible implications.[[spoiler: If it hurts being dead, is there the possibility that the afterlife in Return of the living Dead is actually being stuck in your corpse slowly rotting away and being a zombie just allows you the method to temporarily relieve the pain of rotting away?]]
** [[spoiler: Its more likely that being forcibly reanimated and trapped in a decaying body is whats causing the pain.]]

*** Only if the smoke comes out a tall chimney and mixes with rain clouds. The soldiers in the second film burned the "surviving" zombies with flamethrowers, and there was no mention of further spread.
* This is a truly disturbing bit of FridgeHorror to consider. The corpses sealed in the canisters were put there because the military found it impossible to kill and all they could do was confine them. So from 1968 to 1984 those corpses were trapped in small, confined, dark tanks, unable to move, unable to see, unable to hear but fully able to think and contemplate their existence, as well as feel themselves rotting away and thus being in a state of constant, unending pain and not even able to scream. Fast forward to the movie when Frank and Freddy break the canister holding the Tar Man and he's set free, but not before being subjected to the feel of his rotten flesh melting off of his bones before finally getting loose.
* Sure, it's funny, but "Send. More. Paramedics." These bastards are [[ItCanThink smart enough]] to ''fake distress calls''.

** Actually, electrecution and burning kills them. You just shouldnt do the last one because that just turns the virus airborne as well.

* Sure, it's funny, but "Send. More. Paramedics." These bastards are smart enough to ''fake distress calls''.

* This is a truly disturbing bit of FridgeHorror to consider. The corpses sealed in the canisters were put there because the military found it impossible to kill and all they could do was confine them. So from 1968 to 1984 those corpses were trapped in small, confined, dark tanks, unable to move, unable to see, unable to hear but fully able to think and contemplate their existence, as well as feel themselves rotting away and thus being in a state of constant, unending pain and not even able to scream. Fast forward to the movie when Frank and Freddy break the canister holding the Tar Man and he's set free, but not before being subjected to the feel of his rotten flesh melting off of his bones before finally getting loose.

* The Half-Zombie's conversation with Ernie is genuinely creepy and brings up some rather disturbing possible implications.[[note]]If it hurts being dead, is there the possibility that the afterlife in Return of the living Dead is actually being stuck in your corpse slowly rotting away and being a zombie just allows you the method to temporarily relieve the pain of rotting away?[[/note]]
** [[note]] Its more likely that being forcibly reanimated and trapped in a decaying body is whats causing the pain[[/note]]

* The Half-Zombie's conversation with Ernie is genuinely creepy and brings up some rather disturbing possible implications.[[hottip:Digression:If it hurts being dead, is there the possibility that the afterlife in Return of the living Dead is actually being stuck in your corpse slowly rotting away and being a zombie just allows you the method to temporarily relieve the pain of rotting away?]]

* The idea that, no matter how much damage you inflict or what you do, ''the zombies will never die''. Headshot? Nothing. Dismemberment? Just more pieces to come after you. ''Nuclear strike?'' Good job, now you've spread the infection even more. Extinction just seems inevitable.

* The idea that, no matter how much damage you inflict or what you do, 'the zombies will never die'. Headshot? Nothing. Dismemberment? Just more pieces to come after you. 'Nuclear strike?' Good job, now you've spread the infection even more. Extinction just seems inevitable.

* The Half-Zombie's conversation with Ernie is genuinely creepy and brings up some rather disturbing possible implications.[[hottip:Digression:If it hurts being dead, is there the possibility that the afterlife in Return of the living Dead is actually being stuck in your corpse slowly rotting away and being a zombie just allows you the method to temporarily relieve the pain of rotting away?]]