History YMMV / TheReturnOfTheLivingDead

** If one eagled-eyed enough pays close attention to the shot of [[spoiler: the nuke exploding]], once the flash goes down enough to see the city again, the light can be seen briefly casting the shadows of the model skyscrapers against the backdrop intended to be the sky.

** The first effects supervisor, Bill Munns, was extremely incompetent, with embarrassingly bad effects. Scenes had to be reshot with new practical effects.

** Right before the Tarman eats [[spoiler:Suicide]], you can briefly see another set of teeth inside his mouth.

** When Ernie mentions the heart as being harder to incinerate than bones, he ain't kidding. Most notably, the hearts of Creator/PercyShelley and Creator/ThomasHardy survived the fires that consumed their corpses.

* WhatAnIdiot: Really, Frank? Showing off something you shouldn't even talk about to a hapless teenaged employee and banging on an old tank that doesn't look stable just to prove how much of a man you are? Even if he didn't expect it to burst open the army specifically warned him against even touching them. Burt wastes no time calling him out on it when he first arrives after learning of the situation.
--> '''Burt''': You did what? You opened it!? You stupid moron, you idiot! What's the matter with you, Frank!? Haven't I told you a million times to never go near those Goddam tanks!?
** Freddy and Frank are dying and could very well turn into a zombie. In what way was it a good idea for Tina to be locked in with them?

* CommonKnowledge: Despite the title, the movie was not created by Creator/GeorgeARomero but by John Russo, Romero's co-writer for ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968''. This confusion may be why pop culture erroneously remembers that Romero's zombies were brain-eaters instead of flesh-eaters.

* CommonKnowledge: Despite the title, the movie was not created by Creator/GeorgeARomero but by John Russo, Romero's co-writer for ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968''. This confusion may be why pop culture erroneously believes that Romero's zombies were brain-eaters instead of flesh-eaters.

* GeniusBonus: When Ernie mentions the heart as being harder to incinerate than bones, he ain't kidding. Most notably, the hearts of Creator/PercyShelley and Creator/ThomasHardy survived the fires that consumed their corpses.

* HilariousInHindsight: This movie's InUniverse and meta connections[[note]]John A. Russo, who co-wrote ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'', also wrote ''Film/TheReturnOfTheLivingDead''[[/note]] to ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' get funnier when one realizes that the later [[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1990 1990 remake of]] ''[[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1990 Night of the Living Dead]]'' has [[spoiler:Cooper taking a leaf from Ernie and Tina's book by hiding in the attic to escape the zombies]].

* HilariousInHindsight: This movie's InUniverse and meta connections[[note]]John A. Russo, who co-wrote ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'', also wrote ''Film/TheReturnOfTheLivingDead''.[[/note]] to ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' get funnier when one realizes that the later [[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1990 1990 remake of]] ''[[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1990 Night of the Living Dead]]'' has [[spoiler:Cooper taking shelter in the attic like Ernie and Tina did]].

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Suicide is mean, short-tempered and argumentative with the rest of the gang, and it's implied that he's TheFriendNobodyLikes who is only kept around because he has a car. But he's also the first to rush to Tina's defence when he hears her scream, showing that he's willing to put himself in danger to protect people.

* OvershadowedByControversy: The film has gained some negative attention in recent years due to Scuz’s actor, Brian Peck, being convicted for child molestation and serving a 15 month sentence before release.

* ShipTease: Trash and Suicide seemed like they were an intended couple from the get-go; the way they interacted in the cemetery and the fact that they were both the [[HotterandSexier more fiery]] members of the group were the main factors, but it was deemed to be one-sided. Spider appeared to have some [[UnresolvedSexualTension UST]] with Trash judging by the looks he gave her in the cemetery when they sat together, along with his cheers during her striptease. Chuck and Casey seemed like they would be together by the end of the movie, with Casey even noting how Chuck seemed to look at her.

** Chemistry nuts will note the similarity of the name of the fictional "2,4,5-Trioxin" to the real [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic_acid 2,4,5-T]]. The similarity ends with the name, however, the real chemical is an herbicide/defoliant that was one of the two compounds used to make Agent Orange, and it does not reanimate the dead, it just makes things dead. The name of the fictional chemical is a ShoutOut to the real one, which was banned by both the US and Canada the same year this film was released (1985) due to its toxicity.