YMMV / Return of the Living Dead Part II

• Awesome Music:
  • Leatherwolf's "Alone In The Night" for when the army finally gets around to take the fight to the zombies... all of one armed jeep and ten seconds of it.
  • The Dead Return composed by J. Peter Robinson is a beautifully twisted new take on the Trioxin theme.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Ed and Joey. Fans of the actors in the original film hated them here, criticizing their over the top performances as a disservice to not only the actors, but to the characters they played in the first film as well. Others enjoyed their wackier portrayals, praising their interactions as being as good as it was before, and citing them as the saving grace of the film.
  • Jesse. An annoying child sidekick that plagued many horror films of its time, or a decent subversion of the trope that was able to hold his own against the zombies?
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • During the climax when the zombies are being electrocuted, out of the blue a Michael Jackson inspired zombie pops up, does some dance moves, then falls to the ground. He hasn’t been seen anywhere in the film before and he’s never referenced again.
  • The Tarman makes his appearance known to Jesse. Then he pushes Tarman out of the aqueduct, never to be seen or referenced again.
• Contested Sequel: While many regard it as the best Return of the Living Dead film after the original, some consider it a Sophomore Slump for going too far into Denser and Wackier territory.
• Crosses the Line Twice: A bunch of zombies attack a pet store (though they are clearly gnawing on plush animals).
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Dr. Mandel is generally well liked for being one of the funnier human protagonists of the film, some saying he was the saving grace of the film’s second half.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • While the zombie which looked like Michael Jackson serves as a nice "Thriller" reference, it got darker for some with Michael Jackson's death in June 2009.
  • Made even worse was that the Michael Jackson zombie was played by Brian Peck, who years prior played Scuz in the first film, and was convicted for child molestation. Come the 1990’s and Michael Jackson too would be accused of similar accusations.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The zombies in this film know how to operate motor vehicles. You think you can just escape by driving away? Think again.
  • While he appears very briefly, the Tarman in this film is even more terrifying than he is in the first film. This is attributed to his face; whereas the Tarman from the first was practically reduced to a skeleton, the Tarman here clearly has some skin still intact. So when combined with his bulging eyes and teeth, this causes the Tarman to fall deeply into being creepy.
• Retroactive Recognition: Mitch Pileggi, best known as Walter Skinner from The X-Files and Horace Pinker from Shocker plays an army sergeant who's happy to mow down already dead enemies with a machine gun.
• The Scrappy: While most of the human cast can fall into Base-Breaking Character territory, Brenda is often seen as the weakest link for her incredibly dumb decision making (even by this film’s standards) and for her non-stop whining throughout the movie. Needless to say, nobody shed a tear for her when Joey ate her brains.
• So Okay, It's Average: General consensus is that it’s not as funny, gory or scary as the first film, but at the same time there’s nothing truly awful about the film to make it unwatchable either. At best it’s a harmless zombie comedy that doesn’t push the envelope like its predecessor.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • When the zombies attack the pet store, it’s clear that they’re chowing down on stuffed animals.
  • The zombies themselves. While the makeup is passable for the most part, the faces are clearly just masks so the actors can slip in and out of whenever they can. It’s especially noticeable with the eyes.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • The DVD release by Warner Bros. replaces the original music score by J. Peter Robinson in favor of a more stock sounding, generic horror score that doesn’t fit the time period it was made in. Worse yet was that Word of God said it was a rights issue, only to be contradicted by the French audio track on the same DVD. This was later rectified on the Blu-ray by Scream Factory which restores the original audio track.
  • Film wise, fans of the original movie were dissatisfied by this film’s comedy dominated and more lighthearted direction.