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Canonical schisms aren’t just for religious sects. Pop cultural franchises have been known to experience them as well, from Disney buying Lucasfilm and rechristening much of the Star Wars Expanded Universe as Legends, to J.J. Abrams controversially altering the timeline of Star Trek in his film series.
The original zombie horror series has also known such a schism. George A. Romero gets all the popular credit as creator of Night of the Living Dead, but when he parted ways with his original creative collaborator, John A. Russo, the terms of the deal included Romero taking on the Dead series, while Russo kept the Living Dead name. But, the Return of the Living Dead series kept on going through the years without Russo’s involvement after the first film in 1985.
On Saturday, April 27, Clinton Street Theater will host a screening of 1993′s Return of the Living Dead 3, including a Q&A session with that film’s screenwriter, John Penney. With zombie-themed performances from Ed Du’Bull and XO Skeleton as well, the theater promises “a night of Undead Excess!” Penney, also a published author, will sign copies of his books, such as the novella Truck Stop.
Before working on the third film in the series, Penney had previously been second assistant editor on Return of the Living Dead in 1985. “I was very familiar with the mythology [writer-director Dan O’Bannon] created,” Penney says. “He gave us the idea that zombies have a consciousness. The template became a Romeo & Juliet or Sid & Nancy kind of thing.”
Shifting from its predecessors’ comedy-horror vibe, Return of the Living Dead 3 plays as a star-crossed romance with zombies, inspired in part by Penney’s own personal loss around the time of creating the film. “My father had recently passed away, and I was dealing with that,” Penney says. “I turned that grief into the central drive of the story. Instead of a son losing a father, I made it a romantic love.”
Production was quick to get off the ground in Santa Clarita, Calif., where the movie was filmed over the course of 24 days. “The movie was already greenlit when I was hired,” Penney says. “[Trimark Pictures] let us [Penney, and director Brian Yuzna] have a free hand in making it whatever we wanted. To this day, it’s the best experience I’ve had making a movie.”
The result became one of the most beloved films in the franchise. Though 1985′s Return of the Living Dead maintains the highest ratings of the franchise by far on both IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, 3 is the highest-rated among that film’s sequels (still modestly lingering at 5.9 out of 10 on IMDb), helping earn its status as a gory camp classic with heart.
Retrospective reviews of Return of the Living Dead 3 have commented on the movie’s ‘90s aesthetics, as opposed to the punk stylings of its ‘80s predecessors. The film picked up on close-by influences, as it was being shot in Southern California. “We definitely leaned into the grunge scene that was taking off in L.A.,” Penney says. “The film would have worked great in the Pacific Northwest.” The star-crossed romance angle, meanwhile, is particularly ahead of its time, having preceded 2013′s Warm Bodies (which alludes even more overtly to Romeo & Juliet) by a full 20 years.
This film was Penney’s second screenplay credit, following 1987′s The Kindred, co-written with Stephen Carpenter. Partnering with Carpenter gives Penney only two degrees of separation from the city of Portland—Carpenter was a co-creator of NBC’s Portland-set paranormal detective drama series Grimm.
The upcoming screening of Return of the Living Dead 3 at the Clinton is being put on courtesy of Gwen and Brian Callahan, organizers of the Portland Horror Film Festival (the evening will include sneak peaks of short films from the upcoming film fest in June). Penney’s guest appearance will also mark his first time in Portland. While he’s here, Penney hopes to check out the Portland Japanese Garden as well as Movie Madness. He credits this recommendation to several friends, proving his bona fides as a very welcome guest of Portland and Clinton Street Theater.
SEE IT: Return of the Living Dead 3, rated R, screens at Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St, cstpdx.com. 6 pm Saturday, April 27. $16.