Return of the Living Dead Part II

Not even a nuclear explosion, it seems, can prevent a sequel to a tongue-in-cheek zombie pic. A surviving canister of zombiefying fumes rolls off an army truck and is punctured by a pair of teenage meatheads, once again releasing a weird fog that revives the occupants of an adjacent graveyard. The rest is a virtual re-run, with 12-year-old Jesse (Kenworthy), his older sister Lucy (Dietlein), and handsome cable TV-installer Tom (Ashbrook) enjoying such edifying experiences as a bunch of zombies turning a pet shop into a brain emporium. Karen and Mathews, heroes of Part I, are also resurrected for guest appearances as a pair of grave-robbers; fortunately they get theirs early on. Unlike O'Bannon's film, this is merely repetitive and dull, the tedium relieved only by the graphic brain-eating and Philip Bruns' deliciously OTT performance as the mad Doctor Mandel.