Customer Reviews

Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave to the Grave

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

There's not much to say about Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave to the Grave other than it's actually worse than the movie before it. Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis was really bad and not in the so bad it's funny. What had been a cult horror franchise which had fun with the zombie genre in addition to putting some genuine scares in people, these last two Return of the Living Dead movies should pretty much kill the franchise just when the zombie revival is still going on strong.

Ellory Elkayem does directing duty for this fifth installment. He also directed the fourth film. I had thought that not everything should be laid at Elkayem's feet when it came to who to blame for the lackluster and awful film that was Necropolis, but after sitting through Rave to the Grave I have to say that whatever good will Ellory Elkayem built up with his funny take on the giant creature feature, Eight-Legged Freaks, has been wasted with his back-to-back filming of Return of the Living Dead 4 and 5. Elkayem films both films one after the other and I am going to assume this was more to save on the budget than any sort of continuity with the actors hired to play recurring roles. If saving money was the main reason then it sure didn't look like it. Except for a few hero-zombie (zombies given more screentime than most thus given a better make-up effect) scenes the film clearly shows it's ultra low-budget pedrigree. I don't have problems with low-budget horror movies as long as there's a sense of energy and enjoyment by those making it, but neither Necropolis and Rave to the Grave showed any one of the two.

Rave to the Grave occurs one year after the events of Necropolis and the teenage survivors of that film have now graduated and attending college. The film never really makes it clear if they're in back in the U.S. attending college or still in Eastern Europe where the previous film was set. Either way the survivors from the previous film seem to have moved on quite well from their horrific experiences in Necropolis. The fact that they don't seem to recognize the newly found containment barrel marked with the label of 2-4-5 Trioxin just adds to the weird and hge plot hole between film four and five. One would think that these kids would have it etched forver in their minds that containment barrel with 2-4-5- Trioxin equals horror. Instead they naively investigate and research the barrel with one of their friends realizing he could turn the chemical leaking from the barrel into a new form of rave drug whose extreme hallucinogenic effects also hide a side-effect which basically turns anyone who partakes of the drug into a zombie.

The rest of the movie deals with the survivors finally realizing the crisis they've unleashed and instead of calling for police or military help decide to go to the same outdoor rave party where everyone is taking the drug to try and find the person who made the drug Z and stop him from taking them. Like I said earlier the movie really has major plot holes and most of the time doesn't make much sense. What we get in the end is an excuse to have a huge set piece where the survivors get to shoot as many zombies as possible while at the same time allow for the random raver to suddenly become a zombie out of the blue. There's also a subplot of a couple of bumbling Men-in-Black type agents whose job it is to recover the Trioxin barrel while remaining inconspicuous. The secret organization they belong to must be global since I could barely understand their lines with the heavy Russian accent used by both "actors".

My disappointment in what could've been a nice follow-up to the first three Return of the Living Dead movies was compounded by the sheer Z-movie level of Rave to the Grave after the awful work that was Necropolis. For those wanting to see a good b-level zombie movie that's bad but enjoyable at the same time should check out House of the Dead 2. Yes, the sequel to Uwe Boll's rancid and awful House of the Dead ended up being better than the original and way more entertaining than Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave to the Grave. I wouldn't even accept this film as a free dvd if someone gave it to me.

"Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave" (2005) is, in short, not scary nor funny, another disaster in this series. I thought "Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis" (2005) was so awful, enough terrible to become the nail in the series' coffin, but I was wrong. They made another sequel which is worse than the previous "ROTLD." Considering the badness of `Necropolis,' this is kind of amazing.

Actually "Necropolis" and "Rave to the Grave" (the fourth and fifth entries in `Return of the Living Dead' series) were shot back to back in Romania. Director for both films is Ellory Elkayem (`Eight Legged Freaks"), and `Rave to the Grave" features some of the stars of `Necropolis' including Peter Coyote, Aimee-Lynn Chadwick, Cory Hardrict and John Keefe.

`Rave to the Grave' is about the high school students who survived the terrible zombie outbreak in the previous film. They are now college students and this time one of them finds a dusty canister in the attic, but instead of leaving it alone or reporting to the police, he and his friends take a sample of the slimy liquid inside and bring it to the laboratory in the campus. And ... here is the silliest part ... one student makes a drug called `Z' out of the sample and starts to sell it on campus.

`Rave to the Grave" relies on this silly one-joke idea about the zombie drug that not only makes people act like zombies, but actually turns them into real ones. The film runs out of steam halfway through the story, and the rest of it is about the repetitious battles between zombies and humans that are neither thrilling nor funny to see. Two `Men-in-Black'-like hitmen are added to the humorless story of teenager zombie attack, but their downbeat humor does not work with the weak and pointless direction that fails to make the entire film a real gorefest or campy fun.

The only good thing about the film is you can see Tarman Zombie, but only briefly. Except for one mildly amusing scene, he has nothing to do in the film. He appears and stays out of the film most of the time. This is definitely the worst film in the `Return of the Living Dead' series, and probably nearly as bad as the notorious "House of the Dead."

Hands down the dumbest film ever. The major plothole between four and five seems like it never happened and that kid didn't seemed to learn the first time. This time 2-4-5 Trioxin becomes the latest Raver drug, only to have Romero-esque flesh-eating zombies that die when you shoot them in the head.

Return of the Living Dead, the very first film, the zombies could not die unless you nuked them off the face of the planet! That means you can shoot them in the head and chop them into pieces, and the pieces will still come after you. Also, this was the start of the Brain-eating zombies, which was decided in the first film as Dan 0'Bannon didn't want to step all over Romero's toes.

This doesn't even register as a comedy, nor should be considered a film at all. I read the infamous Uwe Boll on here somewhere and that's exactly the kind of disappointment this goes for.

Bury this one in the Sierra Nevada somewhere, or better yet shoot the master print into the sun so it can never be released again!

When a group of teens stumble upon the last remaining container of Trioxin, the nerve gas responsible for turning people in to brain-munching zombies, they do the only thing they can think of with the drum: use it to make a new hallucinatory drug to sell at the upcoming rave. Needless to say, the partygoers begin having a bad trip when their friends start eating one another. After the empty rehash used in the previous sequel, this off-beat premise chocked full of low brow humor is a welcome change-up for the series. Ellory Elkayem returns to the director's chair, bringing with him the same gratuitous gore and practical FX that stood out in part 4. The poorly written characters are more easily forgivable thanks to the mindless comedy and toilet humor, while the pacing is maintained thanks to a steady stream of blood that makes it way through the entire picture. RAVE even includes a gooey new (though not necessarily improved) Tar Man in addition to the countless other ghouls. For a film subtitled RAVE TO THE GRAVE, this series closer delivers on all the stupid fun and zombie mayhem that the title suggests.

-Carl Manes
I Like Horror Movies

If your a zombie flick fan this is likely the weakest in the series however worth renting.

well if i wasnt broke and could afford a attoney i would sue amazon.i cant believe u people allow this crap.

the idea of this film being a sequel to the first 3 rotld films is a anti-franchise
prank. it is not good nor scary nor funny. the storyline and dialog is beyond terrible. this is supposed to be an anti-drug film disguised as a horror film. i admit i saw this piece of tripe on sci-fi channel at 11:pm paired up with necropolis (a slightly better sequel) when it was first released to dvd in 2005. i for one will not own this one because of its ultimate message(figure it out!)and in an era of political climate i'd rather forget. 2003 to 200? have been very good for horror yet a bit sketchy unless you know what you r looking for. i own the first 4 of this franchise and the third installment unrated edition (vhs)97min (dvd is the same but rated r) is my personal favorite for one solid reason, MELINDA (MINDY) CLARKE plays the character julie in it and does a very fine job as a troubled punker-chick ( a spicey update of linnea quigleys character from the first film made twenty yrs ago(1985)(I was only fourteen then, though i had to wait until i was seventeen to see it) as of this yr.

the only reason why i hate this film is because i don't like horror movies being used to propogate dare messages!! though the special effects are 3 star decent at best. but this film is not worth owning for the serious horror movie fanatic!

"Rave to the Grave", yeah man, awesome idea . . . NOT! On a high note though, it is better than House of the Dead was, but is that really a good thing? The film stars the same cast, with a few extra people, that were in ROTLD Necropolis, mainly because both films were made back to back. The difference is that Necropolis is a better movie than this one. Read on, if curious.

Yeah, so Trioxin "5". the same kind as was used in the prequel (which I suppose might be a cheap way of explaining why these Zombies can die by being shot in the head) is found in a basement of the main bad guy in Necropolis by his nephew. The genius kids then try it out and trip on the substance. Basically it is engineered to become a drug called "Z". Ravers love it and a rave happens and all Hell breaks loose as the party goers turn into, you guessed it, Zombies! Yeah, so also during all of this, there are a couple of secret government guys trying to get their hands on the Trioxin. This whole thing culminates into one of the worst cheeseball endings in a Zombie film I have seen in a long time.

In all fairness, this really is not the worst Zombie film I have ever seen, but sadly, it is nowhere close to the best. If you are a fan of the series, this is not what you want to see, trust me. Go rent or buy the first three films and be happy. Rent or buy the 4th film even and pretend it is a film on it's own but man, this is the worst of the series. I hope we get another film in the series, but one that adheres to the original material and can wash this film away.

I liked Dead 5 better than 4, but that isn't saying much. At least it isn't filmed in total darkness. Both 4 and 5 have lead sound tracks that weigh down the film. Music, dubbing, and incidental music. A little work on the bad music, the film would have been better. If you turn off the sound and watch it like a TV in a bar the film becomes better. I found Dead 5 to have it's moments, it isn't as bad as some of the reviewers said. They were trying, but didn't make it. I don't think the script was as bad as they make out either. If I was a teacher I would give it a C+. If it had better music a B. It was and sounds like a European made film.

Parte 5 of return of the living dead is an offense to the name of this franchise one of the BEST ZOMBIE franchise zombie movies i have EVER seen with a good dose of terror and humor.
This part is even worse than the last part , part 4 "necropolis" , lot's of plot holes , bad actors ,bad script, simple terrible.
Unlike some reviewrs said it's NOT worse than house of the dead * nothing is * but get pretty close .