The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
They're Back From The Grave and Ready To Party!
When two bumbling employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air, the vapors cause the dead to rise again as zombies.
In The Return of the Living Dead, consciousness is carried by the dead — a plane of “zombie outbreak”. The story fights on E8/E9/E10 of the E0–E14 reality ladder, compressing death, fear, survival, militarism, exploitation.
Same rung, same subject
Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.
Same subject, different rung
The same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.
King Kong Lives (1986)E6/E11 · rare rung · exploitation, militarism
Pacific Rim (2013)E11/E14 · rare rung · militarism, survival
Mars Attacks! (1996)E12/E14 · rare rung · fear, militarism
The War of the Worlds (1953)E13/E14 · rare rung · militarism, survival
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)E6/E12 · rare rung · exploitation, fear
Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999)E6/E13 · rare rung · militarism, survivalAlso bends a rule of reality
Other films that change a standing rule of their world — ranked first by those bending it at the same rung.
Them! (1954)alters at E6 · same rung · loose
Attack on Titan (2015)alters at E6 · same rung · loose
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)alters at E6 · same rung · loose
#Alive (2020)alters at E6 · same rung · loose
Eight Legged Freaks (2002)alters at E6 · same rung · loose
The Void (2016)alters at E6 · same rung · looseAlso hides consciousness here
Other films that move a human interior onto the same kind of thing.
Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018)consciousness in the dead · haunted livestream asylum
Dead End (2003)consciousness in the dead · haunted road
Pulse (2006)consciousness in the dead · digital afterlife
Phantasm (1979)consciousness in the dead · nightmare cemetery
ParaNorman (2012)consciousness in the dead · haunted New England town
Last Shift (2014)consciousness in the dead · haunted police stationSame subject, different mask
The same preoccupations carried by a different kind of thing — grief told through the dead, an animal, a machine.
Maximum Overdrive (1986)consciousness in machines · exploitation, fear
Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)consciousness in machines · exploitation, militarism
Kong: Skull Island (2017)consciousness in animals · exploitation, militarism
The Babysitter: Killer Queen (2020)consciousness in monsters · fear, survival
Planet 51 (2009)consciousness in aliens · fear, militarism
White Fang (1991)consciousness in animals · exploitation, survival
