Return of the Living Dead: Rave from the Grave

Return of the Living Dead: Rave from the Grave
Early advertisement for the film
Written by	William Butler Aaron Strongoni
Directed by	Ellory Elkayem
Starring	Cory Hardrict John Keefe Jenny Mollen Peter Coyote
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Anatoly Fradis Steve Scarduzio
Cinematography	Gabriel Kosuth
Running time	86 minutes
Distributor	Denholm Trading Inc.
Chronology
Preceded by	Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis

Return of the Living Dead: Rave from the Grave (also known as Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave To The Grave) is a 2005 zombie horror film directed by Ellory Elkayem, starring Cory Hardrict, John Keefe, Jenny Mollen, and Peter Coyote. It is the fifth installment of the Return of the Living Dead series. The film was released on March 20, 2007 (2007-03-20).

Plot

The film opens a year after the previous film with Charles Garrison (Peter Coyote) arriving at a mortuary with one of the canisters of Trioxin 5 that he salvaged from the previous movie where he is greeted by a team of Russian government officials whose goal is to destroy the last of the canisters to avoid another incident like that of what happened in Necropolis. Nevertheless, one of them, rather stupidly, sprays three corpses with the gas, and revives three corpses, one of which is killed with a drill to the head by the owner of the mortuary, and the rest by gunshots to the head by two of officials; however, the second and third zombies that were killed, were able to kill Charles, the mortuary owner and one of the government officials.

Meanwhile, Jenny (Jenny Mollen), Julian (John Keefe), Cody (Cory Hardrict) and Becky (Aimee-Lynn Chadwick), who are in college as of this movie, receive notice of the “murder” of Charles. Julian and Jenny go to search for and possibly sell what belonged to Charles, and they find the last two barrels of Trioxin 5 (the third having been destroyed by the survivors from the beginning already), and one of them is taken to Cody, who tests the chemical inside it. Jeremy, Jenny’s brother, foolishly tastes the chemical when he thinks that it is a drug similar to Ecstasy, and he goes into a spasm, which ends with him foaming at the mouth, and describing what it was like. The chemical is named “Z” for its “zombie-like” effect on the living.

When Jenny and Julian leave the lab, Cody, Jeremy and Shelby extract the chemical from the canister and they put the liquid extract into pills which the sell to Skeet (Catalin Paraschiv), so he can sell the drug around the school. While Skeet informs every to only take one pill at a time for health reasons, most that go to the school take more than one pill at a time (which speeds up the process that causes humans to reanimate as zombies), starting with Chuckey’s two dorm mates to reanimate, and to chase after him. He manages to escape, but begins to reanimate. However, one of the zombies manages to scratch Becky on the shoulder, not known to her that she was infected by the scratch, and then continuing after Chuckey. In another part of the college, the zombies kill a band member, and are killed by a drummer and Chuckey.

While this is going on, Becky slowly reanimates while she is on a date with her boyfriend Artie; and when she is fully re-animated, she bites and infects him. The next day a clean up crew, accompanied by Gino (Sorin Cocis) and Aldo Serra (Claudiu Bleonţ), the only survivors from the beginning of the movie, who recognize what is going on when they are shown the severed head of one of the zombies, and they go to question Julian, knowing that he is familiar with Trioxin 5 due to the events of the previous movie, but he doesn’t tell them anything of the canisters that he and Jenny discovered.

The next day when Julian and his friends are preparing for the rave when Jeremy starts to show the symptoms of the Trioxin gas, including coughing and weakness, while the reanimated Becky and Artie attack Skeet, but are tied up by Julian, Cody and Jeremy. Two of their friends volunteer to take them to the hospital, but Becky and Artie escape from their restraints, and kill them. Aldo and Gino arrive just in time to destroy the car (killing the zombies in the process) with a grenade launcher. During all this, Jenny feeds several lab rats the Trioxin chemical (by putting it in their water) to the anger of Brett, who is bitten by one of the rats, and soon re-animated as a zombie, killing and infecting Dartagnan (Sebastian Marina) and Rainbow (Violeta Aldea).

Soon after this, the reanimated Dartagnan, Rainbow and Brett give chase to Coach Savini (Ricky Dandel), who escapes, but several cheerleaders are killed between the zombies attacking, and gunfire from Aldo and Gino, who shoot all infected in the area before they leave.

Julian, Cody and Jenny return to Brett’s lab the next day to find it a mess, the re-animated rats escaped and missing, and the Trioxin tank with the lid wide open. Upon searching for the rats, they are attacked by two zombies, which are killed simply. But Tarman, who returns from the first and second movies, attacks them, but is shot by Aldo and Gino, but some how manages to survive, and then hitch hikes on a busy road. The three inform Aldo and Gino of what has happened with the “Z” pills, and the five, armed with guns from Aldo’s car, head to the rave to find all the pills and kill any re-animated.

Between the attacks of students who re-animated during the rave, including Skeet, and gunfire, many students are killed. The now zombified Skeet attacks Cody, pinning him to the ground while Shelby is held against the wall by a zombified partier. Cody realizes that he only has one bullet left in his gun, and he uses it to kill the zombie that was attacking Shelby. She is saved, but he is bitten on the neck and killed by Skeet, both of whom are shot by Aldo soon after.

Seeing no other option, Aldo calls in military assistance, but he is told that an American bomber plane is already on the way to the stadium, where a sniper opens fire with an AK-47, gunning down zombies and humans, including Shelby. Julian and Jenny manage to get into the way that was set up at the beginning just as a bomb is dropped from the plane, killing all outside. However, Aldo is revealed to be alive, leaving him, Julian and Jenny as the only known survivors.

The movie closes with Tarman still on the road with his “Rave or Bust” sign, but finally gives up due to the screams of a woman at the sight of him, and he decides to walk, shouting “brains!” all the way.

Cast

• Cory Hardrict as Cody
• John Keefe as Julian Garrison
• Jenny Mollen as Jenny
• Peter Coyote as Uncle Charles
• Claudiu Bleonţ as Aldo Serra
• Sorin Cocis as Gino
• Cain Mihnea Manoliu as Jeremy
• George Dumitrescu as Artie
• Maria Dinulescu as Shelby
• Catalin Paraschiv as Skeet
• Aimee-Lynn Chadwick as Becky
• Radu Romaniuc as Brett
• Sebastian Marina as Dartagnan
• Violeta Aldea as Rainbow
• Ricky Dandel as Coach Savini
• Allan Trautman (unconfirmed) as Tarman (cameo)

Production

The movie was filmed immediately after Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis using the same locations in Romania and Ukraine. Peter Coyote, Aimee-Lynn Chadwick, Cory Hardrict and John Keefe return from the previous installment.

An edited version of the film aired along with Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis on the Sci-Fi Channel on October 15, 2005 (2005-10-15). As was the case with Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis switching to Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis, Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave was advertised as Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave from the Grave before removing the number 5 from the title. The R-rated version of the film was released on DVD on March 20, 2007 (2007-03-20) by Lionsgate.

External links

• Return of the Living Dead: Rave from the Grave at the Internet Movie Database
• Return of the Living Dead: Rave from the Grave at AllRovi
• Return of the Living Dead: Rave from the Grave at Rotten Tomatoes