Search - Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave to the Grave on DVD

Chad B. (abrnt1) from CABERY, IL
Reviewed on 4/13/2011...

Another horrible sequel. This film is awful. It's the perfect example of how not to make a sequel. It ignores everything that made the original an entertaining classic. A stupid waste of time that has no actual point. I've had a more enjoyable time watching paint dry. This is pretty much the end of the series.

2 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

Fifth Is the Final Nail in the Series' Coffin ... So Bad (An

Tsuyoshi | Kyoto, Japan | 01/19/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

""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.""

It's even worst than the 4th installment..if that's even pos

A. Sandoc | San Pablo, California United States | 03/20/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Pure Booty (not the good kind)

JBizzle | Under A Rock | 01/16/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Why do I keep comin' back to these movies? After "3" (or after Lionsgate got a hold of the series)I shoulda known that there was no hope for another descent film to come outta this series. "Rave From The Grave" combines(tries to anyway) 2 of my favorite things in life. Zombies & the underground DJ culture. Let me just say, they fail miserably at both. They filmed this movie back to back with part 4, & anyone who saw part 4 should know thats not a good thing. I'd say this one sucked worse than 3 & 4 combined. The plot is some "raver" kids get ahold of the trioxin & some how get high off it in small doses. They go and find their chemist buddy (stay with me, it get's better) & put the trioxin into a pill form to distribute all over there college campus. They call the pill "Z" because "you get so high & tripped out, you're like"... wait for it... "a zombie". Are the script writers in Hollywood all just completely retarded now, was that really the best that they could come up with? Mean while there are these 2 "secret service" or "Interpole" guys with some of the thickest Italian accents I've ever heard are running around trying to find the missing drums. You wind up waiting over an hour before anything really even happens. The script, director, whatever, I don't know who's more to blame for this abomination, but how did this even get made? The acting is HORRIBLE, you wanna see the lame azz characters(especialy the DJ guy, that loser needs a good punch in the face)killed in a grizzly horrible manner. The make up & special effects are okay, but still nothing like they used to be in the 1st 2 films. It's movies like this that give the Rave culture such a bad name. It's very obvious they know nothing about the dance scene or Zombie movies. It's a shame, they've efficiantly (I hope anyway)put the last nail in the coffin for this once great horror series. It's a shame & there's really no excuse for this kind of sloppy movie making with such a beloved(well, not so much anymore, but it used to be)property. Lionsgate knows good horror movies, that's apararant by watching titles like "House of 1,000 Corpses", "The Descent", "Undead", "Saw", "Cube", & "Devils Rejects". Why they would do what they did to these last 2 movies... well like I said, there's just no excuse. Thanks again Lionsgate for ruining another property I truely used to care about. Avoid this movie like a cracked drum of trioxin, it really is that bad."