This video was definitely a small passion project. Likes/comments are appreciated! PS- you guys are awesome, and you’re right! The alternate audio is in fact on the blu ray! 😮😮😮😮😮
The vhs covers was ENTIRELY how I selected these films for rental as a kid. My mum would read the synopsis and look at me like I was nuts lol. She still rented them for me though. ❤
This is why no one can prove the mandela effect is real and that Sinbad starred in Shazzam, a movie so crappy that nobody kept the vhs tapes. 🤣 really though, it is important to keep physical media because these big companies are ruining classics.
I went to see Back to the Future when it came out and the film broke. While they were fixing it my friends and I were waiting in the lobby and there was a huge cardboard standee for Return of the Living Dead which came out later that summer.
@billyrattlesticks6949 Absolute AWESOME Line and Beyond ICONIC! I'm 48 and Seen this when it Was NEW on NEW VHS Rentals and It Was/IS AWESOME Today as Well as Then!!! HollyWeird SUCKS TODAY and The WORST 70's/80's B Movies, Roger Corman Flicks are a MILLION TIMES BETTER than Supposed "BLOCKBUSTERS" TODAY!!! FACTS are IN the LOVE and Cult Following of Such Movies, Very FEW "Movies" made in the Last 15/20 years will be LOVED as MUCH as THESE Works of ART!!!
The composer on the weird version is Vladimir Horunzhy his name appears on the U.K. pre release pack by Guild video. Ken Weiderhorn hated the soundtrack and went to the CEO of Lorimar to ask for it to be changed. There are also loads of zombie voice fx Billy saying Brains the zombie who grabs Jessie’s hair saying brains. The narration at the start of the film too. I think Warner simply used the original print of the film when making the dvd and because all the language tracks for the film were produced after post production these remained unchanged.
I went to see an anniversary showing of Part II and after the movie ended stars Thom Matthews and Dana Ashbrook opened the Q & A with the statement "Well.... that's from the director of Meatballs II"
I’m in the same boat. But once I saw part one, I instantly fell in love with it. I regretted all those times I skipped it at the video store, I had no idea what I was missing out on.
The image burned into my head is an old vhs cover of Dawn of the dead with zombie Roger face whilst laying in bed. It was a cover I was always fascinated with at the video store but could never rent it. When I finally got around to watching it many years later, I would say that was the film that changed my life.
I felt/feel the same. The green text, the orange sun background, and multiple iterations of Roger gives it a really unique and human drama feel, rather than just a straightforward horror film. Just the cover alone did that for me. It was the THorn-EMI release on cassette, vhs and beta.
@@joelalexander4513 Hahaha Demon Wind! Another classic cover. You're talking about the Vinegar syndrome release right? I wish I had the foresight back then to save my VHS tapes...
It’s one of them movies that scarred me as a kid. The moment the bully kid bites into his mums head absolutely terrified me. As an adult it’s one of my all time favourites
I remember on the DVD commentary track Ken even said the music didn't sound right. In general, the audio mixing on the DVD is rough. There's some misplaced ADR and tons of missing sound effects. The DVD is an interesting curiosity, and I'm glad Scream Factory was able to do Part II justice years later.
Sounds like it might have been a Temp Track film makers put in before they finish the Proper sound mixing and have their FINALIZED score. Somebody in the office got fired for sure! 😀
Out of both versions I have to say it's an absolute crime that the DVD version replaced the Trioxin Theme with what sounds like Video Game Music. The Trioxin gas accompanied by the theme in the first film is so Iconic and the Updated version in part 2 was so important giving you the feel of the first film. If I had any complaint about part 3 it would only be that they should've use the Trioxin Theme in the opening with the reanimated corpse.
There's a somewhat similar issue in 1987's "Summer School." It was supposed to include a Debbie Harry song called "Mind Over Matter," but there was a contract dispute, so E.G. Daily re-recorded the song. They goofed and left Harry's version in the French dub (available on the US DVD), which was the only place to hear her recording until a bootleg surfaced a decade or so ago.
“Get the damn screwdriver,out of ma head” 😂😂😂😂😂 I watched this movie when it came out with my mom, I was only 10. This movie has so much meaning to me, not only because reminds me of my mom, but just opened me up to horror and zombie movies. This will always remain a classic to me.
Great video man! I’ve only seen the first film after watching one of your earlier videos and I loved it. but now you have me wanting to go out and buy both copy’s of this film and watch them.
Media accidentally released the TV edit for Halloween on VHS, which is cool because it has extra scenes that were filmed specifically for it while they were shooting Halloween II.
Man, I am so glad you put this mystery to bed. I remember buying this dvd back in 2003 around Halloween and was completely baffled by how different it sounded. I had watched the vhs version so many times growing up and loved the music, so I was really let down with the changes. I also didn't know about the Scream Factory version, so i bought it while watching your video! Thank you!
another great vid, always learning on this channel! lol. would be cool to see you touch on hidden dvd features? like on the old lionsgate and vidmark discs. or maybe touch on promos from the video store days? thanks bud
Hey Man,' Great vid as per usual. I'm sure you know this, but the Scream blu ray has the alt. DVD audio track included. You hear the other score, and the narration from the beginning on the blu ray. I'm about a decade older than you, and I remember getting this DVD on release week, and back then, via internet and Fango issues, they brought this weird audio anomaly up, including how you can hear original audio on the French track.
I seen your video with Garrett (Rad) talking about the resurgence of dvd and when you mentioned the soundtrack being the original on the dvd when listening to it in French. I was thankful that I keep all my past versions of my favorite films. Thanks for the info Christian....
Have you heard of the different voice for the Tarman in the 1st film? You can find clips on youtube of the original VHS/Theatrical voice. I can't remember why it was changed. It's just higher pitched. Weird.
I was disappointed by the voice change. I preferred his original voice. Plus they also messed with the music in certain scenes. I watched the original on VHS so many times I have the whole movie memorized! LoL
The issue with the music is contracts are signed with something like "theatrical, broadcast television and video home movies (VHS)" Blueray, DVD, streaming didn't exist so the bands got paid according to the contract and the studio doesn't have rights to distribute the music in any other format. So if they do distribute ...on Blueray or whatever they are in violation of copyright which goes beyond just a civil suit for payment and could extend into criminal court.
OK. Good theory. This mystery plagued me for some time as well. I honed in on one thing that, for whatever reason, is what I believe to be, at least partially, if not the entirety of why the score is different: (Drum roll) Francis Haines' Trioxin Theme! While used sparingly, there are a few sections of the English track score that use a variation on what is the main motif of the first film's theme. Being a musician, I know how easily a lawsuit can arise from something seemingly miniscule. But I also know the length that filmmakers are willing to go to get out of having to pay someone for iconic work they've produced. My guess is that perhaps between the release of the VHS and DVD, Haines discovered quite late that they had used incorporated a portion of his track into the score without being properly credited and, more importantly, paid. As you said, the film being such a low-level release is why a studio would not want to shell out for a lawsuit. So instead of ponying up, they lazily slapped a bunch of music they owned outright over the entire score so that no one could say a single note of it was copied. Why do I think this? If you listen to the alternate score, it is the most conspicuously absent element that is in the restored score. Every Halloween film had to credit and pay Carpenter to use the main theme. There were multiple Anchor Bay releases, most famously perhaps all five seasons of 21 Jump Street, that had EVERY song from EVERY episode replaced with cheap free stuff so as to not have to pay to relicense their music. This was problematic for a number of films. Like Dazed and Confused. It would have been far less expensive to have new bands do covers of older 70s songs to use in the film than to license the original versions. Linklater said it was the most important part of the film and refused to budge. So the studio paid, and he got all but, funnily enough, the namesake song from Zeppelin, as they are notoriously weird about allowing their songs in film. And the soundtrack became an enormous hit when released on physical media. I know these arent 1:1 comparisons, but I do think it illustrates just how fickle music rights can be in general. I'd love to know what anyone else thinks.
Great video! You just a new subscriber and I'm going to watch return of the living dead 2 for the first time tonight after work. I wonder what score the streaming version has?
Enemy Territory (1987). Starring Tony Todd, Stacey Dash, Ray Parker Jr, Jan Michael Vincent. Criminally underrated EMPIRE PICTURES film. They never released on dvd or blu ray because of music licensing. There was a band who did a few songs in the soundtrack that prevented a new release.
HOLY SHIT!!!!!!! SOMEONE ELSE KNOWS THIS MOVIE!!!!!!!! Oh my God, do you know how many times I've described this late night classic and got such stares of "what the hell are you talking about?!" Wow! Awesome! I love this flick.
Doesn’t the blu-ray from scream factory have both audio mixes? I would agree as many different versions of films are made and studio will use what they have, especially if it isn’t a film made by them or one with a hug following they know will recoup the costs
Music rights on analog video and digital video are treated separately. There were a lot of music rights issues with DVD. Many releases were damaged by not being able to re-procure rights for songs that were just replaced with generic music. The Beavis and Butthead series DVD release was derailed by rights disputes. They had actually produced the first run but recalled them before release.
Hey Great Video Man, The Spanish Version on the ROTD 2 DVD also has the Original Score. So does The Blu-Ray. Your Channels Intro Sounds Similar to the ROTD 2 Zombie Theme 🤘😎🤘.
WKRP in Cincinnati had the same issue. The show was able to get the rights for all the music played but a lot of it was time limited. So years later when it's being rereleased on DVD many songs in various episodes had to be totally replaced w/ other songs as they were unable to reacquired rights for some.
Sometimes playing the actual VHS tape version is worth it. You get that low-fi mono sound as the tracking is adjusting to the optimal level with amusing sound blips as it heads off into one or two tv spots before the actual movie starts.
Part 2’s Blu audio isn’t even correct. It’s a VHS rip where you can hear the hiss throughout and tape damage at one point. The only TRUE audio is the Laserdisc. Love shout factory but the fact they used vhs over laser was really annoying. To further answer your question, WB do keep workprint audios around from time to time if they need elements to split into a 5.1 mix. My theory would be the elements were just easier to get.
Yeah they might have had the Negative with a temp or alternate score laying around and put that out by accident when they did the first DVD. DVD companies messing up isn't that hard to believe. lol
@@spodoinklehorse They're saying Evil Dead 2 is very similar to RotLD part 2 in that sense, also both being horror comedies. I guess the first RotLD had comedy too, but part 2 leans far more heavily into comedy and I'm glad it does. Both are kinda continuations of the previous films but also use characters and/or same actors from the first.
@@stevepemberton151 Not exactly, why would Ash go to the same cabin with a GF that iirc has the same name? It's both a remake and continuation, at the end of the day they're fictional movies so it works I guess. It might take some out of the movie though and confuse people, but they're both great sequels IMO and I kinda like that they used actors from RotLD that died, it comes off as something they did for a laugh TBH and I like both characters, it's hard to imagine it with other actors. Hard to imagine Evil Dead 2 without Bruce too.
The first thing that comes to mind when I hear "lawsuit with music" is the tragedy of the Quantum Leap DVDs. Most of my grunge & alternative friends think of Daria, but for me the music on that show was just background noise that I never noticed was amy different on the DVDs
I agree with you sir. Just your typical studio screw up. Such a great film. Might have to search the web for that dvd. Would love to see what the film was like with a completely different score. Awesome Video!!!
Just the fact that you care about RoTLD makes me so happy, I'm over 50 and saw this when it was released, I loved the first film, and the first thing I thought when I saw part 2 was, why is James Karen and Tom in this movie? they got nuked! haha. Everyone likes part one the best, but Rave to the Grave is the worst one, or possibly part 3, but I love part 1 and 2 equally. Great video man loved the trivia and lore surrounding the releases.
I don't know about the score change I just know about the songs that were changed in the movie. I remember when the movie was on cinemax That the dead return music was there but it wasn't fully there they put the song I'm The Man by Anthrax in the middle of it.
I saw this right after it played on satellite in the 1980s, I was five! We watched it at a friend's birthday party. Back then the few kids in the neighbourhood with satellite dishes taped movies like crazy, it was awesome.
After watching the DVD for the last 15 or so years, I totally forgot that The Monster Mash played during the end credits of the VHS version. I need to dig that out. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
I remember picking this up when it first came out and immediately being turned off by the change in music. Same with the change in tarman's voice in the return of the living dead 1's releases.
I like your thought about about maybe the Director having the music put in to show Lorimar how the score didn't work. I always thought the J Peter Robinson score was always intended. So the ALTERNATE score on that DVD might have been a TEMP SCORE they put on until the Officially Released the movie in theaters. Maybe they didn't have the Robinson score ready. Same with the Voice Over. Maybe was added for Plot Exposition about the Trioxin and then they decided it wasn't Necessary and opted not to use that. Guess we can only speculate for now. Great video, man!
When I was 15, I worked in a video store from like 1988-1990 and our distributor sent us poster packs for upcoming stuff. The poster for this movie was in one of 'em. Once it came down and went home with me, it stayed on the walls of various apartments well into my 20's. Ha I shoulda framed that thing.
Dude I have zero interest in ROTLD 2, and yet your super well researched, succinct, and well spoken video had me riveted. Thumbs up and new subscriber.
I swear I have this Mandela effect on this movie. I swear I saw a version of this movie where either Joey or Ed say "oh no not again" when the zombies first appeared in the graveyard. Kinda implying that they remember the events of the first movie or something.
Nice video! I got to see ROTLD 2 a few times in the theater when I was a kid (thanks to the dollar movie theaters), and watched it many times on VHS. I also owned the soundrack on cassette and played it to death. Getting that DVD and having to live with the bad score and the songs in the wrong spot or missing, was rough, though I did enjoy the added V/O at the open. We even sampled that in the song "Brains", back when I was in the band, God Module. I was so happy to get the Scream Factory Blu and rewatch with the original music. It transported me back to my childhood. I wanted to fuckin' cheer when Monster Mash blasted at the end; to me the perfect cap to this more kid friendly sequel. The original ROTLD is one of my alltime favorite films. A masterpiece of dark, horror comedy. That said, I love this sequel too and put it in the same camp as The Gate, Goonies, Night of the Comet, and Monster Squad.
Return of the Living Dead is kind of a blind spot for me. I need to finish the first one and check out part 2 as well. So needless to say, I was never aware of this issue. But I loved the break down and explanation of this. Pretty cool and informative. :)
When "Airplane" was released on VHS in the Netherlands it was retitled to "Flying High" and the BeeGees song Staying Alive was replaced with some generic disco
Close to return of the livign dead pt2 you mention with the tornado zombie,was my experience with the fright night cover with the vampiric cloud above the house! I was going junior school in greece back then and just in front of my school was the vhs store,or videoclub we called them back then.When the school was out for the day we were going to see all the amazing covers from the movies,and fright night's movie cover was became the one that vaptized me in the horror genre from those years! Worth mention also that i do own both dvd edition from the ones you showed us here! 😎
I'm looking on DVD rewind & apparently on the Scream Factory Blu-ray you can access the alternate soundtrack. So that screw up score is on the Blu-ray. It actually sounds better in my opinion.
@@PlanetCHH oh for sure, at least it shows a time when Scream Factory were run by actual fans & not just business people. Only fans would care enough to fish that out for people.
This issue happened with the 1994 movie, Blown Away with Jeff Bridges and Tommy Lee Jones. The blu-ray release had multiple classic songs replaced with poor covers of the same songs I grew up hearing while watching it growing up on DVD/Broadcast.
Confused is the USA DVD the one that has the original music in the French languages selection or is there a foreign version that has it as the picture you show is some non USA version from the picture you show in the video. I guess my question is will the USA dvd version on amazon be the one to get ?
@@PlanetCHH Interesting to note that the foreign DVD cover you show is from some weird bootleg or something, because it apparently features a commentary track from the cast of Batman: The Animated Series (Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Adrianne Barbeau and Efrem Zimbalist jr.)
return of the living dead 1 is the first horror movie i remember seeing in the early 2000s. i was way too young to be watching it lol but i am thankful my parents allowed me to watch horror movies at such a young age. i use to watch it over and over again it prob annoyed my parents after awhile. im 25 now and i wish i could go back to those days
Same thing happened on the first DVD release of Happy Birthday to Me and yes an earlier print with the original score that's on the M&E (Music & Effects) track was used by mistake. The only lawsuit that could occur is if the original composer(s) on both those films found out. So yeah, it was a mistake in the mastering of the DVD'S
This video was definitely a small passion project. Likes/comments are appreciated!
PS- you guys are awesome, and you’re right! The alternate audio is in fact on the blu ray! 😮😮😮😮😮
U ever experience a Mandela affect with horror movies before ?
Anthrax 🤘
😊
@@tedmetalhead6177 what?
I have to ask. Is that a screensaver of the Zombie tornado from the cover of returns of the living dead 2 behind you ? It looks awesome.
The vhs covers was ENTIRELY how I selected these films for rental as a kid. My mum would read the synopsis and look at me like I was nuts lol. She still rented them for me though. ❤
100% mate
The importance of preserving VHS tapes cannot be exaggerated.
I agree that's why I kept all my old vhs tapes and dvds
Totally agreed. I kept all my DVDs which is a decent collection. Family always asks why do you keep them….well this is why
This is why no one can prove the mandela effect is real and that Sinbad starred in Shazzam, a movie so crappy that nobody kept the vhs tapes. 🤣 really though, it is important to keep physical media because these big companies are ruining classics.
@ytrefugee113 It's not a Crappy movie cause it doesn't Exist!! 😂
@dary0097 yeah I'm pretty sure they know.
The zombie tornado is a representation of trioxin in the clouds
Bingo I said "that's not a tornado.. it's the toxin clowd." Lol
@@Jaymcq trioxin* cloud
Yup, I really didn't think it was that hard to figure out.
Never really thought about it -but that makes perfect sense
Duh
I was lucky enough to see this during its original run in theaters back when I was 12 or 13
Same but 16 or 17
I went to see Back to the Future when it came out and the film broke. While they were fixing it my friends and I were waiting in the lobby and there was a huge cardboard standee for Return of the Living Dead which came out later that summer.
Same bro. My mom actually took me❤
Same here. I was 12 and for this to play at my local theater was wild since my town had 11k population at best. It showed during the summer.
Same...christ....how young is this guy?! LOL!!!! WE ARE OLD!!!
"Get the damn screwdriver, outta my head" That is all 🤣
@billyrattlesticks6949 Absolute AWESOME Line and Beyond ICONIC! I'm 48 and Seen this when it Was NEW on NEW VHS Rentals and It Was/IS AWESOME Today as Well as Then!!! HollyWeird SUCKS TODAY and The WORST 70's/80's B Movies, Roger Corman Flicks are a MILLION TIMES BETTER than Supposed "BLOCKBUSTERS" TODAY!!! FACTS are IN the LOVE and Cult Following of Such Movies, Very FEW "Movies" made in the Last 15/20 years will be LOVED as MUCH as THESE Works of ART!!!
@@Moggzilla76 Absolutely spot on pal :)
The composer on the weird version is Vladimir Horunzhy his name appears on the U.K. pre release pack by Guild video. Ken Weiderhorn hated the soundtrack and went to the CEO of Lorimar to ask for it to be changed. There are also loads of zombie voice fx Billy saying Brains the zombie who grabs Jessie’s hair saying brains. The narration at the start of the film too. I think Warner simply used the original print of the film when making the dvd and because all the language tracks for the film were produced after post production these remained unchanged.
I went to see an anniversary showing of Part II and after the movie ended stars Thom Matthews and Dana Ashbrook opened the Q & A with the statement "Well.... that's from the director of Meatballs II"
I like meatballs 2 actually, it was fun
I saw part 2 before Return, so I will always have a soft spot for it. Loved it as a kid.
I’m in the same boat. But once I saw part one, I instantly fell in love with it. I regretted all those times I skipped it at the video store, I had no idea what I was missing out on.
I seen this one for the first time on cable TV and I remember it having the voice over so the DVD cut is the one that must have been on TNT
That's me with Revenge of the Nerds 2. And Nightmare on Elm Street 4. And Weekend at Bernies 2.
Seen part 1 first … movie Spooked me for a while lol !! part 2 had some creepy parts too tho
Me too!
The image burned into my head is an old vhs cover of Dawn of the dead with zombie Roger face whilst laying in bed. It was a cover I was always fascinated with at the video store but could never rent it. When I finally got around to watching it many years later, I would say that was the film that changed my life.
I felt/feel the same. The green text, the orange sun background, and multiple iterations of Roger gives it a really unique and human drama feel, rather than just a straightforward horror film. Just the cover alone did that for me. It was the THorn-EMI release on cassette, vhs and beta.
Mine was "The Dead Pit". The VHS box had the embossed cover that popped out and the glowing yellow light up eyes on the zombie!
@@WizardKelek hear, hear. And how about Demon Wind? I actually own that lenticular vhs and just got the lenticular re-creation of it on blu ray.
@@joelalexander4513 Hahaha Demon Wind! Another classic cover. You're talking about the Vinegar syndrome release right? I wish I had the foresight back then to save my VHS tapes...
@@WizardKelek I am talking VS BD, yep! Truth be told, the VS rendition isn't as good as the vhs, but when is it ever? lol
It’s one of them movies that scarred me as a kid. The moment the bully kid bites into his mums head absolutely terrified me. As an adult it’s one of my all time favourites
I remember on the DVD commentary track Ken even said the music didn't sound right. In general, the audio mixing on the DVD is rough. There's some misplaced ADR and tons of missing sound effects. The DVD is an interesting curiosity, and I'm glad Scream Factory was able to do Part II justice years later.
Sounds like it might have been a Temp Track film makers put in before they finish the Proper sound mixing and have their FINALIZED score. Somebody in the office got fired for sure! 😀
Out of both versions I have to say it's an absolute crime that the DVD version replaced the Trioxin Theme with what sounds like Video Game Music. The Trioxin gas accompanied by the theme in the first film is so Iconic and the Updated version in part 2 was so important giving you the feel of the first film. If I had any complaint about part 3 it would only be that they should've use the Trioxin Theme in the opening with the reanimated corpse.
DUDE!!! I Felt the Same Way with the Cemetery Music!!! What a GUT PUNCH with this DVD!!! 😞
The same thing was done to a nightmare on elm street 3 dream warriors. Here in the UK.
There's a somewhat similar issue in 1987's "Summer School." It was supposed to include a Debbie Harry song called "Mind Over Matter," but there was a contract dispute, so E.G. Daily re-recorded the song. They goofed and left Harry's version in the French dub (available on the US DVD), which was the only place to hear her recording until a bootleg surfaced a decade or so ago.
Thank you for sharing this; I really enjoyed it. Watching it with the voice-over was truly awesome!
“Get the damn screwdriver,out of ma head” 😂😂😂😂😂 I watched this movie when it came out with my mom, I was only 10. This movie has so much meaning to me, not only because reminds me of my mom, but just opened me up to horror and zombie movies. This will always remain a classic to me.
OMG me and my friends used to quote that line all the time back when we were kids
@@derekhein3738 my brother and I still do. We're in our 40s lol
the zombie subtitles on the shout factory is quite funny :)
Great video man! I’ve only seen the first film after watching one of your earlier videos and I loved it. but now you have me wanting to go out and buy both copy’s of this film and watch them.
Media accidentally released the TV edit for Halloween on VHS, which is cool because it has extra scenes that were filmed specifically for it while they were shooting Halloween II.
I’m thrilled you brought this to our attention bro I was always curious myself good stuff.
I was always a fan of the first film but I never gave this movie a chance...until I saw you talking about it. Thank you for that!!!
One of my favorite movies. It never gets old!
Man, I am so glad you put this mystery to bed. I remember buying this dvd back in 2003 around Halloween and was completely baffled by how different it sounded. I had watched the vhs version so many times growing up and loved the music, so I was really let down with the changes. I also didn't know about the Scream Factory version, so i bought it while watching your video! Thank you!
Saw the movie in the cinema back in 1988 , but can’t remember what the music score was 😞
another great vid, always learning on this channel! lol. would be cool to see you touch on hidden dvd features? like on the old lionsgate and vidmark discs. or maybe touch on promos from the video store days? thanks bud
Hey Man,'
Great vid as per usual. I'm sure you know this, but the Scream blu ray has the alt. DVD audio track included. You hear the other score, and the narration from the beginning on the blu ray.
I'm about a decade older than you, and I remember getting this DVD on release week, and back then, via internet and Fango issues, they brought this weird audio anomaly up, including how you can hear original audio on the French track.
I seen your video with Garrett (Rad) talking about the resurgence of dvd and when you mentioned the soundtrack being the original on the dvd when listening to it in French. I was thankful that I keep all my past versions of my favorite films. Thanks for the info Christian....
I LOVE this movie and was fortunate to find out about the music before I purchased it and went for a bootleg. SF knocked this release out of the park.
Thats why i still also collect some dvds,you never know when you have some hidden gems😉💯
I believe the original score was done by Vladimir Horunzhy 👍
What an awesome deep dive! Thank you!
Have you heard of the different voice for the Tarman in the 1st film? You can find clips on youtube of the original VHS/Theatrical voice. I can't remember why it was changed. It's just higher pitched. Weird.
I was disappointed by the voice change. I preferred his original voice. Plus they also messed with the music in certain scenes. I watched the original on VHS so many times I have the whole movie memorized! LoL
The issue with the music is contracts are signed with something like "theatrical, broadcast television and video home movies (VHS)" Blueray, DVD, streaming didn't exist so the bands got paid according to the contract and the studio doesn't have rights to distribute the music in any other format. So if they do distribute ...on Blueray or whatever they are in violation of copyright which goes beyond just a civil suit for payment and could extend into criminal court.
OK. Good theory. This mystery plagued me for some time as well. I honed in on one thing that, for whatever reason, is what I believe to be, at least partially, if not the entirety of why the score is different:
(Drum roll)
Francis Haines' Trioxin Theme!
While used sparingly, there are a few sections of the English track score that use a variation on what is the main motif of the first film's theme.
Being a musician, I know how easily a lawsuit can arise from something seemingly miniscule. But I also know the length that filmmakers are willing to go to get out of having to pay someone for iconic work they've produced.
My guess is that perhaps between the release of the VHS and DVD, Haines discovered quite late that they had used incorporated a portion of his track into the score without being properly credited and, more importantly, paid.
As you said, the film being such a low-level release is why a studio would not want to shell out for a lawsuit. So instead of ponying up, they lazily slapped a bunch of music they owned outright over the entire score so that no one could say a single note of it was copied.
Why do I think this? If you listen to the alternate score, it is the most conspicuously absent element that is in the restored score. Every Halloween film had to credit and pay Carpenter to use the main theme.
There were multiple Anchor Bay releases, most famously perhaps all five seasons of 21 Jump Street, that had EVERY song from EVERY episode replaced with cheap free stuff so as to not have to pay to relicense their music.
This was problematic for a number of films. Like Dazed and Confused. It would have been far less expensive to have new bands do covers of older 70s songs to use in the film than to license the original versions. Linklater said it was the most important part of the film and refused to budge.
So the studio paid, and he got all but, funnily enough, the namesake song from Zeppelin, as they are notoriously weird about allowing their songs in film. And the soundtrack became an enormous hit when released on physical media.
I know these arent 1:1 comparisons, but I do think it illustrates just how fickle music rights can be in general. I'd love to know what anyone else thinks.
Loved this video! Genuinely had no idea about this whole story.
Great video! You just a new subscriber and I'm going to watch return of the living dead 2 for the first time tonight after work. I wonder what score the streaming version has?
Great movie! A staple on cable when I was younger. Interesting.... i didn't know!
Enemy Territory (1987). Starring Tony Todd, Stacey Dash, Ray Parker Jr, Jan Michael Vincent. Criminally underrated EMPIRE PICTURES film. They never released on dvd or blu ray because of music licensing. There was a band who did a few songs in the soundtrack that prevented a new release.
HOLY SHIT!!!!!!! SOMEONE ELSE KNOWS THIS MOVIE!!!!!!!! Oh my God, do you know how many times I've described this late night classic and got such stares of "what the hell are you talking about?!" Wow! Awesome! I love this flick.
Extremely informative brother. I literally purchased this as I was watching your video. That's when you know a video is good.
Doesn’t the blu-ray from scream factory have both audio mixes?
I would agree as many different versions of films are made and studio will use what they have, especially if it isn’t a film made by them or one with a hug following they know will recoup the costs
Yes, both audio tracks are on the blu ray.
I am shocked! It does!!!!!
Interesting always wondered about the differences in the soundtracks. Thanks!
Music rights on analog video and digital video are treated separately. There were a lot of music rights issues with DVD. Many releases were damaged by not being able to re-procure rights for songs that were just replaced with generic music. The Beavis and Butthead series DVD release was derailed by rights disputes. They had actually produced the first run but recalled them before release.
Wait?! There isn’t a voice over on the Blu-ray! Goddamn! That makes the movie! That voice over rules!!
In a turn of events there actually is! Alternate audio track
Great upload! I enjoy Return of the Living Dead part 2, the dvd trivia is very cool to learn about.
Saw this as a kid. I'll never forget "Get that damn screw driver outta my head!" Haha
In a southern accent nonetheless…. Iconic
CHH's foray into investigative journalism? I love it!
Very cool. I always nerd-out to obscure tidbits like this.
thanks for this explanation man
Hey Great Video Man, The Spanish Version on the ROTD 2 DVD also has the Original Score. So does The Blu-Ray. Your Channels Intro Sounds Similar to the ROTD 2 Zombie Theme 🤘😎🤘.
WKRP in Cincinnati had the same issue. The show was able to get the rights for all the music played but a lot of it was time limited. So years later when it's being rereleased on DVD many songs in various episodes had to be totally replaced w/ other songs as they were unable to reacquired rights for some.
Sometimes playing the actual VHS tape version is worth it. You get that low-fi mono sound as the tracking is adjusting to the optimal level with amusing sound blips as it heads off into one or two tv spots before the actual movie starts.
Part 2’s Blu audio isn’t even correct. It’s a VHS rip where you can hear the hiss throughout and tape damage at one point.
The only TRUE audio is the Laserdisc. Love shout factory but the fact they used vhs over laser was really annoying.
To further answer your question, WB do keep workprint audios around from time to time if they need elements to split into a 5.1 mix. My theory would be the elements were just easier to get.
Yeah they might have had the Negative with a temp or alternate score laying around and put that out by accident when they did the first DVD. DVD companies messing up isn't that hard to believe. lol
Evil Dead 2 is a reworking of Evil Dead basically
And? This is about Return of the Living Dead 2, what has the Evil Dead got to do with it?
AND evil dead 2 is a continuation of evil dead. Nothing even close to a remake.
@@stevepemberton151 and? Why are you two clowns taking about a different franchise altogether? Are you two robot lovers or something?
@@spodoinklehorse They're saying Evil Dead 2 is very similar to RotLD part 2 in that sense, also both being horror comedies. I guess the first RotLD had comedy too, but part 2 leans far more heavily into comedy and I'm glad it does. Both are kinda continuations of the previous films but also use characters and/or same actors from the first.
@@stevepemberton151 Not exactly, why would Ash go to the same cabin with a GF that iirc has the same name? It's both a remake and continuation, at the end of the day they're fictional movies so it works I guess. It might take some out of the movie though and confuse people, but they're both great sequels IMO and I kinda like that they used actors from RotLD that died, it comes off as something they did for a laugh TBH and I like both characters, it's hard to imagine it with other actors. Hard to imagine Evil Dead 2 without Bruce too.
Tornado zombie...LOL! It's like a zombies face mixed in a cloud.
The first thing that comes to mind when I hear "lawsuit with music" is the tragedy of the Quantum Leap DVDs. Most of my grunge & alternative friends think of Daria, but for me the music on that show was just background noise that I never noticed was amy different on the DVDs
Very insightful. I only saw the original (a LOT) when I was a kid. I never knew there was a change in the soundtrack.
I agree with you sir. Just your typical studio screw up. Such a great film. Might have to search the web for that dvd. Would love to see what the film was like with a completely different score. Awesome Video!!!
Just the fact that you care about RoTLD makes me so happy, I'm over 50 and saw this when it was released, I loved the first film, and the first thing I thought when I saw part 2 was, why is James Karen and Tom in this movie? they got nuked! haha. Everyone likes part one the best, but Rave to the Grave is the worst one, or possibly part 3, but I love part 1 and 2 equally. Great video man loved the trivia and lore surrounding the releases.
Finally someone who appreciates return of the living dead 2 as much as I do! I never knew about this alternate version so thank you for the info!
"The Return of the Living Dead, this movie changed my life" , instantly subscribed!
Saw part 2 first and absolutely fell in love with it, so prefer it to the 1st. Still got the VHS
Around 85' we used a Night of the Living Dead VHS to "TP" a car after watching it and seeing how bad it was.
Ever notice the cover is almost an exact replica of the cover to Fright Night and Fright Night part 2?
I don't know about the score change I just know about the songs that were changed in the movie. I remember when the movie was on cinemax That the dead return music was there but it wasn't fully there they put the song I'm The Man by Anthrax in the middle of it.
Return of the Living Dead III is my all time favorite😎
Hot zombie 🧟♀️ chick.
I saw this right after it played on satellite in the 1980s, I was five! We watched it at a friend's birthday party. Back then the few kids in the neighbourhood with satellite dishes taped movies like crazy, it was awesome.
After watching the DVD for the last 15 or so years, I totally forgot that The Monster Mash played during the end credits of the VHS version.
I need to dig that out.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Very interesting, I am a big fan of this movie and I remember thinking that the visual quality on my DVD copy was very bad.
I remember picking this up when it first came out and immediately being turned off by the change in music. Same with the change in tarman's voice in the return of the living dead 1's releases.
I like your thought about about maybe the Director having the music put in to show Lorimar how the score didn't work. I always thought the J Peter Robinson score was always intended. So the ALTERNATE score on that DVD might have been a TEMP SCORE they put on until the Officially Released the movie in theaters. Maybe they didn't have the Robinson score ready. Same with the Voice Over. Maybe was added for Plot Exposition about the Trioxin and then they decided it wasn't Necessary and opted not to use that. Guess we can only speculate for now. Great video, man!
When I was 15, I worked in a video store from like 1988-1990 and our distributor sent us poster packs for upcoming stuff. The poster for this movie was in one of 'em. Once it came down and went home with me, it stayed on the walls of various apartments well into my 20's. Ha I shoulda framed that thing.
Dude I have zero interest in ROTLD 2, and yet your super well researched, succinct, and well spoken video had me riveted. Thumbs up and new subscriber.
Gotta admit that’s cool
Thank you for that. I found it a really interesting video.
The version on Amazon has the altered soundtrack too.
I swear I have this Mandela effect on this movie. I swear I saw a version of this movie where either Joey or Ed say "oh no not again" when the zombies first appeared in the graveyard. Kinda implying that they remember the events of the first movie or something.
There is a moment where Joey says this all feels like “dejavu “
Thom has dialogue in the car akin to: "Something feels familiar about all this. You. Me. (Points to zombies outside) THEM!"
Nice video! I got to see ROTLD 2 a few times in the theater when I was a kid (thanks to the dollar movie theaters), and watched it many times on VHS. I also owned the soundrack on cassette and played it to death. Getting that DVD and having to live with the bad score and the songs in the wrong spot or missing, was rough, though I did enjoy the added V/O at the open. We even sampled that in the song "Brains", back when I was in the band, God Module. I was so happy to get the Scream Factory Blu and rewatch with the original music. It transported me back to my childhood. I wanted to fuckin' cheer when Monster Mash blasted at the end; to me the perfect cap to this more kid friendly sequel. The original ROTLD is one of my alltime favorite films. A masterpiece of dark, horror comedy. That said, I love this sequel too and put it in the same camp as The Gate, Goonies, Night of the Comet, and Monster Squad.
Return of the Living Dead is kind of a blind spot for me. I need to finish the first one and check out part 2 as well. So needless to say, I was never aware of this issue. But I loved the break down and explanation of this. Pretty cool and informative. :)
Good work on this one mate 👍 👏 👌
I’ve never seen the dvd release of this movie. I now feel the need to get myself a copy to see what’s going on.
"1:57 Fright Night"
I remember seeing the cover at the video store back in the day. Back when you use to rent off how awesome the covers were. Like music albums.
Music can change the context of everything it's done so throughout human history when telling a story
The digital copy I own seems to have this dvd version with the voiceover intro
When "Airplane" was released on VHS in the Netherlands it was retitled to "Flying High" and the BeeGees song Staying Alive was replaced with some generic disco
i rewatched rotld p2 on amazon recently, i first saw when it came out 35 years ago and it's still great
I saw part 2 before I saw part 1 when I was a kid so part 2 always holds a special place in my heart
Close to return of the livign dead pt2 you mention with the tornado zombie,was my experience with the fright night cover with the vampiric cloud above the house! I was going junior school in greece back then and just in front of my school was the vhs store,or videoclub we called them back then.When the school was out for the day we were going to see all the amazing covers from the movies,and fright night's movie cover was became the one that vaptized me in the horror genre from those years!
Worth mention also that i do own both dvd edition from the ones you showed us here! 😎
I'm looking on DVD rewind & apparently on the Scream Factory Blu-ray you can access the alternate soundtrack. So that screw up score is on the Blu-ray. It actually sounds better in my opinion.
I am blown away it does! Luckily it doesn’t change the direction of this video, but still. WOW!
@@PlanetCHH oh for sure, at least it shows a time when Scream Factory were run by actual fans & not just business people. Only fans would care enough to fish that out for people.
that's interesting. I have the DVD and the VHS, so I'll have to check this out.
The version on Tubi (to watch for free) also has the alternate soundtrack. Voice over beginning, alt score, ends with Flesh to Flesh.
This video just earned you a subscription
I saw part II in the theater. So great
This issue happened with the 1994 movie, Blown Away with Jeff Bridges and Tommy Lee Jones. The blu-ray release had multiple classic songs replaced with poor covers of the same songs I grew up hearing while watching it growing up on DVD/Broadcast.
I saw one of these in the wild 2 days ago! Imma go back & snag it! Good lookin out!👌
Confused is the USA DVD the one that has the original music in the French languages selection or is there a foreign version that has it as the picture you show is some non USA version from the picture you show in the video. I guess my question is will the USA dvd version on amazon be the one to get ?
Yes the USA Amazon version! I just used a high res image of a foreign dvd to show for b roll
Ok awesome 👏
@@PlanetCHH Interesting to note that the foreign DVD cover you show is from some weird bootleg or something, because it apparently features a commentary track from the cast of Batman: The Animated Series (Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Adrianne Barbeau and Efrem Zimbalist jr.)
return of the living dead 1 is the first horror movie i remember seeing in the early 2000s. i was way too young to be watching it lol but i am thankful my parents allowed me to watch horror movies at such a young age. i use to watch it over and over again it prob annoyed my parents after awhile. im 25 now and i wish i could go back to those days
I seen this too as a kid 😮
Early 2000's 😂 this movie is way older than that 🤡
@@hostilesavage4299 i never claimed it wassnt?
I found that dvd version at FYE! I got it!
Fluffy from the crate. Surprised I didn't get gray hair from watching that at a young age.
Same thing happened on the first DVD release of Happy Birthday to Me and yes an earlier print with the original score that's on the M&E (Music & Effects) track was used by mistake. The only lawsuit that could occur is if the original composer(s) on both those films found out. So yeah, it was a mistake in the mastering of the DVD'S