The star of the original horror-comedy classic The Return of the Living Dead, scream queen Linnea Quigley is carving her own path to a franchise resurrection with the upcoming Trash’s Revenge, a brand new meta project that’s now funding through Cinebacker. Quigley, who played Trash in Dan O’Bannon’s classic horror-comedy, is reuniting with several other […]
The star of the original horror-comedy classic The Return of the Living Dead, scream queen Linnea Quigley is carving her own path to a franchise resurrection with the upcoming Trash’s Revenge, a brand new meta project that’s now funding through Cinebacker.
Quigley, who played Trash in Dan O’Bannon’s classic horror-comedy, is reuniting with several other stars and crew members from The Return of the Living Dead on Trash’s Revenge, announcing this week that the film’s cast will also include Beverly Randolph, Thom Mathews, Miguel Nunez, and John Philbin, as well as two ROTLD stars who are no longer with us.
According to Quigley’s latest update on the Trash’s Revenge project, late actors James Karen and Don Calfa will be brought back to the screen “with the magic of CGI.” James Karen, who played Frank in The Return of the Living Dead and also returned for the film’s first sequel, passed away in 2018, while Don Calfa played Ernie in the film and passed away in 2016.
It’s hard to imagine a low-budget, crowd-funded project such as this having the means to effectively bring actors back to the screen via digital resurrection, as even major studio projects like last year’s Alien: Romulus have had trouble on that front. There’s also the question of whether or not it should even be done in the first place, which has become a hot button issue in Hollywood in recent years. Stay tuned for more on this developing story as we learn it.
Billed as “part of The Return of the Living Dead Universe,” Linnea Quigley’s Trash’s Revenge is said to be “a tribute to the passionate fans who have kept the spirit of ROTLD alive.”
Here’s the plot synopsis from the project’s donation page on CineBacker: “As the saga continues decades after the horrific events of the 1985 cult classic, Trash, the notorious punk rocker played by Linnea Quigley, finds herself trapped in a past where fame has faded. Once a rebellious icon, Trash now embraces the persona of a grotesque Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard, attending conventions to sign autographs while her co-stars rise to greater heights.
“For Linnea, her legacy as a star of Return of the Living Dead becomes both a curse and a twisted ticket to notoriety in an industry obsessed with horror and scandal. But when a young filmmaker approaches her to make a documentary with staged re-enactments from the original film to celebrate the film’s 40th Anniversary, Linnea sees an opportunity to reclaim her place in the spotlight no matter the cost.
