Rebranding yourself can be a healthy process. Sometimes the old banners and styles have to give way to changing tides, sometimes you grow as a person, other times the world grows without you, and you need to change, or be left behind gathering dust. In 2005, the Sci-Fi channel created a new follow-up to the infamous undead, bringing the ghouls into the 21st century with Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis.

Orphan teens Jake and Julian live with their uncle, a leading figure in reanimation science. Hybra Tech, the secret company behind this miracle research, and their parent’s death, may have some dark secrets and has recently kidnapped Zeke, who was produced D.O.A. after a skateboarding stunt went wrong. As the teens break in to find their friend, they will have to come face-to-face with the effects of their family’s research, face-to-face with the living undead.

Necropolis manages to adapt the same classic formula to the next century, where a couple of somewhat unsuspecting teens face some spooky reanimating gases and carnivorous after results. This being a Sci-Fi Channel film, the constraints on what can be shown cost-effectively can be felt. While Return of the Living Dead part II had its late 80s look, and III married 90s grunge with some classic B-movies, Necropolis opts for a turn-of-the-century look here. With its youthful protagonists, all looking like they just finished downloading the latest hits off of Napster. Just as Michael Myers embraced the internet age, and Jason’s zanier space adventure, so do the zombies.

The conspiratorial tone is almost part and parcel of the franchise, as the shadowy forces behind the toxin are revamped from directly being the military (notably seen in Part III) to being a private medical company known as Hybra Tech. While the change from military industry to pure industry might not seem like a drastic change, it reflects the changes of the era, the films that inspired The Living Dead are almost 50 years old at this point. However, with the blend of comedy and horror (emphasis on the comedy here), Necropolis manages to keep the relevant pints of the franchise in a new era and goes bold exploring the goofier elements available to it.

The tales of the undead have evolved a long way since the nightmarish depictions of way back. Necropolis offers a far more Irreverent entry into the franchise, a far cry from the earnest angst of before, and a reflection of the changes in society and horror films at the time. This won’t be the end for the zombies, not by a long shot, but Necropolis might be your trip if you ever needed proof that the dead could hang in the 21st century (without the need for a rage virus and the like). As the brain-eating zombie had a revamp in the early 2000s, Necropolis proves they are not dead and buried.

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