Proof that R.I.P.D. didn’t originate the undead twist on the buddy-cop genre comes with this movie, released 25 years ago. Here’s how you know cop Treat Williams is marked for death (and an unsettled afterlife): his character’s name is Roger Mortis. Mortis and comic-relief partner Doug Bigelow (Joe Piscopo) are investigating a robbery apparently conducted by zombies, a probe that leads to a mysterious corporation. Vincent Price (in one of his last roles) is involved, so you know something creepy is going on.
Both officers are killed in the line of duty but are brought back to life via the company’s secret invention, a machine that can raise the dead. The pair have to solve their own murders before they decompose for good. Highlight is a showdown in a Chinese butcher shop, where all the carcasses of pigs, ducks, and other animals have been reanimated to attack the good guys. The whole business is more absurd than scary, but some gore-hounds still regard this as a cult favorite.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyqclZF-bqI]