The Angry Cast Speak Out Over the Controversy with ‘Return of the Living Dead: Aftermath’

When DragonFlix released Return of the Living Dead: Aftermath on Halloween, it was advertised as an original cast reunion. However, horror icons Linnea Quigley and Beverly Randolph found that what arrived wasn’t what they had signed up for.

A Promise of Practical Nostalgia

Back in 2024, filmmaker Richard Driscoll launched a crowdfunding campaign for a project titled Trash’s Revenge. Furthermore, Quigley and Randolph were explicitly listed as producers for the venture. Quigley even described the concept as a wild mix between Sunset Boulevard and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

DragonFlix later billed Aftermath as a direct sequel, with the original 1985 stars back in action. The release announcement also didn’t mention that the film was almost entirely created with artificial intelligence. Basically, Trash’s Revenge was gutted and turned into Return of the Living Dead: Aftermath. However, Dragonflix lists a title called Trash’s Revenge that appears to be a documentary, not a feature film.

The Abrupt AI Ambush

Kotaku eventually described the finished feature as an almost entirely AI-generated disaster. As a result, the cast felt completely blindsided by the final product. Quigley recalled begging Driscoll to avoid AI technology because horror fans genuinely despise it.

When Quigley discovered the extensive digital manipulation, she promptly walked away before shooting a single scene. Meanwhile, Randolph actually filmed for three days, including a scene alongside co-star Thom Mathews.

Broken Trust

Randolph initially expected CGI solely for a complex cemetery sequence. However, watching the finished film on release morning delivered a massive shock. The filmmakers not only artificially altered her performance without permission, but also made it almost entirely AI-generated. The film also uses many scenes taken from the original movie; that’s another problem.

“We all sound like robots through the entire thing,” Randolph revealed. As a result, she demanded to be removed from the project immediately. However, Aftermath still hit the streaming service. This has led to outrage from both the actress and the genre community.

Another point of contention is the fact that, reportedly, several people paid to play parts and make cameos through the original crowdfunding campaign but never appeared in the movie.

Filmmaker Jeff Frumess sat down with the cast to detail every single disaster. They discussed how the production exploited the actors at every turn. Ultimately, you can watch his complete interview below to see the whole saga unfold.

When I asked Frumess about the aftermath of Aftermath, he had this to say:

“I am disgusted and disheartened by Richard Driscoll, aka Steven Craine’s crimes against Dan O’Bannon’s Return of the Living Dead as well as the second and third films. This was a deeply manipulative con on so many levels, involving the exploitation of everyone’s goodwill and egregiously awful use of AI. Richard also went to great lengths to omit Dan O’Bannon’s credit as the creator of the characters, story, plot, and settings he has co-opted. With this travesty, Richard has miraculously managed to engage in every trope associated with fraud and filmmaking. The best thing that could be done at this point is to not give Richard Driscoll any money and to not acknowledge the existence of Return of the Living Dead: Aftermath after the hullabaloo has died down. The only time people will remember it is to talk about how much of an abomination this whole fiasco was. “ He continued.

There is another piece to this story that is also awful and underreported and deserves attention. It involves an open letter I wrote to John Russo about his involvement. He owes us all a statement. So if you cross that bridge or want to dive more – here is some info.”