The 1981 film ''Hell of the Living Dead'' referenced a mutagenic gas as a source of zombie contagion: an idea also used in Dan O'Bannon's 1985 film ''Return of the Living Dead''.''Return of the Living Dead'' featured zombies that hungered specifically for brains.
The mid-1980s produced few zombie films of note. Perhaps the most notable entry, ''The Evil Dead'' series, while highly influential are not technically zombie films but films aboutdemonic possession, despite the presence of the undead. 1985's ''Re-Animator'', loosely based on the Lovecraft story, stood out in the genre, achieving nearly unanimous critical acclaim,[35] and becoming a modest success, nearly outstripping Romero's ''Day of the Dead'' for box office returns.
After the mid-1980s, the subgenre was mostly relegated to the underground. Notable entries include director Peter Jackson's ultra-gory film ''Braindead'' (1992) (released as ''Dead Alive'' in the U.S.), Bob Balaban's comic 1993 film ''My Boyfriend's Back'' where a self-aware high school boy returns to profess his love for a girl and his love for human flesh, and Michele Soavi's ''Dellamorte Dellamore'' (1994) (released as ''Cemetery Man'' in the U.S.). Several years later, zombies experienced a renaissance in low-budget Asian cinema, with a sudden spate of dissimilar entries including ''Bio Zombie'' (1998), ''Wild Zero'' (1999), ''Junk'' (1999), ''Versus'' (2000) and ''Stacy'' (2001).