ironhorse_iv Review of Day of the Dead

Day of the Dead (1985)

I'm dead, serious. Day of the Dead is one of the better Zombies movies out there. Choke on that!

[7/10 · 4 September 2015]

Not to be confused with Mexican holiday on November 2, aka Día de los Muertos. Day of the Dead is a 1985 horror film by director George A. Romero. It's the third of his Living Dead Series movies after 1968's Night of the Living Dead & 1978's Dawn of the Dead. Romero has described the film as a "tragedy about how a lack of human communication causes chaos and collapse even in this small little pie slice of society". I think the movie, somewhat shows that. The movie has three types of human survivors, each of whom have been given a task to figure out, what cause the zombie apocalypse, and how to solve it, by the government. The scientists have been ordered to find a resolution to the epidemic, but are tempted to violate nature's boundaries guarding life and death. The soldiers who are assigned to protect the doctors appointed to study the zombies, but are tempted to enforce fascistic control and destroy the specimens in an act of rebellion. Last are the civilians who are assigned to serve both groups with basic though necessary services like transportation and communication, but are tempted to abandon the cause and, instead, live out their last days in peaceful abandon. Since there is hardly any government, oversight, the three groups quickly clash each other, creating an emergency within the underground compound, in which they live. Can they work together and save society or will society collapsed due to the pressure of the disaster? Watch the movie to find out! Without spoiling the movie, too much, I found this film is one of the goriest film ever in the whole George A. Romero's Zombie series. There are plenty of scenes of people getting ripped to pieces. Very gruesome and very realistic. Actual pig intestines were used for filming. The crew, filming this movie, really had to have a strong stomach. And to make things worse, the refrigerator the intestines were put in broke over a weekend, causing the intestines to rot. One can only imagine the smell. The visual effects are pretty good for the most part. Tom Savini and his crew, really did a great job. Lot of creative new zombies. The make-up work is 100 times better than the previous films. Still, the budget was somewhat limited. The original script, for which George A. Romero couldn't get money for, involved the scientists living above ground in a fortress protected by electrified fences and the military living safely underground. It also involved a small army of trained zombies facing endless amounts of untrained zombies. Parts of this plan, would later became the basis of his later film, 2005's Land of the Dead. George Romero's less than flattering opinion on the US military is particularly obvious in this film; none of the soldiers have any redeeming qualities. They are racist, sexist and all around bad guys when it comes to dealing with both the dead and the living. It could be argued that they were going insane after all the isolation and the threat of zombies, or that all the decent soldiers have either died heroic deaths already, or deserted in hope of protecting their loved ones elsewhere. Still, I found, characters like Johnson (Gregory Nicotero) & Steel (Gary Howard Klar), somewhat likable & entertaining. While, Joe Pilato is over the top as Captain Rhodes. I found, his role, one of the better acted parts in the film. Although never confirmed, it has been rumored by fans that the character Pilato played in Dawn of the Dead is in fact Rhodes as a cop, before joining the army. Who knows! I love how the movie does somewhat reference, the previous films, but this series isn't really known for its continuity. After all, it has a Stephen King book from 1975 if the world start to go to sh*t in 1968. It's one of the suspension-of-disbelief conventions that viewers simply have to accept. The scientist subplot with Dr. Logan (Richard Liberty) & Bub, the zombie (Howard Sherman), while emotional entertaining and both well-acted, felt like a different type of a movie. It truly does remind me of Frankenstein mixed with X-Men. Honestly, I really don't get, why the scenes, were in, there since the subplot really goes nowhere. It's still somewhat, jarring, seeing a zombie shot a gun. My taste of zombie movies, I would rather, not see that. In my opinion, the movie doesn't really have, much likable characters in this film. I really couldn't stand the heroes, as well. While, Lori Cardille & Jarlath Conroy did a semi-good job with their roles. I really didn't like Terry Alexander. His over-the-top fake Caribbean accent was really, horrible. The movie does have some good scares. The infamous calendar on the wall is one of the best. Day of the Dead's electronic theme is very cold and clinical and very good at conveying the isolation and paranoia the main characters feel. While, the movie isn't as fun as 1978's Dawn of the Dead; time has gone by, enough that people have begun to view it in a more positive way for the movie's serious tones. It's far better than the 2008 remake by director Steve Miner. Then, there is an official sequel called Day of the Dead 2: Contagium which nobody from the original movie had any involvement with, so it's not worth, talking about, beyond that. Overall: I know the movie had a tough act to follow, but Day of the Dead is another zombie classic from Romero. Highly recommended! It's worth the watch.