Aside from basically inventing the zombie genre of horror movies, George Romero seemed to push the limits when it came to how widespread the zombie apocalypses portrayed in his movies were becoming with each successive installment. Night of the Living Dead started it off with the undead swarming a town and farmhouse. Dawn of the Dead has them overtake the entire country, and now this film goes even further and has the zombies basically destroy the world. Even though the former is the case with Day of the Dead, the epidemic doesn't really appear any worse than in its prequel, but the movie does introduce a unique setting which Romero hasn't used before, and it forces more interaction between the characters because it is so claustrophobic. The story starts years after Dawn of the Dead finished. The characters are different, but an integral part of the ending of the last movie kicks off this one: a helicopter. A group of survivors, Sarah (Lori Cardille), Miguel, John and Bill are flying around the Everglades in Florida to see if any other survivors can respond to their pleas for assistance, but they get no answers. John lands the chopper at a former missile base, where they learn the former officer in charge, Major Cooper, is dead. His replacement, Captain Rhodes (Joseph Pilato), is an incredibly violent and unhinged soldier who is tasked with protecting the survivors in the base along with some scientists who are trying to conduct experiments on captured zombies, thinking they can be made less aggressive. During a meeting, Rhodes and his most trusted man Steel (Gary Howard Klar) threaten to have Sarah executed for standing up for Doctor Logan's experiments. Logan (nicknamed Frankenstein by the military guys) is kind of a nutcase and enjoys gruesomely dissecting the zombies to find out more about their habits. He believes that he is close to a breakthrough, but Sarah finds out that he is using the corpses of Rhodes' men as subjects. Knowing how unstable Rhodes is, Sarah keeps her mouth shut about it. When Logan's experiments fail to provide useful results, Rhodes loses his temper and says he is instituting martial law in the base, and will kill anyone who threatens his rule. Sarah, unsure if she will be one of the people Rhodes kills once her usefulness is exhausted, meets with John and Bill, who live in an RV in a tunnel at the other side of the compound. John expresses his belief that the zombies are retribution from God for humanity's crimes, and wants to take the helicopter for himself, Sarah and Bill and fly to a deserted island. Meanwhile, Logan continues with his experiments and hopes that he can get on Rhodes' good side if they pay off. He has been intensively studying a zombie he calls Bub, who is trained to use headphones, tape recorders, and even handle guns, suggesting he was in the military when alive. Rhodes unexpectedly shows up to the lab and observes Bub, but still thinks this science is a waste of time. Some time later, Steel, two soldiers and Miguel are trying to corral zombies for use in Logan's work, but one of them Miguel is handling gets loose and kills Steel's two friends. Miguel is then attacked by the zombie, leading to Sarah amputating his arm in hopes of making him immune to infection. An enraged Steel shows up to the RV with Rhodes at his side. They mean to shoot Miguel for letting Steel's guys get killed, but Sarah says they're going to have to kill her too. Rhodes cuts off all support for the survivors and scientists. Rhodes then finds out Logan has been using the bodies of his soldiers as nourishment for the zombies, and murders him with his assault rifle. Rhodes rounds up all the survivors and takes their guns from them. He then attempts to threaten John into flying them out of the base with the helicopter. When John refuses, Rhodes shoots Dr. Fisher, Logan's assistant. He forces Sarah and Bill into the caves bordering the base so the zombies will eat them, and Steel beats up John. In the lab, Bub manages to break free of his restraints and finds out Logan is dead. He picks up a discarded handgun and goes to avenge him. Despite the loss of his arm, Miguel decides to head to the surface and kill himself via the zombies, but not before opening the gates to the base, letting thousands of them flood the interior. As they tear him apart, he activates the elevator controls and brings the horde of undead into the base. Upon realizing the situation he's in, Rhodes jumps on a buggy and leaves his men behind to die. Steel and the others manage to survive for a couple of minutes, but the endless swarm of zombies eventually overwhelm them. Rhodes manages to make more progress, but comes across Bub wielding a pistol; something he's definitely not expecting. Before Rhodes can raise his gun, he's shot twice by Bub, who salutes him as the other zombies rip him apart. John (who managed to knock out Rhodes and take his pistol earlier), catches up with Bill and Sarah in the caves as they fight through the undead horde. They climb up a ladder and make it to the helicopter just in time and fly off. Just like its prequel, Day of the Dead ends in the same way, with the survivors leaving in a chopper and leaving their ultimate fates unknown. When compared with its predecessor, I would say that Day of the Dead is probably not as good. I liked the setting, which is a far cry from the wide open shopping mall of Dawn of the Dead, but something feels lacking here. Most of the movie doesn't even focus on killing the zombies, and Logan's experiment's are a big part of the plot, which might put some people off. None of the protagonists are that likable, and Romero seemed to copy and paste some elements of the prequel's story into this one. There's still 4 survivors just like last time, people show up to make their lives harder, etc. Once again, Romero's visual style is unmistakable here, and the movie is quite bloody. Not that Night of the Living Dead wasn't violent, but this film (and DOTD) make it more noticeable because it's not black and white. Tom Savini is back doing the special effects, and he more than delivers. The most shocking display of the work he did is probably when the zombies kill Rhodes, as they literally tear the lower half of his body off. Assisting Savini were some artists who later worked on The Walking Dead, which has no doubt proved its popularity in the realm of zombie related media (if you exclude its lackluster later seasons). Overall, I would say that Day of the Dead is a unique movie. It's not quite as refined as Dawn of the Dead, but still has Romero's signature style attached to it. Only he could make such slow moving monsters something you truly fear.
Review of Day of the Dead
