Day of the Dead (1985) Review

DAY OF THE DEAD (1985) Dir. George A. Romero

Stars:

Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander and Joseph Pilato

In 1985 Laurel Entertainment offered George Romero $6 million to make a third Zombie movie, but he had to create a movie that would have an R-rating.  Romero always doing things his own way declined saying that he would only make it if he could do it his way. Laurel told him he could but that the budget would now only be $3 million.  George went to work…

DAY OF THE DEAD continues the saga with a new cast of characters, this time scientists and military men holed up in an underground bunker.  They are believed to be some of the final living people alive in the world, or at least in the USA.  This time around George changes things a bit.  It has been almost twenty years since Night of the Living Dead was made, and the female character Barbara spent almost the entire movie catatonic on a couch, unable to cope with the events going on around her. This time around we get Sarah, played by Lori Cardille, who is not only the antithesis of Barbara, but truthfully is the hero and sanest person in Day of the Dead.  Romero has come a long way since Night with his female characters.

The set up to this film is simple.  The military men are a bunch of out of control, angry, trigger happy soldiers who think that anything other than shooting zombies is a waste of time, while the scientists, Sarah being amongst them, believe that a solution or cure is important to reversing what is happening and maybe saving the world.   Day of the Dead is slow on action, although there are some moments of pure terror, in favor of dialogue.  Although Day of the Dead is the lowest grossing of all the Romero Zombie flicks, it has become a cult favorite with Romero himself referring to it as his favorite of the lot.

This film is about trying to understand what has happened and what should be done, and it features some of the lengthiest infighting and overacting of any of Romero’s previous Zombie films.  And this time around our African American character is Jamaican and really doesn’t want to be bothered with any of this.  He spends his time with the drunk Irish man in their own little created utopia deep underground and away from everyone else.  These two men are smart, but they are not interested in getting involved.  The change of purpose for the African American character is a big departure for Romero, again done intentionally or not. 

Day of the Dead creates two of the most memorable characters from any Romero film and that is the characters of Dr. Frankenstein and Bub.  Frankenstein is a crazed scientist always covered in blood who is trying to domesticate Bub, a zombie.  And although he is crazy, it is Frankenstein who shows the most sound reasoning and probable solution.  Bub is a zombie, but a calm one, who seems to have retained some memory from his “living days”.  He can use a toothbrush, open a book and enjoys music. But most important is that when Frankenstein sticks his hands near Bubs mouth, Bub does not immediately go in for a feeding frenzy. 

The gore in Day of the Dead is top notch and stomach churning, once again being supplied by the great Tom Savini, although this is the last film Savini would do Make Up FX for George for reason’s I still have not been able to discern.  Romero loves his gore and this movie, although slower than the other two has more gore than Dawn and shows a real progress in the FX by Savini, at this point the Go-to man in the industry.

Yes the characters are a bit one dimensional, and at times the acting is hammy and laughable, but this is also easily the darkest of the three zombie films.  Day is filled with nothing but dread and the feeling that it’s already all over.  Frankenstein says that there are probably 400,000 zombies for every 1 human.  But this movie ends similarly to Dawn in that Sarah, the Jamaican and the Irishman survive and take a helicopter to a remote island to hopefully begin anew.  In Day of the Dead mostly those who deserve to die do die, and those who deserve to live do survive, but not completely.

In my opinion, although it would take another 20 years for Romero to make his next zombie film, this so called Trilogy is the work of a master at his craft and the three films that would come out from 2005 on saw the man diminish greatly with the genre he created.

GRADE: B+