DAY OF THE DEAD (1985)

      DAY OF THE DEAD has become the first zombie film to be featured here. What an honour.

Day of the Dead is the final chapter (or would be) of Romero's dead trilogy. I last saw this years ago, and I wasn't very impressed. I knew seeing it from a more mature standpoint might change my mind, and it did, a little. I just watched this for the first time in many years and it's far better than I remember it. It can not however compare with the earlier efforts of George A Romero. It is however, far better than anything (with the possible exception of the NOTLD remake) George has since given us.

Night of the Living Dead had a relentless style to it. Dawn gave the world a feeling of hoplessness and dread like few other movies have done. Day gives us a cold, sterile environment where people have lost their minds five years after the Zombie outbreak. Day expands on the "end of the world" feeling Dawn generated, but in an indescribeabley depressing way.

The main conflict in the film is between Scientist and Soilder. The zombies are but a sidenote here. The military was ordered (when there still was law) to facilitate the scientific experiments in an underground missile silo. After losing many men, crazed Captain Rhodes (quite an interesting villain) has finally had enough of providing the scientists with protection and zombie specimens. He demands "results" soon or he will put an end to their experiments. Clearly the military doesn't like where the experiments are going.
They are to "domesticate" and "control" the living dead through teaching them. The military see's no purpose for this and eventually "cancels" this program.

The attempt to domesticate the living dead is interesting, but it goes too far. George could have done so much more with what he had. If anyone found this film creepy in any way, the domestication scenes certainly don't help. Sure Dawn of the Dead had it's satire, but it was so cleverly used, but Dawn can wait, this is a Day review.

Captain Rhodes eventually loses it completley and goes on a bloodthirsty rampage before meeting his inevitable demise. He actually gets more kills than any one zombie. One only wishes he had more screen time.

Surely by now you can see where the story is headed. I just have one little (or large) complaint about this film. Why are trained professionals in the military, so unstrategic when the zombies finally do overrun the silo? They are all taken down in such a contrived fashion and clearly they would have had a contingency plan in case their base ever was overrun. The zombie makeup is nothing to complain about and much detail was put into it, far more so than it's Romero predecessors. Some critics complained about an emphasis on gore in this film but really the gore, however much there may be, is limited to a few scenes. Clearly Romero used his best ideas over the first two dead films, but this one is definately worth a look. I'm glad I revisited it and it's a far better effort than I remembered. THREE STARS OUT OF FIVE.