REVIEW: Day of the Dead

I think that I’ll have to agree with Romero and say that this is one of my favorite zombie films that I’ve seen. Unlike other zombie flicks like 28 Days, Return of the Living Dead or Dawn of the Dead, this movie effectively does a fantastic and almost perfect job of zombie character development. This was a great prelude to Land of the Dead, because it shows how the zombies started to learn and develop basic and primitive thinking skills. Essentially this movie is about a group of scientists and soldiers locked up in a missile silo trying to find a cure for the infection. What makes this zombie flick different from others before it was the excessive amount of gore that was used, pretty good acting and the set design for a post-apocalyptic world was amazing, with such a low budget. This movie also had a great undertone that was very similar to the recent movie The Mist and it also shows the progression of the zombies as well through clever makeup.

The acting was very well done, though not the best, it still was a great performances on both ends. Though I think the credit for the best performance in this movie would be Sherman Howard, who played the “test” zombie Bub, who is captured by the scientist to study and to teach him to talk and listen to music. A great and almost misunderstood performance would be Richard Liberty, who plays Prof. Logan, the “father” figure and chief scientist working on Bub. His performance was outstanding next to Howard. Their acing and fantastic performance gave this movie a more real and scary atmosphere; if not for their acting, then this movie would have nothing for it.

The set design and make-up in this movie was amazing. Though, coming from Tom Savini, it’s very expected to have great work. What I enjoyed about the make-up was that Romero and Savini showed how the zombies become more and more “rotting” as time passes on. What was once regular faces (Night), turned to gray dead faces (Dawn) are now green and peeling off. Though in the opening scene, this movie really tapped into the severity of the zombie outbreak by showing scenes and overhead shots of a city that is completely abandoned and dead, and just to see that, for it’s time, was a wonder. It gave the illusion of “loneliness” and it delivered it well.

The blood and gore was excessive, to say the least. There was a lot of blood in Dawn and Land, but when you look at this one, the blood comes out almost like a waterfall and squirts out like a fountain. Romero doesn’t forgive when he shows how hungry or how vicious theses zombies are, he shows, near the end of the film, the zombies eating, chewing, clawing, fighting, tearing and slurping up body parts and blood. This movie does not forgive people when it comes to zombie chow downs; it truly shows the nature of these vicious creatures. When somebody gets slashed or amputated the blood that comes out is almost too excessive and too watery that it works! Though curiously enough, this movie does not tap into the notion that once your bit by a zombie, you turn into one. This one implies that if you cut off the effected area and cauterize it, you’ll be fine.

This movie is like the 80’s version of The Mist when it comes to its central theme. When viewing this movie you become part of the isolated group of people, and you get to see how each one progressively changes throughout the course of the infection and you start to worry; the people inside and barricaded are more violent and “loose” than the zombies. This movie plays on the theme that humanity is a greater threat to itself than any other outside threat. This film, like Lord of the Flies, makes its character separate into three different sects; The Military, who wants to kill all the zombies, The Scientists who want to study the zombies for medical purposes and The Civilians that want to survive this whole thing. The different views of each sect cause the cliques to war against each other, ultimately showing how man can be easily thrown back into its primitive stage.

I will highly recommend this movie to any hard-core horror fan or any beginning horror fan because it shows a lot about the horror genre, and is a prime example of great film-making and character development. To those who enjoy zombie flicks or Romero, if you haven’t seen it yet, then you really must make this top priority. However, to the younger horror audience, you may want to hold out on this movie because of the gore and zombie attacks. But I enjoyed this film so much, its probably the best zombie flick that I’ve seen since Night of the Living Dead and really at the end of the day and of the movie, you have to shed a tear for Bud, after he lost the only father he really had.

Available at Amazon.