Day of the Dead (1985)

Synopsis: This is the third and for many years seemed destined to be final Romero zombie movie. This movie opens with a group of survivors searching a major metropolitan area in a helicopter to see if anyone else has managed to survive the zombie plague. Of course they are greeted only by hordes of the living dead. They fly back to the underground military installation only to discover that while they were gone the leader of the military unit has died. This leaves his second in command Rhodes in charge of the base, which isn’t a good thing. Eventually the fact that Rhodes is now in power, one of the soldiers Pvt. Salazar is suicidal (seriously man take a Zoloft or something!), and that the senior scientist Dr. Logan has gone off his rocker leads to the eventual destruction of the base by the zombie hordes.

The Good: You will not find a better example of practical makeup effects than in this movie. Tom Savini’s is at his absolute best here in this film, whether it is a zombie (Dr. Tongue), guts spilling out on the floor, or a body with the face and skull gone. It simply doesn’t get better than this and in my opinion hasn’t been outdone yet. The cast is very good with Lori Cardille (Sarah), Gary Howard Klar (Pvt. Steele), and Joeseph Pilato (Capt. Rhodes) standing out especially. As Sarah Lori Cardille's portrayal is both sympathetic and strong. I also really enjoy the over the top efforts that both Pilato and Klar give to their roles. Ironically enough many fans of the Romero films complain a lot about these characters and how they were portrayed. I think that with this script these actors gave Romero exactly what he was looking for. Plus the actors are clearly having a blast and it translates to the screen very well. The movie is paced well by Romero and by setting it underground the bulk of the movie has a claustrophobic feel to it.

The Bad: Okay this may be surprising to many fans but the only thing that I really don’t like about Day of the Dead is Bub. I love being scared by horror films and zombies scare me like nothing else. Why do zombies scare the hell out of me? Because basically they are us, but at the same time not us. A zombie bites you and you die. But then you get back up and walk around only it really isn’t you. For some reason this has always been a very creepy concept to me. When Bub begins to remember parts of his life before he died and became a zombie it sort of spoils a great deal of what makes zombies so effective as a “monster”.

The Score: 3 out of 4

While this isn’t my favorite of the Romero films it is still heads and shoulders above most of the zombie movies that have ever been made.

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