A Look Back at Day of the Dead
David Gelmini
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George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead turns 30 this July. As the third installment in the series that invented zombies as we know them today, the film polarized fans of the series, with some considering it a masterpiece and others calling it a terrible way to end such a great trilogy.
It was made on a larger budget than its two predecessors, which many feel took away some of their charm and instead made it seem like more of a studio production. Romero does have to be commended, however, for trying to do something different instead of the whole humans barricade themselves as a means to survive the zombie apocalypse scenario.
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In keeping with the practice of featuring a female protagonist like the first two films, Romero cast Lori Cardille as Sarah, and unlike the last two, who spend most of the films sulking and cowering, here we finally have a woman who isn’t afraid to fight when necessary. The films finally got with the times.
We open with a bizarre dream sequence with Sarah seemingly locked in a cell, staring at a calendar on the wall showing an island paradise, only to have a throng of zombie arms burst in. This type of surrealism was certainly a welcome addition to the series.
She then wakes up in a helicopter flying above a long-deserted city. Skeletons are lying in the streets. Piles of money are blowing in the wind. Alligators now frequent suburban areas and are some of the only living things left. Cut to a newspaper with the headline “The Dead Walk.” This was a hugely effective way to introduce us to a world that has gone to shit, but disappointingly, almost the entire remainder of the film takes place in a military base, as mankind has just about accepted defeat and the few remaining humans remain in an an underground bunker.
Our most memorable character is a scientist nicknamed Dr. “Frankenstein” Logan, played by the late and wonderful Richard Liberty. Frankenstein is convinced that the zombies can think and operate like ordinary people if they are treated in the right way. Too bad the soldiers who run the bunker don’t see eye to eye with him.
“It wants me; it wants food,” Frankenstein excitedly declares after dangling his hand above a restrained, disemboweled zombie. Liberty is brilliantly cast as the mad scientist who revels in conducting experiments on zombies to see what makes them tick. The scenes where he tries to domesticate the zombies are probably the best in the film as they explore something that the earlier films only touched upon, which is the question of whether the zombies retained any of their humanity.
Captain Rhodes, played with equal parts insanity and wondrous disgust by Joe Pilato, is more or less a clichéd action movie villain. He’s a foul-mouthed, infinitely quotable military tough guy in a film that did not really need a villain because the zombies were enough. But hey, at the end, he shouts, “Choke on ‘em!” to the zombies eating his guts. Can’t really argue with the awesomeness of that.
In terms of gore, the increased budget allowed Romero and an in his prime Tom Savini to throw in as much bloodshed as possible, making this the most gruesome of the trilogy, especially the third act. Dismemberment and strewn innards are a-plenty, and fans have reveled in every second of it.
Kudos to the film for trying to paint an accurate picture of a world torn apart by zombies rather than just another straight horror film. Upon its release on July 19, 1985, Day of the Dead was reviled by most fans and of course critics. Over the years it has found its audience and is widely considered a classic.
Romero returned to the world he created to make Land of the Dead in 2005. Later on he would reboot his universe with Diary of the Dead in 2007 and its sequel, Survival of the Dead, in 2009.
Day of the Dead was followed by an unofficial sequel that same year and an unofficial remake in 2008.
The legacy of the Dead lives on.
Categorized:News Retrospectives
