Day of the Dead (1985)

Director: George A. Romero

Writer: George A. Romero

Tagline: The darkest day of horror the world has ever known.

Actors: Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joseph Pilato, Anthony Dileo Jr., Richard Liberty, Gary Howard Klar, Sherman Howard

Runtime: 1h 42m

Category: Zombie

Synopsis: In the wake of a Class 4 zombie attack in which the known world has been overrun, a small military operation is conducting experiments to help understand the phenomenon. A group of civilians, Dr. Logan and his assistants, Sarah and Ted, have discovered some very important information that just may help them all survive. But after the captain dies and Rhodes takes over command, the mood changes dramatically. One of the operatives has been slowly regressing in his mental state, making a vital mistake and ultimately allowing an all-out zombie siege! Who could possibly survive a raid by a swarm of hungry zombies?

Review: I was actually pretty impressed with this film. From the start I thought that this was not part of Romero’s “Living Dead” series…but I was wrong. This is the third installment of “The Living Dead” quadrilogy, and I must say I was pretty happy with it. Considering myself to be somewhat of a “zombie connoisseur”, I thought that the concept was great. Unfortunately, the psychology behind the zombie portrayed in this movie is flawed. While Romero kept to perfection with Night of the Living Dead (1968), this movie contained some terrific ideas…but they were wrong. See, the zombie brain is driven by instinct, just like Dr. Logan said, but the rest of the brain dies. This means that the zombie would have no recollection of its past life as a human being. This also means that the zombie Dr. Logan was teaching, Bud, would never be able to learn anything or remember anything. Unfortunately this holds true no matter what culture you hear the zombie tale from…its scientific fact. On a lighter note, I thought that the gore in this movie had comparatively improved since the last two. I have said many times that the effects reflect the times…and this holds true here. The ripping apart of bodies was fantastic and the guts were very real-looking. The story wasn’t bad but the acting was slightly over the top. I understand why Mr. Romero decided to write the characters like that though…to give the illusion that they had been down underground for so long that they had become paranoid and deranged. Not a bad movie, but I would prefer Dawn of the Dead (1978) over this one any day.

Rating: 20. I liked the gore and the feel of the movie, but could have done with a bit more story. They did a lot with Dr. Logan and Bud but not a whole lot more with the original story. Like Dawn of the Dead (1978) they jump right into the story without warning. I was hoping to have some sort of back story to this group of people so I could get a feel for them. But we are tossed into a neurotic bunch of renegades who live underground. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the movie but I just wanted more story than that. Good movie though…a must for fans of the Living Dead series. (20of25).