October Reflections: Day of The Dead (1985)
The Gist: The third installment of zombie master George A. Romero’s iconic Dead series. Day finds a group of survivors made up of soldiers, scientists and a couple of helicopter pilots, hiding out in an underground bunker after the zombie outbreak has decimated the US. Conflict among the group proves to be a bigger threat than the living dead.
Soldiers and Scientists: Lori Cardille (Sarah), Terry Alexander (John), Joseph Pilato (Rhodes), Sherman Howard (Bub), Gregory Nicotero (Johnson)
My Take: The first time I saw this movie, it really bothered me, like disturbed bothered me. I’m not sure if it was the content, as this was before I became immune to zombies or if it was the odd colour of some of the zombies; a sort of blue hue that is effective enough to give me the creeps. I actually think the zombies were better actors than the actors in character. Onward. In the opening when the 2 pilots and Sarah (I believe she’s suppose to be an anthropologist packing heat?) are in the city, there is an alligator/crocodile wandering about and this made me wonder if in Romero’s Dead verse, are animals and reptiles zombified? That didn’t disturb me, just made me have deep thoughts which I try to avoid. There is a huge amount of blood, gore and violence in this flick. I watched it again last week and was surprised by how graphic it is and the amount of dismemberment, guts being pulled out, flesh being peeled from bone and the horrible things the bat shit crazy doctor was doing to the zombies. It was pretty friggin’ gross. So I guess that bothered me the most (I’m getting soft in my old age) but so did the re-humanization of Bub. There is just something wrong with that. Maybe it didn’t disturb per se but I don’t think zombies should be cognitive and have a sense of humanity that was lost when they became infected with whatever causes flesh-eating corpses to hunt the living. Romero really went down hill using this theme with Land of the Dead.
Critique Much: No real criticism about this movie. The acting was meh, some of the make-up was a little off but all in all Day of The Dead is good movie if not a little unnerving.
Yah or Nah: It took me awhile to watch this flick again after the first time but I would have to say Yah. It’s a classic, gory, disturbing zombie movie. Perfect for Halloween.
Dawning Creates 