Cult Crusade: Day of the Dead1

Okay this is where I have all you movie buffs look at me and say, “Come on!”. That’s right. I’ve never seen Day of the Dead. I understand the gravity of that statement, but since this review is online I have rectified the situation. Before you go asking I have seen Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, I’m a fan. So I now have the Romero trifecta. As for Day, I have to say I loved it; it’s everything you want in a Romero zombie movie.

There must be a lot of you who think that one zombie movie is the same as any other. Well I’m here to tell you that there is a big difference between a zombie movie and a George A. Romero zombie movie. For those of you who don’t know George A. Romero is the godfather of the zombie film. While he loves to throw lots of gore around, he doesn’t let it overshadow the idea that there is a story and a point to the whole thing. What Romero tends to do is make the zombie apocalypse a backdrop to the human drama going on in the story.

The plot is about a group of scientists and soldiers in an underground bunker while the zombies take over the world, as they tend to do. The survivors spend their time pissing each other off while they deal with their inevitable deaths. The scientists are performing experiments on the undead in the hope they might find an answer. The soldiers on the other hand are just dicks, that’s about it for them. We’re also introduced to the idea of teaching the undead basic commands and through this idea we meet Bub, the most loveable rotting corpse ever. It you’ve ever wanted a zombie as a pet this is the one you want.

The creature effects are also probably the best in the series. Tom Savini the makeup effects wizard really shines here. This is a guy whose effects are so famous he just tends to pop up in other horror movies as if to say, “Hey look, we got Tom Savini”. He was in Dawn of the Dead as well as the remake but I still love him as Sex Machine in From Dusk Till Dawn. But the effects in this movie still hold up today. Which is a big deal for a movie made twenty-five years ago. There’s a scene with a zombie kicking around on a table while all his innards are spilling onto the floor, it’s so awesome you can taste it. Not only does this movie have one of those disturbing zombie tearing apart scenes, but it has three. One of which is to the guy you love to hate who always appears in these kinds of movies. As awful as he is he sort of redeems himself by screaming the best line of the film while being torn apart. Well done you tool. Don’t think I’m spoiling much for you because it’s a zombie movie so you can pretty well work out who’s going to die from the get go.

Romero always uses his zombie movies as a vehicle to prod at the social issues of the time. With Night of the Living Dead he touched on the idea of racism and teen rebellion of the 1960′s; in Dawn of the Dead he put on display the rampant consumerism of the 70′s. In this one we look at macho fascism and the idea of different ways people deal with a changing world. I know it’s not hard to pick which of the soldiers or scientists are the macho “with us or against us” type. The majority of the film is set underground so it has a real claustrophobic feel. Add that to the idea that they could be the last survivors on earth and the tension between the characters can be scarier then the flood of undead lapping against their metaphorical Noah’s ark. Also if you want to dig a little deeper into the film’s history you’ll find that Romero’s original script was going to be a bigger, more epic film but due to budgetary issues with the studio he was forced to rewrite it as a smaller more contained film. So maybe taking that into consideration you could see that the scientists represent himself and his creative team, while the military dicks are the studios keeping him down. What do you think? A bit of a stretch but you never know.

Romero’s three dead movies are considered a trilogy even though twenty years later he started it up again with Land of the Dead followed by Diary of the Dead and the more recent Survival of the Dead. But it’s these original three that are loved by fans and are known as the best way to get you’re zombie goodness. Well I think that’s about all I have to say. If you’re a zombie or even just a horror fan then you should have already seen this. But if you’re like me and are dragging your feet a bit, give it a look. It’s definitely a classic example of how to make a good zombie movie.

See you next time

Rowan