Contains spoilers.
The 60's saw George A. Romero bring us Night of the Living Dead, the low budget breakthrough undead experience; oozing
with vision and ideas, the granddaddy of the genre was very much a film of its
time. Romero and Russo, whether intentionally or not, managed to capture and
entwine all the prevalent societal prejudices and fears in a timeless horror
narrative. Never forcing cold war politics or domestic racism in any obvious
way they produced a film that works whether you acknowledge its subversion or
not.
The 70's saw Romero return with arguably
the daddy of the zombie genre, Dawn of the Dead is the seminal apocalyptic
masterpiece; a character survival story of small group doing all they can to
stay alive against an abundant endless zombie horde. On the surface an action
horror comedy Dawn of the Dead captures the same fears of the 1970's as Night of the Living Dead did of the 60's. With sweeping automation and a political
agenda pushing rampant mindless consumerism, Dawn of the Dead took a satirical
swipe at consumerism and yet does so with such subtlety the message could
easily be lost under the weight of its strong narrative.
So to Day of the Dead, Romero's third
instalment and this time a journey to the 1980's. In an era of Reagan and
Thatcher, attention on military might and police and state control, it's no
surprise to see the main focus of the film a power struggle between a group of
scientists trying to understand and ultimately control the zombie virus and a
military force, now confused and depleted trying to understand and control the
scientists.
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Scientists Sarah (Lori Cardille) the only
female survivor and Dr. Ted Fisher (John Amplas) under the guidance of senior
eccentric Dr. Matthew Logan (Richard Liberty) are struggling with dwindling
resources to provide tangible answers to the increasingly overbearing and
hostile Captain Rhodes (Joseph Pilato) who's starting to question the
sacrifices he and his team are making to keep the operation going.
With increasingly questionable methods and
behaviour Logan, known as Frankenstein by the military, has moved from
the search for a cure, sought by his colleagues, to a belief that the answer is
to accept and manage their condition. This allows Romero to play with the
zombie physiology and psychology in more depth than before. With special
effects much closer to what these days we expect to see, Logan's lab and
experimentation is a horrific abattoir of blood, intestines and severed heads
with exposed organs and brains wired up at every turn.
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It's all fascinating stuff and is certainly
something new to watch especially as Bub does indeed not only respond
positively to the mad doctor, but later shows signs of reconnecting with his
emotional self, clearly demonstrating sorrow and sadness and even a spark of vengeance.
Ultimately though, and as in all good zombies films, things don't turn out
exactly as hoped, the group splinters and disintegrates, chaos erupts, a lot
of blood is spilled and Bub doesn't get to make a grand reintroduction back into
civilised society.
Gone are the non-descript, signature blue and grey
zombies of the first couple of films and perhaps parodying the militaries
doctrine of desensitising soldiers to make them follow orders and work as a
unit, the zombies of Day of the Dead show far more individualistic traits than
before, with clowns, footballers, dancers, colour and outfits at every turn.
Even the inclusion of Bub and the signs that he is possibly capable of
redemption supports Romero's 80's subtext of retaining individual identity in the face of becoming merely a face in the crowd (horde).
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Day of the Dead is widely regarded as the
weakest of the three Dead films and this is probably accurate. The characters
are a little one dimensional and the narrative predictable, but it still offers
a good tight zombie cinematic experience full of wit and intelligence. Romero's
zombies still show why they're the benchmark 25 years on, and with improved
special effect techniques, inside and out, Day of the Dead probably stands out as the pinnacle his legacy. The
action and pacing is faultless and whilst I have I no real complaints, to me, it just
never quite reaches the heights of his previous efforts, and if anything the storty is perhaps all a little safe and even dare I say occasionally mundane. A Romero zombie classic nonetheless, 8/10.
Steven@WTD.
"Day of the Dead" is Romero's supreme masterwork, if ever a film deserved a 9/10 rating its this one ! ! !.
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