THURSDAY NIGHT HORROR! - "Day of the Dead" (1985)

In 1968, writer and director George A. Romero made an ultra independent film called “Night of the Living Dead” and invented the modern day zombie horror film. Ten years later, Romero returned to the genre with the second film called “Dawn of the Dead”. The movie was an incredible upgrade over the original and one of the rare horror films beloved by mainstream film critics at the time.

After the success of “Dawn”, Romero actually began work on a third film soon after, but he shelved the project for a few years in order to work on other projects. Eventually, he returned to his ideas for a third “Dead” movie that would be titled “Day of the Dead”.

Initially, his idea was a sprawling film showing how the zombies had completely taken over the world with only a few cities of humans still existing. However, the film was deemed too expensive to make unless Romero promised to make a movie that could attain an R rating.

Bub begins to remember in 'Day of the Dead'!

Romero didn’t want to give up being able to release the film unrated, so he agreed to a smaller budget with full creative control on the condition that he retool the script to match the budget. This revision had Romero moving the action into an underground bunker where scientists are trying to research the zombie outbreak and potentially find a cure.

Also with the scientists is a ragtag team of military personnel that are on edge and tired of trying to capture zombies for the scientists. Of the cast, the two major figures that can be found clashing against one another include Lori Cardille as Dr. Sarah Bowman and Joseph Pilato as Captain Henry Rhodes.

Sarah is a sane and rational scientist who can see how the zombie apocalypse has changed everyone. Even she is affected as she is plagued by nightmares of the zombies, an example of which is shown during the movie’s iconic opening sequence.

She may also be a little naive about humanity’s hopeful future as she still believes a cure to the infection may be found. Her naivety is pointed out to her by Terry Alexander’s “Flyboy”, a Jamaican helicopter pilot that also proves to be one of the best supporting characters alongside his alcoholic partner, Jarlath Conroy’s Bill McDermott.

Sarah is plagued by nightmares in 'Day of the Dead'!

Pilato’s Henry, on the other hand, is a completely unhinged commander who is more of a threat to Sarah and the other protagonists than the zombies are. He’s tired of waiting in the bunker and he’s tired of losing his men to the zombies. This is understandable, but his psychotic nature makes him anything but a sympathetic character.

The movie does not make any excuses for its more nihilistic approach to the story. “Dawn of the Dead” ended with at least a shred of hope for humanity when the characters escaped at the end. Here, though, the movie embraces that the zombie apocalypse has arrived and humanity is more than likely fucked beyond repair.

It does introduce interesting concepts to the zombie mythos, though. The biggest of which is that zombies may be able to recover some of their former identities. This is shown most prominently with Bub, played to perfection by Sherman Howard. Bub is a zombie that actually manages to recover some of his more human behaviors that plays an important part later in the movie.

The movie had a lukewarm reception from both the critics and audiences at the time of its initial release. Thankfully, over time, the movie has found its following and has been reevaluated by critics. In fact, Romero himself would go on to claim that this was his personal favorite among the films he made in the “Dead” series.

For me, I think I would say that while I like “Dawn” more, “Day of the Dead” holds a special place in my heart. Maybe it’s the darker tone. Perhaps it’s the amazing special-effects from effects wizard Tom Savini and his team that included a young Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger, two men who would become known later for their work on “The Walking Dead”. It may even be that it’s due to the fact that I discovered this movie in high school, a prime time for any zombie fans to discover their first zombie movies.

No matter the reason, all I can say is that I love “Day of the Dead” and I’m glad to see that it definitely discovered its own cult following like Romero’s previous films did. The movie is a prime example of just how great a zombie film can be with fantastic characters, a dark story, and fantastic special-effects!