Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead
Directed by:
George A. RomeroScreenplay:
George A. RomeroCinematography:
Michael GornickComposer:
John HarrisonCast:
Lori Cardille, Joseph Pilato, Terry Alexander, Jarlath Conroy, Sherman Howard, Gary Howard Klar, John Amplas, Donald Farmer, J.R. Bookwalter (more)Plots(1)
The concluding part of George A. Romero's cult horror trilogy opens with the undead roaming the planet freely. The living have been forced underground, where they make their base in a hidden missile depot, helping with the experiments of scientist Doctor Logan (Richard Liberty), who hopes to domesticate the zombies. However, the military faction of the human survivors favour a more direct approach, and with food stocks becoming ever more depleted, they decide to take action. What folllows is the final showdown between the forces of the living and the armies of the dead. (Arrow Films)
(more)Reviews (3)
We spend eighty minutes watching a group of scientists and a group of soldiers in an underground bunker argue over who is in charge and whether it makes sense to conduct scientific research into the zombies that inhabit the surface. B-movie actors, B-movie dialogue. Actually, it’s not dialogue, but rather screaming. Constant screaming. The level of brutality is good, but the zombies themselves fall short of those created by Lucio Fulci. And after those eighty minutes of conversational misery comes a meagre reward. There is only one positive thing in Day of the Dead, namely the acting performance of the man hiding behind the mask of the captured zombie. If everyone had done their job with as much passion as he did, this film would have turned out better.
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If you are waiting for some real carnage, zombie-filled shots and wholesome splatter moments, skip the first hour, which only features long dialogues where you'll learn that a group soldiers and scientists hidden in an underground base are getting on each other's nerves. Each group has a different take on how to proceed against the zombies and so they talk and talk and the minutes tick by and by. And just when it looks like something might be happening, one of the scientists takes the floor and has a somewhat long pseudo-philosophical dialogue with his colleague. This makes it look like a terrible borefest, but it isn’t. Thanks to the good actors (I mean "good", but after a few of D'Amato's gems I find every other actors good) it's bearable. The proper fun starts twenty minutes before the end with very good splatter scenes, ending with a hearty zombie feast. All this plus the likeable actors gives me a weak four stars. And one more thing. If you believe zombies can't fall in love with humans or even shoot a gun, Romero will disabuse you of the idea.
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The most overrated of the renowned horror directors of the 20th century failed to convince me one more time, even with this film. In addition to the zombies, Romero always needs to squeeze some message or social criticism into each of his films, but I don’t like the way he does it. Basically, most of the runtime is boring, the unlikeable characters (averagely acted) have one boring dialogue after another, the zombies play second fiddle and I’m falling asleep. On the other hand, I have to admit that when things finally get going in the last 25 minutes, it’s really nice, but the preceding 75 minutes are a shame. I don’t think it’s worth more than an average rating, even though I liked Day a lot more than Dawn.
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