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White Zombie may have been the first movie to bring the word ‘zombie’ into the American lexicon, but it was Night of the Living Dead that firmly established zombies into American pop culture. Released in 1968 and directed by George Romero, NotLD envisioned a world suddenly beset by hordes of strange creatures (which aren’t actually referred to as zombies), once-living corpses that scour the earth with an insatiable lust for human flesh. Although Romero never made one red cent off of it (due to some shitty paperwork the film is actually in the public domain), Night of the Living Dead firmly established him as a horror movie legend, and eventually gave way to almost half a dozen sequels. The sequel, Dawn of the Dead, is also considered a classic in the horror genre, as well as a satirical criticism on the then-modern concept of shopping malls and the vapidity of American consumerism in the 1980s. Romero’s later additions to the Dead series were met with greater levels of apathy, but it seemed to me that the third movie, Day of the Dead might still hold the magic that made the first two movies great, so we might as well have a look. Plus I had never seen it before, which is kind of the point to this list.
Released in 1985, Day of the Dead focuses on Sarah, a scientist who lives and works inside an underground military base some time into the zombie apocalypse. The base and others like it were established by the U.S. government in order to house and protect scientists so that they can research a cure for the zombie epidemic. Unfortunately for Sarah and the rest of the crew, there are a few seemingly insurmountable problems cropping up: 1) Despite all the research so far, no cure is forthcoming, 2) There’s been no contact with any other base or the outside world for some time now, and 3) Rhodes, the superior officer in charge of military personnel, is becoming more and more unbalanced and dictatorial as time goes on. In fact, it seems that everyone is becoming more unstable as time drudges on, and everyone knows that when you combine emotionally volatile people and flesh-eating monsters, some crazy shit is bound to happen. It’s like conducting the Prison Experiment with killer bees, you’re lighting the powder keg with a flamethrower.
While Dawn distanced itself from the original film by placing the protagonists in a large, empty shopping mall, Day returns to the feelings of isolation and claustrophobia established in NotLD. In fact it might surpass the original in that regard; the atmosphere in Day of the Dead is almost suffocating in its intensity, with the ever present feeling of death in the air from the zombies on the outside and the gun-toting maniacs on the inside. It’s also easily the most gory Dead film up to this point, which I know gorehounds will be pleased to note. Violence comes quick and easy in this film, and most of it gruesome to boot. One scene in particular near the end of the movie, and people who have seen the movie probably know what I’m referring to, actually made me physically uncomfortable when I saw it. I’ve seen enough horror movies to have a pretty high tolerance to these things, so you know it’s a particularly dark piece of cinema when I write that. Good on ya, Mr. Romero.
Day of the Dead holds no connection to the previous Dead films aside from the aforementioned dead, so you can enjoy it either as a standalone film or as part of a series equally well. Though a critical eye would probably place it lower than its predecessors (and better regarded than the films afterwards), I think DotD is a great horror film that continues the magic Romero started in back in ‘68. A fine addition to any Halloween playlist.
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