Day of The Dead Deep Dark Thoughts
I have to say that I pretty much like any and all zombie movies. Thereee are a few exceptions (“Zombie Army, “Zombie 4: A Virgin Among the Living, Zombie Holocaust (Not Dr. Butcher M.D., but rather a W.A.V.E production), etc). George A. Romero, the “king of the zombies”, has thus brought me a lot of viewing pleasure. Here in this article, we will introduce the details of Day of the Dead Full Movie.
The third installment in George Romero’s Dead Trilogy Day of the Dead may be the weakest of the series, but still is one of my favorite zombie movies. Maybe my expectations were set too high because I had the opportunity to see Dawn of the Dead before viewing “Day”. I guess my expectations were based on “Dawn’s” effectiveness and a letdown was to be expected. Over several recent viewings of this movie, my opinions have dramatically changed. I now look at “Day” with a lot more respect, but still, hold to the first statement of this paragraph.
The biggest travesty is that after being able to read George’s original script (see below) and seeing his vision. “Day of the Dead” could have been the greatest zombie movie ever made. A true “Zombie Epic”. But what appeared on the silver screen was a mere shell of George’s story. I thus hold Hollywood in contempt for bringing the zombie mythology to a screeching halt. Romero’s vision would have to take the zombie movie to a whole new level.
Sure we have Return of the Living Dead and Night of the Living Dead 90, but not until Cemetery Man did we see any real progression of the zombie storyline. I would have much rather seen “Day” in its original manifestation than having to pray that Romero makes the fourth movie. But since this now a moot question, let just hope that George can make the fourth movie the movie he wants to make.
One thing in this film that makes it better than both Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead was the zombies. “Dr. Tongue” and “Bub” were two great zombie designs by Tom Savini and his crew. Unfortunately, the dark environment (being underground) masked the tremendous job Tom and his team did.
One thing I didn’t like about this film was the lack of information on what the scientist was trying to accomplish. Are we lead to believe that they were working on a cure, trying to see how best to destroy the zombies, or finally how to domesticate them? I really don’t think this ever fully discussed and maybe that was the confusion that Romero was trying to inject into the story, that “no one” really knew what was going on.
(Read the script below and get a better understanding of what Romero wanted the reason to be for these experiments.)
Again, as always, if you have anything you can add to help improve this page or if you have any comments, criticisms, and suggestions, please e-mail me.
The Day of the Dead Story
“The darkest day of horror the world has ever known!!!
One of the last remnants of society, hidden away deep underground in a secure bunker…. in search of what???? A cure for this epidemic, a defense against the dead, or something else?? This ragtag group is made up of scientist and soldier, a pairing that even in peacetime has a hard time getting along, let alone in a state of war. As with the prior two installments in George A. Romero’s “Living Dead” series, the greatest obstacle to survival is the struggle between the living.
Tension raises as Captain Rhodes (Joseph Pilato), a maniacal bloodthirsty leader, assumes control of the operation. He wants to bring an end to Dr. Logan’s (Robert Liberty) experiments, kill all the zombies, and get the hell out of there. Sarah (Lori Cardille), our heroine, is finally able to convince Rhodes that they need more time to complete their work. Being the good little soldier he is…he can never turn away from an opportunity to make everyone else’s life a living hell. Rhodes suspicion escalates when he finds Dr. Logan trying to domesticate a zombie he calls “Bub” (What are going to do teach em’ tricks?). Logan realizes in his sick little mind that “they are us” and thus hold on to certain memories of their previous human existence. By tapping these memories, we can bring them under our control. Really….. can’t we all just get along?????
Later Rhodes finds out that Logan has been using his dead comrades in his experiment (as food), and decides to pull-out with what’s left of his squad. This not before he kills the doctor and his assistant and sends our heroes to their probable deaths. But it seems there’s a little special treat awaiting Rhodes and his boys. It’s payback time. Some uninvited guests have shown up and “Bub” is serving up intestines appetizers.
As always the struggle for power brings the usual death and destruction down upon these characters. Savini and his crew did a tremendous job in assembling the legions of zombies for this film (probably the best of the three films). Romero’s ending succeeds and fails on certain levels. In one way, Savini’s destruction of Rhode’s crew produced some outstanding blood and gore, but the happy Hollywood ending left me feeling a little empty. Go for this hat trick of zombies movies and watch all three over and over again.
Day of the Dead Frightful Facts
- Real pig intestines were used for the scene where Rhodes gets ripped apart in the hallway. Unfortunately, someone had left the guts out of the freezer over the weekend, and after the scene was shot the cast and crew ran away gagging.
- The zombies all received the following for their time and effort: a cool hat that said “I was a zombie in Day of the Dead”, an autograph copy (by George) of “The Dead Walk” newspaper featured in the opening, and one dollar.
- Joe Pilato also appeared in “Dawn“. He played an officer at the police docks.
- The film was shot in a limestone mine in near Pittsburgh, Pa.
- This the first of Romero’s “Living Dead” movies that had any shooting done outside of the state of Pennsylvania. The opening sequence was shot in Florida.
- Romero originally was budgeted $7 million for his zombie epic, but he had to deliver an R-rated feature. He knew his original script would never be an R-rated and wanted to produce an un-rated version to preserve the horror aspects of the previous films. He was forced to cut the budget down to $3.5 million.
- See Romero’s original vision. View the original script on the great Homepage of the Dead website, but don’t forget to come back.
- Elite Entertainment has released a laserdisc of Day of the Dead. It includes the film in the widescreen, trailer, a featurette on the “making of…” and a video shot by Greg Nicotero (special effects guru) behind scenes. I have to say that I was a little disappointed because there was no running commentary from Romero.
Day of the Dead Extras
Visit the King of Splatter, Tom Savini‘s official webpage.
Day of the Dead Merchandise
You can buy the Special Edition DVD (not 30th-anniversary edition) of the original “Night of the Living Dead” at Amazon.com
You can buy the DVD of the remake of “Night of the Living Dead” at Amazon.com
You can Buy the “Dawn of the Dead Ultimate DVD Boxset at Amazon.com
You can buy the DVD of the “Day of the Dead” atAmazon.com
Day Of The Death Fanspeak
Name: Nadeem Rasool
Email: [email protected]
RE: Day of the Dead
I enjoyed Day of the Dead. First time I saw it was at Christmas, I switch all the light off, Thereee was no one at home, and when watching the opening, where the hands come out of the wall, that scared me!! This film scared me then Dawn did. Both Films are good. I enjoyed the darkness of it and the gore, The gore was brilliant, truly life like. The story was good as well, training zombies, That issue has not been explored before. Alot of people say that this the weakest one, I say that this film was BRILLIANT….I REALLY ENJOYED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nadeem Rasool
Name: Ben
Email: [email protected]
RE: Day Of The Dead
I know I will receive a lot of controversy on this but after a thorough investigation I find the day of the dead to be better than Dawn Of the Dead. The film has all the points of the others before it (Zombie Carnage, Human Conflict and all the rest of the things Romero has kept in tradition to make the best Zombie movies, But the day of the dead had all this and pulled it off more effectively. Gore and special fx were handled much better instead of simpling painting the Zombies blue and The taming of Bub was excellently handled. I liked Dawn very much but I just found this one to be most convincing, the gore even sickened me even though I have long been desensitized, but this still struck a disturbing note with me. also like the other films I actually felt the pain of the survivors. Email me if u have any comments
Ben
Name: Luis Manuel
Email: [email protected]
RE: day of the dead
I think Day of the dead is one of the better zombie movies ever made. Its influence has been greatly underrated because of constant comparison with the previous dead films. Although it’s known that some changes had to be made, the final result is quite disturbing. The bunker atmosphere was so chilling and decadent I even thought prisons were not so grim after all. Savinipushed himself to the limits with the truly horrifying make-up and plenty of gore galore. And Bub was such a sympathetic character I almost shed a tear when I saw his amazement at classical music. The scene where he stands in the hallway, all dressed in black and pointing the gun at his enemy, is a true one of horror’s best. They don’t make zombie movies like this anymore.
Luis
Name: Not Joe
Email: [email protected]
RE: Day of the Dead
The main problem with Day of the Dead was both the beginning, and the end. As everyone knows it begins with the main characters of this film in a helicopter and ends in the same way. That was a mistake. The ending was so reminiscent of Dawn of the Dead, that day might as well not have existed at all. The beginning would have worked well as a nice segue between the two films, had it ended differently. Again it gave you the impression that absolutely nothing was gained or lost in this film. that’s why Day is the weakest dead film.
Not Joe
