DAY OF THE DEAD: 1985: +-: Horror: No one can deny that George A Romero created the zombie genre. Since today was the season premier of The Walking Dead, I felt it was appropriate to review another Romero movie, Day of the Dead.
The Walking Dead? I never heard of it says the Romero zombie...
It's interesting to note that if you were one of the lucky individuals to buy the 1st comic of The Walking Dead, and hold onto it until now, you would be about $2,000 dollars richer. It is currently THE comic to own, aside from the 1st Action Comic of course. Its impressive increase in value is due to the success of the AMC series. Feel free to bid on it http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/221437873160?lpid=82 !!
Currently this copy of The Walking Dead is worth about 2,500.
This is all due to the work of Romero. I already reviewed Night of the Living Dead, and it's worth noting that Dawn of the Living Dead was also a great movie, but the most debated and controversial of the trio is Day of the Living Dead. The primary reasons are that critics think the acting was inconsistent and that Romero was trying to inject social commentary by depicting the struggle between the military and science in society.
Day of the Dead dealt with more than just zombies.
I will admit that at times I wondered where Romero was going with the movie, because there were periods of lack luster dialogue. The one thing that is on display is the makeup of the zombies. To this day, I haven't seen better zombies in anything, The Walking Dead included. They looked incredibly disgusting and utterly revolting and I loved every minute of it.
The zombies looked incredible in Day of the Dead.
Some of the reasons why this movie was different than the others, was that Tom Sivini displayed zombies in different scenarios other than just walking aimlessly with their arms stretched out.
Sivini applying makeup and final touches to Bub.
The scene when the female lead Lori Cardille goes into the main scientist's lab was a virtual tour de force of amazing makeup, special effects, and modelling.
Gore, Gore, and more Gore! The scene in the lab was impressive.
One zombie only had his brain connected to his spine. Another had it's guts spilling out while another unruly zombie had to be drilled in the head to avoid escaping. It was amazing and considering this movie was made in 1985, it speaks volumes. This is Sivini's masterpiece for sure!
Does this shot look familiar? It's used over and over in The Walking Dead.
The beginning scare was also noteworthy because it caught me off guard and made me jump in my chair. It was a nice touch to have the hands pop out of the wall during the nightmare sequence. The music climaxed perfectly and it was one of the memorable parts of the movie.
This was one of the better scares in the movie!
As mentioned though, the movie is probably the weakest link in the trio in terms of overall execution but it deserves a place on the list of horror fans because the makeup was just that impressive. It also attempts to give zombies a bit more depth as demonstrated by the character Bub, who begins to re-learn his human habits as part of an experiment. This part was actually one of the more unique parts of the movie. He mourns the death of the head scientist, who trains him and feeds him bits of human body parts. Who would have thought that a zombie could have feelings?
Bub catching up on some reading.
Bub mourning the loss of his buddy.
Day of the Dead attempted to break new ground with the genre and I commend Romero for that. In many ways, he deserves to have some artistic freedom to explore the boundaries of the zombie genre. It boasted some of the best makeup ever seen in a zombie movie and it's awesome to see this movie right after Night of the Living Dead. The ending was by far the least compelling ending of the other Romero movies but it sufficed. I liked when the zombies ripped apart the general because he really had it coming.
This scene was particularly gory. No CGI here!
Some say that there was a change in the budget and the screenplay had to be rewritten. That could account for the inconsistent pace of the movie. One thing is for sure, they didn't skimp on the makeup and special effects department. Fans of Tom Sivini shouldn't miss this movie: 72%
The master at work.
Frank Darabont called, he needs some ideas...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDU17qVB-dM
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