Day of the Dead

Day of the Dead title

Tag Line : First there was Night of the Living Dead, then Zombies-Dawn of the Dead.
Now, the darkest day of horror the world has ever known.

Following on several years after the events of "Dawn...", the third in George Romero's "Living Dead" series is set in an underground army bunker, where a small group of scientists are still working on ways to try and finally defeat the living dead, which have now taken over the world.

Things are looking extremely grim for these last few survivors as numerous reconnaissance missions have found no other humans, just hoards more zombies still hunting for human flesh. Meanwhile their supplies are running low, food, medical equipment and ammunition are almost depleted and both the scientific and military teams are constantly at each others throats, whilst every day more and more zombies amass outside their base.

To make matters worse, the military officer in charge, Captain Rhodes (Joseph Pilato), starts threatening the science team that he and his troops will abandon the base and leave them at the mercy of the undead if they don't come up with some results and soon.

Things appear to be looking up as Dr Logan (Richard Liberty), who's affectionately nicknamed Frankenstein by the others, believes he has a bizarre solution to the problem. But when it's discovered what Logan has been feeding to his pet zombie Bub, Rhodes prepares to carry out his earlier threat on Sarah (Lori Cardille) and the other scientists. Except that the zombies finally manage to break into the complex and mayhem erupts within.

If you love gore, you'll love this film, as the subsequent battle that ensues contain some of THE most goriest moments in the whole series, as brains are splattered up walls and soldiers are pulled to bits during the films final scenes.

Whilst perhaps not the greatest of Romero's Living Dead movies, it is certainly the goriest and paints the blackest picture of what the outside world could be like. Whilst the film didn't quite achieve the same status of becoming a classic horror pic, like Romero's previous "Living Dead" films, this is still a really great movie that features plenty of gore and lots of action and is a must see for all zombie fans.

Overall marks : 7/10

Other Information.

The film was not a complete success at the box office and faired quite poorly first time round, but became quite a hit when later released on tape. Whilst not a complete critical success, it's still regarded as something of a contemporary classic by many horror fans.
The part of Dr Fisher was played by John Amplas, who had previously starred in the title role of Romero's "Martin (the vampire)". He had also worked on, and made a cameo appearance in, Dawn of the Dead.
Joseph Pilato who plays Captain Rhodes, had also appeared in Dawn, as one of the cops at the police dock and more recently he also made a brief appearance in the film "Wishmaster", playing the part of the drunken dockworker who inadvertently smashes an old statue and releases the evil Djinn.
George A. Romero makes a barely visible cameo as a zombie pushing a cart in the foreground, during the final zombie feast. He is only seen from the waist down and can be identified by his trademark plaid scarf which is wrapped around his waist.
The special cosmetic effects were once again provided by gore maestro Tom Savini, who had previously worked on Dawn of the Dead. Apparently, 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 book that Dr Logan gives Bub the zombie to play with is the Steven King novel "Salem's Lot".
The version that originally played UK cinema's in 1987 had been cut by approximately 5 minutes by the distributors prior to its submission to the BBFC, who then cut an additional 34 seconds of it. This edited version was also issued for its original video release, although this was later replaced by the uncut version which was submitted and passed by the BBFC in the early 90's. This version is currently available on the "4-Front/Polygram" label.