Lord Have Mercy!
I have just finished washing out my ears after suffering through Day of the Dead (1985), the third in George A. Romero’s zombie trilogy. This is one of only a scant few movies I have ever been tempted to turn off after the first fifteen minutes. The language in it is atrocious! Who talks like that?
Now I admit there have been occasions when I have filled the air with some salty language, especially when I have inadvertently burned some Brew or some green beans on the stove, but those instances are few and far between. I don’t cuss like a sailor, the people I know don’t cuss like that, and it is offensive to this old woman’s ears when that is all that comes out of someone’s mouth.
For whatever reason, the producers of this movie decided to give a bunch of military ruffians a very limited vocabulary consisting primarily of the “F” word and the “A-hole” word in dealing with the non-military folk they are forced to oversee. They exhibit little humanity and their language is exhausting and a real turnoff.
In Day of the Dead, a small group of military personnel, led by Joe Pilato as Cpt. Rhodes, and a small group of researchers are trapped together in an underground storage facility while the zombies pose an ongoing threat. The researchers are a motley group, led by Dr. Sarah Bowman (Lori Cardille) who does an admirable job and who seems to be the only one with any real leadership sense. This naturally makes her a foil to the sadistic Cpt. Rhodes. Also present is a wacko scientist who is conducting experiments on zombie bodies and a captured zombie prisoner to try and determine what makes them tick, in hopes of finding a way to train them and co-exist.
I have a problem with zombie movies in general, and Day of the Dead is no different. In each, there seems to be two dangers: the zombies, and degenerate human beings who, for whatever reason, seem determined to bring as much grief as they can to their fellow human beings who are just trying to survive. As is usually the case, the two groups become at odds with each other, and here, the soldiers resort to more and more intimidation of the researchers. If you know anything about zombie movies you know what is eventually going to happen.
The thing that can always be expected is that the meaner the chief antagonist is, the worse his demise will be. This is good and sad in a way because at the end of the movie, the viewer is always cheering for the zombies as they attack the bad humans, and the more gruesome their deaths, the better. Humanity can be lost in the face of extreme adversity.
Day of the Dead drags on with a battle of wills between the soldiers and civilians, and it is only when one of the bullied good guys gets attacked by a zombie and survives, losing an arm through amputation, that he sacrifices himself so that the zombies can enter the underground facility and avenge him. It is payback time as the zombies begin their onslaught. This is where the movie finally gets good in terms of vengeance served and over-the-top movie SFX makeup effects.
The soldiers meet their doom at the hands of the zombies in most satisfying fashion. Two stand-out effects: one soldier gets his neck pulled open by several zombies and his head is pulled off; the other, featuring the obnoxious Cpt. Rhodes, has his stomach clawed open by many zombies and he is pulled apart, his lower half then dragged away. He got what he deserved! Dinner is served with many scenes showing the zombies feasting on various body parts and internal organs.
Zombie movies aren’t for everyone. They are gross and they have to be viewed with a certain macabre sense of humor. I can appreciate them for the neat zombie makeup and the effects, and wondering how they pulled off so many realistic scenes. But the fake blood, gore and intestines – and overacting – get comical after a while.
So, here are the radio spots for Day of the Dead. Listening to the spots and then seeing the movie proves to be a let down of sorts. The spots are good but they imply that this is the day that the other two movies have led up to, sounding like it will be an all-out assault on humanity on a grand scale. Not so. Only a handful of people are involved and the zombies are limited to trying to break through an above-ground perimeter fence. Dozens infiltrate the lower storage facility tunnels, but it is far from an all out invasion. It is too localized. But, it is hype at its best.
Listen…or they will get you!
