Post by AOD on May 17, 2002 8:07:48 GMT -5
DAY OF THE DEAD(1985)
As if you needed to be told "Day of the dead” was the 3rd and until recently, thought to be the last entry the living dead series. So a bit of back ground for the people who have no business being here. The series kicked off in legendary fashion with the timeless Night of the living dead. A few years later we were treated by the gods to “Dawn of the dead”, one of the true giants of horror and perhaps the best overall zombie movie of all time (I still like night better thought). It took until 1985 for Ole George to get the studio to grant him the semblance of a budget to do "Day of the Dead". Now, while Day can boast the improved and best looking zombies of the series, mostly thanks to an increase special effects allowance, and the masterful work of the man himself Tom Savini in his quest to bring us the most realistic and graphic living dead ever put on a triple spool. It is to say the least, the most unloved and unsuccessful of the series.
So where does the blame lie, for sure a majority of it lies with the studio and their limited budget. Had George been able to make the movie he wanted (see original script), we would have gotten the biggest and greatest zombie epic the horror world had ever seen. But alas no what we got was a poorly acted, extremely thinly plotted abortion of a master plan. So some of the blame surely lies with the writing team. Even with the budget restrictions IM sure they could have cut out the super annoying characters and long drawn out dialogue scenes that really don’t add to the movie but rather take away what little atmosphere had been built up to these points.
So lets take a look at what plot there is shall we. In “night”, the plot shows a group of unlucky peeps trapped in a isolated farm house at the beginning of an unexplained zombie invasion. Yes the first movie as my learned colleague Luke pointed out recently, wasn’t about the zombies, but rather the interaction and play between the characters. Something I think Day tried to but failed in recapturing.
“Dawn” picked up a few years down the line with our stars fleeing from the last resemblance of civilization after all attempts to control or stop the living dead epidemic failed at the first hurdle. This time the movie looked towards action for the main part and character interaction secondly. This was done very well but still had all the classic Romero undertones such as consumerism, class issues and the duality of man.
“Day”, once again picks up another couple of years after the last outing. We find ourselves in a not to distant future, practically all of the human race has been converted into the undead, and estimates put the ration of undead to the living at almost 400,000 to 1. even against these incredible odds we find 12 survivors together in an underground bunker somewhere in Florida. They have congregated there to conduct extensive research into the dead in a last vain attempt to salvage the planet. This bunker also is a storage for the great accomplishments of the human race. Which oddly enough is made up of old movies and tax records. Maybe another attempt by George to dig away at mans love of self entertainment and gain of wealth??
The movie starts off strong, we are treated to a very impressive opening sequence involving a helicopter touching down in a fully abandoned metropolitan city. This is a search and rescue mission for any last remaining survivors of the plague. The desolate street almost at once begin to fill with a dull, barely audible hum, comprised of moans, grunts and shreaks as literally thousands of hungry zombies, sensing the arrival of the all you can eat. At the sight of this we meet our first character. . Scientist Sarah (Lori Cardille), seeing that there is no real way anyone could have survived in the city during all this time instructs her pilot John (Terry Alexander) that its time to return to base.
As if you needed to be told "Day of the dead” was the 3rd and until recently, thought to be the last entry the living dead series. So a bit of back ground for the people who have no business being here. The series kicked off in legendary fashion with the timeless Night of the living dead. A few years later we were treated by the gods to “Dawn of the dead”, one of the true giants of horror and perhaps the best overall zombie movie of all time (I still like night better thought). It took until 1985 for Ole George to get the studio to grant him the semblance of a budget to do "Day of the Dead". Now, while Day can boast the improved and best looking zombies of the series, mostly thanks to an increase special effects allowance, and the masterful work of the man himself Tom Savini in his quest to bring us the most realistic and graphic living dead ever put on a triple spool. It is to say the least, the most unloved and unsuccessful of the series.
So where does the blame lie, for sure a majority of it lies with the studio and their limited budget. Had George been able to make the movie he wanted (see original script), we would have gotten the biggest and greatest zombie epic the horror world had ever seen. But alas no what we got was a poorly acted, extremely thinly plotted abortion of a master plan. So some of the blame surely lies with the writing team. Even with the budget restrictions IM sure they could have cut out the super annoying characters and long drawn out dialogue scenes that really don’t add to the movie but rather take away what little atmosphere had been built up to these points.
So lets take a look at what plot there is shall we. In “night”, the plot shows a group of unlucky peeps trapped in a isolated farm house at the beginning of an unexplained zombie invasion. Yes the first movie as my learned colleague Luke pointed out recently, wasn’t about the zombies, but rather the interaction and play between the characters. Something I think Day tried to but failed in recapturing.
“Dawn” picked up a few years down the line with our stars fleeing from the last resemblance of civilization after all attempts to control or stop the living dead epidemic failed at the first hurdle. This time the movie looked towards action for the main part and character interaction secondly. This was done very well but still had all the classic Romero undertones such as consumerism, class issues and the duality of man.
“Day”, once again picks up another couple of years after the last outing. We find ourselves in a not to distant future, practically all of the human race has been converted into the undead, and estimates put the ration of undead to the living at almost 400,000 to 1. even against these incredible odds we find 12 survivors together in an underground bunker somewhere in Florida. They have congregated there to conduct extensive research into the dead in a last vain attempt to salvage the planet. This bunker also is a storage for the great accomplishments of the human race. Which oddly enough is made up of old movies and tax records. Maybe another attempt by George to dig away at mans love of self entertainment and gain of wealth??
The movie starts off strong, we are treated to a very impressive opening sequence involving a helicopter touching down in a fully abandoned metropolitan city. This is a search and rescue mission for any last remaining survivors of the plague. The desolate street almost at once begin to fill with a dull, barely audible hum, comprised of moans, grunts and shreaks as literally thousands of hungry zombies, sensing the arrival of the all you can eat. At the sight of this we meet our first character. . Scientist Sarah (Lori Cardille), seeing that there is no real way anyone could have survived in the city during all this time instructs her pilot John (Terry Alexander) that its time to return to base.
