'Day of the Dead' (1985)

I'm not going to lie... I spent much of yesterday either asleep, trying to fix my phone or getting over having my lockdown beard trimmed into something a little more manageable. I got a little reading done but nowhere near enough to be able to post about it today (and I totally forgot about my emergency 'already read' book pile...) so... The clue is in the title of this post ;o)

Yep, I went for it and finished my 'Romero Rewatch' way ahead of time. If only I could be as enthusiastic about everything else, that is sat unfinished right now, but here we are. It's been a few years since I've watched these movies so it has been great fun getting reacquainted. Watching them in chronological order, as Danel Kraus did for his work on 'The Living Dead', also helped me get my head round Romero's decision to go for a 'soft reboot' approach for 'Diary of the Dead' (which then led into 'Survival of the Dead'). As far as getting the 'whole picture' goes, it makes a lot more sense watching the films in this order, especially after reading 'The Living Dead' (which helps paint an even bigger picture, more about that in my review). I would totally recommend this viewing order; next time I watch the films, that's the order I'll be watching them in.

Anyway... It's now five years since the dead first walked. Lets see how humanity is faring, shall we?

As the world is overrun by zombies, a small group of scientists and military personnel dwelling in an underground bunker in Florida must determine whether they should educate, eliminate or escape the undead horde.

'Day of the Dead' is probably my favourite, of all Romero's zombie films, as it is so unrelentingly bleak. It's just over an hour and a half of 'what's the point, we're all going to die anyway' and I love that sense of honesty. I mean, look at it. The dead outnumber the living 400,000 to 1 and the scientists and soldiers are stuck in an underground bunker, relying on a helicopter as their only means of escape (even though it won't carry them all and they don't dare refuel it as it stirs the zombies up). The soldiers are stuck following orders that increasingly make no sense seeing as the scientists don't have the equipment (or enough zombies to experiment on) to be able to deliver the aims of the mission. The soldiers are going stir crazy while Dr Logan is running increasingly macabre experiments (on dead soldiers) in order to prove that the zombies can be trained and domesticated. He has tamed precisely one zombie, more on him later.

That's a lot of tension going on there and the beauty is that not only does it not need anything to set it off (certain characters break down all by themselves) but it all feeds back into Romero's long running theme that we don't need the zombies to kill us, we're able to do that all by ourselves. We started off with this in 'Night of the Living Dead' and we sign off with it here.

The other thing that I love about this film is that there is so little to like about any of the characters whose reactions to the zombie apocalypse range from apathy (John and McDermott) to psychosis (Dr. Logan) and exerting control (Rhodes). Everyone is so busy trying to manage themselves that none of them are able to bring anything to the overriding question of how to deal with the zombies. Even Sarah can only repeat the same experiments over and over again, nothing moves forward and that hastens the end.

What's even better than that though is that we arrive at a situation where the most 'pure' and likeable character is the zombie Bub, Logan's only success. Bub moves through this fracturing world with the innocence of a child, eager to please and learning to interact with a world that doesn't really exist any more (nice work there Logan...) You really feel Bub's joy when he hears music for the first time (as a zombie) and he becomes the character that you root for. I wanted Sarah, John and McDermott to get out but only because they're living humans and you kind of automatically side with them. I wanted Bub to actually get out of the bunker and find his way in the world. Because that's Romero's real message here; the only ones who will make it through are the zombies themselves, they accept the new status quo in a way that regular humans will never be able to (which will kill them every time).

This message is borne out in the wave of 'Rhodes inspired' death that is taken over by the zombies and becomes the 'darkest day of horror the world has ever known'. Seriously, the fear of the soldiers (as they are overtaken by zombies) is palpable and the gore on display made my stomach churn, just a little bit. It's a great way to end an incredibly bleak film... or is it? Our three heroes make it out but Romero makes it clear that they're only putting off the inevitable. Make the most of the sunshine while you can...

And that's it, you can read my other 'Romero Zombie Posts' over Here.