Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

*cue catchy jingle*

Nine more days to Halloween, Halloween, Halloween.
Nine more days to Halloween - Silver Shamrocks!

Welcome Boys and Ghouls to Month of the Living Dead, my thirteen day (and then some) tribute to that most wonderful of holidays ever - Halloween! Join me, wont you, as I watch the sinister and the silly, the morbid and the macabre, the violent and gruesome in a two week bloodletting that comes to a boil on the eve of all saints.

*cue thunder and lightning effect*

So sit back, turn the lights down low and get ready for today's presentation of. . . .

DAY OF THE DEAD! Bwah-hah-hah-hah-hah!

*cue commercial break*

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back for the third act of the end of the world, in George Romero's Day of the Dead.

I, of course have the difficult position of how the hell do I review this? Do I compare this to the other two, and the high standards they set? Do I ignore the fact that we're in the final stages of the trilogy and review the film based solely on its own merits? At this point can I even separate the baggage from this film, not letting my love for the previous Romero movies color my judgment?

Ah, screw it - let's dive in and let the chips fall where they may.

We open with mankind on the verge of losing the war against the army of the dead. One last tiny pocket of humanity may be all that is left of the human race (or at least the living, breathing kind). No one responds to the radio, no one is found alive in the cities.

An abandoned missile silo in Florida is the setting for Our Humans Under Siege this time, where a team of scientists race against time to unravel the "dead problem". Not that the countdown clock are the legions of FLESH EATING GHOULS! at the gates, but the rapidly deteriorating situation with the other inhabitants of the base: the military, under the command of Captain Rhodes, a man whom the crisis has brought out all the worst possible qualities of a bargain basement dictator - bluster, authoritarianism, intolerance anti-intellectual paranoia, and the occasional streak of sadism.

The scientific team consists pretty much Doctor Logan and Sarah, the protagonist of the film. The pair are trying to reverse this whole living dead thing - or at least contain it. Logan, in typical mad scientist fashion, blindly pursues his undead research, slowly losing his mind as well as his focus on what the problem is in the first place - to the annoyance of Rhodes and his men. Meanwhile Sarah tries to star afloat while caught in the power play between the two men, doing her best to cover Logan's ass while finding herself less able to justify Logan's rather extreme methods and increasingly nebulous goals.

Even worse - Sarah and Miguel, one the solders under Rhodes, are in a relationship of sorts, and it's becoming a flashpoint - in a closed community under high stress, things can go a little wrong when you have exactly one female in the group.

There's also a third group in this rapidly collapsing macrocosm - Bill the electrician, who hangs around in the salt mines adjoining the base drinking himself into a stupor, and John the helicopter pilot. As the rest of the community goes to hell turning on themselves, these two ride things out in relative normality and safety - both sporting irreplaceable skill sets.

Things reach a boiling point when Miguel mishandles one of Doctor Logan's ghouls, causing the death of more military men before getting bitten himself (the kiss of death, as we all know by now). Rhodes decides to shut down the project, take the helicopter, and get the hell out of dodge with his remaining men. Being the petty tyrant that he is, he throws the civilians to the lions (as it were) forces them to fend for themselves in the zombie-filled caverns. As these things are prone to do, circumstances abruptly switch and suddenly everyone finds themselves fighting for their lives against an overwhelming army of ghouls hungry for their warm, tasty brains.

So, last one to the chopper is a rotten egg (or rotten corpse - whatever).

Day of the Dead is probably the weakest of the Dead series (with the caveat that I'm not including the newer films in that mix - I've only seen Land of the Dead once and Diary of the Dead isn't out yet as of this writing). That doesn't mean that it's a bad film - Romero's worse effort still stands tall amongst the others in the genre.

I think the problem with the movie is that there is just no likeable characters, nobody to root for (even if they do get capped by a zombie hunting posse in the last seconds of the film). Everyone is ugly, petty, self absorbed, angry and generally mean. The only two with any redeeming qualities are Bill and John - and all they want to do is hang around and get stoned while the last vestiges of civilization collapses around them. (Although admittedly, under similar circumstances, I'd be hard pressed to come up with a forward moving strategy too.)

The problem is - the movie NEEDS to be ugly. It's the logical, natural progression of the world by this point. In Night, the characters are clinging to the hope that the normal order of things will be reestablished, and constantly try to reassert themselves in that order. In Dawn, the characters wall themselves off from the outside world and build the illusion of normality while the world goes to shit all around them. However in Day things have devolved so badly that even this option is denied them.

And so, trapped in a world that is rapidly spinning out of control and no way to slam on the breaks, they act exactly like human beings would: they're scared, skeptical, and ready to shoot first and ask for questions later.

And that, I think, is the cornerstone of why this is such a hard pill to swallow for the horror fan looking for some cheap thrills and visceral gore - Romero asks you to sympathize and understand the plight of these people even at their most ugly - because that's exactly what we would do - you and I, dear reader - do under these same conditions. Could we bear up, eking out an existence where hordes of brain eating ghouls are just a handful of steps away, held back by basically by a string of heavy duty chicken wire? Or would we just implode like Miguel or seek refuge at the bottom of a bottle like Bill?

When you get right down to it, the message (and boy, does George love those) of Day of the Dead is a morality tale that man - not the horde of flesh eating ghouls - is his own worst enemy.

And you know the odd thing? After all that, after the most dark depressing film of the series yet - George gave us the most upbeat, hopeful ending so far. Crazy, ain't it?

TOTAL BODY COUNT: 10
MOST MEMORABLE KILL: Captain Rhodes, the Pull-Apart man. He's like Stretch Armstrong, but not as durable!
GALLONS OF BLOOD USED: 40
SPRING LOADED CATS: 0
THE MORON OF THE MOVIE AWARD GOES TO: Really, any of the dysfunctional military types.
BREASTS ON DISPLAY: 0
BEST LINE: "I hope you choke!"

THE DVD -
One thing that Anchor Bay does well is give us nice looking movies. We get the original 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen print, a nice transfer with very little dust or scratches that I could spot. We also get a unnecessary but largely inoffensive surround sound mix, and the original (and superior) 2.0 mix.

THE EXTRAS -
It's a lovely two disc set, with a couple of commentaries sporting George A. Romero, Tom Savini, Production Designer Cletus Anderson and Actress Lori Cardille. The second track is a pretty dry and useless track from "film historian" (oh dear - always a bad sign) Roger Avery. There's nothing of substance to his track - stick with the first one.

Over on disc two, we get a 39 minute documentary, a behind-the-scenes featurette shot by Tom Savini, an audio interview with Richard Liberty (the resident Mad Scientist) and an odd promotional video used to market the Gateway Commerce Center where the movie was shot. While I thank Anchor Bay for giving us as rounded a package as possible, it really makes me go "huh?" Finally we get theatrical trailers, TV spots, production stills, behind-the-scenes photos, posters and advertising art, a gallery of memorabilia, a make-up gallery, a stills gallery, and a George Romero bio.

If the movie doesn’t do it for you, the extras should.

THE BOTTOM LINE -
Unfairly maligned, Day of the Dead has quite a bit to offer to fans of the Romero series. It's filled with thought provoking moments, some good ol' fashioned gore, and some pretty scary stuff. The disc is a well rounded package that really needs to be in any horror fan's collection. It might be the weakest of the three, it's still a damn fine classic.

Join me next time for another journey into the macabre. Until then. . . pleasant SCREAMS! Bwah-hah-hah-hah-hah!

*cue thunder and lightning effect*

My Month of the Living Dead reviews:
* THE EVIL DEAD
* NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
* PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE
* THE FOG
* REVELATION OF THE DALEKS
* DAWN OF THE DEAD
* THE LAST MAN ON EARTH/HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL
* DAY OF THE DEAD
* RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD
* THE OMEGA MAN
* NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 3D
* THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED UP ZOMBIES
* LAND OF THE DEAD
* MASTERS OF HORROR - HOMECOMING
* 28 DAYS LATER
* WHITE ZOMBIE
* HALLOWEEN



Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age