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Day of the Dead is a good film, but it was supposed to be so much more. George Romero's original vision for Day was on a much grander scale and a lot broader in scope. Unfortunately, no studio was willing to put up the budget for a film like that since the zombie gore would result in an X rating. Unwilling to compromise on the gore issue, Romero was forced to drastically cut the script down and film a neutered version of his vision on half of the budget he wanted.
The original script is available on the internet and I encourage everyone that's interested to read it and see what could have been. You probably think that I don't like Day of the Dead thanks to the fact that I've talked so much about what it could have been, and you're kind of right. On the first viewing of Day I was really disappointed with the film and depressed that the series went out on such a down note.
With time, I've come to accept Day as a worthy conclusion to the series. It's not depressing because it's a bad film, it's depressing because the film is horribly bleak, from the dark abandoned corridors of the underground shelter to the cast of characters, none of which I can identify with or like in the least. That's the way it's supposed to be though. The zombies have overrun the earth and humans are almost extinct – there is no hope.
There seems to be more mainstream acceptance of this film by the fan base as well. Perhaps the world is finally ready for Day of the Dead.
The film begins with a crew of four flying around the coastline in a helicopter. There's Sarah, the strong willed woman who's tougher than all the men, John, the laid back Jamaican who wants nothing more than to go chill on an island, Miguel, the jumpy candy ass soldier, and Bill, who resembles a bearded Mr. Bean and always has a drink handy. The crew is looking for any sign of life in the world.
Sarah orders John to land the plane at a huge city they come to so she and Miguel can look for possible survivors. The city is completely empty. Money and newspapers proclaiming "The Dead Walk!" litter the desolate streets. Miguel uses a megaphone to call for survivors, but the only ones left to hear his cries are the zombies hiding around in the city. The zombies are more than eager to come out and play with the humans, but humans tend not to enjoy that "Smear the queer and then eat his flesh" game so much.
The chopper crew takes off. They fly back to their base of operations, an underground army shelter. They've got a chain link fence around the perimeter keeping the zombies out, but more and more come every day.
There are only twelve humans left alive in the shelter and John is passionate about just flying away to some tropical island to enjoy the few days they have left. Sarah is all about business and feels that what they're doing in the shelter is important. The chopper crew gets on the lift and descends into the shelter.
The only people left in the shelter are a few soldiers and scientists. The head scientist, Dr. Logan, affectionately known as Dr. Frankenstein, needs some more zombies to experiment on, so Sarah and Miguel go along with two soldiers to get some. The base has a storage area where they keep zombies corralled.
The zombie roping almost goes wrong thanks to the fact that Miguel is almost over the edge and is quaking like Jell-O. One of the army guys beats the shit out of Miguel for almost getting his buddy killed. After the royal fuck-up, Miguel is mad at Sarah, his girlfriend, for making him look like such an ass and fixing his mistakes. He smacks his bitch up but when his back is turned, Sarah injects him with a sedative.
Sarah is concerned about his welfare and so she goes to talk to the new army man in charge, Captain Rhodes. He's beginning to get a little pissed about spending so much time and energy helping the scientists when he sees no results. There's also that fact that he and every other guy on the base want a piece of Sarah. Has there ever been an army man who was a good guy in a horror movie?
Pissed off after absorbing Rhodes' harassment, Sarah goes to visit Dr. Logan. He's got his whole Dr. Demento lab going on. He's figured out the nerve network of zombies and the fact that they operate entirely on instinct. He proposes that the zombies can be trained to do some things. His pet zombie, Bub, is chained up in the corner and just hanging out.
Turns out that Dr. Frankenstein has been using soldier corpses for his experiments, something the soldiers would kill him for doing if they found out. I'm sure they'll never find out, as that would lead to anarchy and ultimately zombies ripping everyone apart in the underground shelter, and Romero would never have that happen.
Rhodes calls a meeting of all his employees. He's tired of giving the scientists all this time and energy when they have jack shit to show him. He's ready to just take his men and get the hell out of there, leaving the scientists to rot in the sewers.
Dr. Logan shows up late to the meeting much to Rhodes' ire. Rhodes berates him over the lack of practical results, but Logan assures him that very soon he will be able to show Rhodes how to control the zombies.
He'll be able to show everyone how to make the zombies stop wanting to eat them. Rhodes gives the scientists a little more time, but it's already obvious that these two factions aren't going to co-exist very long.
After a big argument with the worthless Miguel, Sarah goes to visit John and Bill in their luxurious trailer. Sarah doesn't understand how Bill and John can just sit around doing nothing, not seeming to be concerned about helping with the zombie problem. John explains his life outlook for her. Humanity is never going to figure out how to solve this problem, it's all just a waste of time when time is all they have left.
He proposes that this world is over, and that they should all just go off to some safe island and start over. To have babies, and teach them to never come back to this old world. What an elaborate explanation to try to get into Sarah's pants. I'll have to remember that pick-up line if a zombie invasion ever occurs.
John proposes that the zombies are a punishment from God for humanity trying to figure all his shit out.
Back in the lab, Dr. Logan decides to show off Bub to Sarah and another scientist. He feels that the zombies can be trained like a dog, given rewards for certain behavior and such. He gives Bub some objects to play with like a toothbrush, a razor, and a book.
Bub manipulates them all in the same way a human would, all while never taking notice to Dr. Logan or trying to bite him. He sees him as a friend, not food. He even salutes Captain Rhodes when he walks into the room. Rhodes doesn't return the salute, an act that pisses Bub off.
Dr. Logan gives Bub an unloaded gun, which he points at Rhodes and tries to shoot him with it. The last thing we need are zombies capable of shooting humans.
Rhodes isn't exactly impressed with Bub and is even more pissed off at Dr. Logan. The crew once again has to go and capture some zombies from the storage house. Miguel fucks up again and lets a zombie loose. One army guy gets eaten and in his death throes he shoots another army dude.
Miguel snaps and attacks a zombie, which results in his arm getting bit. Nice one, jackass. Sarah drags Miguel back to John and Bill's trailer to chop his arm off and possibly stop the infection. The remaining army guys show up at the trailer demanding that right to kill Miguel, but Sarah and her boys oppose them.
Rhodes agrees to leave Miguel alone, but declares that they're helping the scientist crew no more, and tomorrow they're going to kill every zombie held in the pits. After the soldiers leave, Sarah finally breaks down and begins to cry.
Bill and Sarah go back to the lab to get some morphine for Miguel. They explore Dr. Logan's lab and are suitably creeped out by his demented work, including the amputated head of an army guy hooked up to electrodes to make it move. That's a neat party trick.
In another lab, Dr. Frankenstein has Bub listening to some headphones, an activity he seems to greatly enjoy. I wonder what music zombies like to listen to? Probably GWAR. The doctor demonstrates to Bub how to turn the music on and off and Bub learns how to do it himself quickly. The doctor brings out Bub's reward – the remains of some of the dead soldiers.
The army guys burst onto the scene and investigate the doctor's freezer, finding the corpses of their dead comrades. Rhodes doesn't appreciate that at all and shoots the ever-loving shit out of Logan. He takes all the guns off all the scientists and marches them back to John's trailer. Mind you he just makes them drop their guns, he never picks up the extra guns.
Why? Because he's a moron and the guns are needed to set up a later plot point. Rhodes demands that John fly him and his men out of there. John refuses, so Rhodes shoots the last expendable scientist character and dumps Sarah and Bill into the zombie pit. Sarah and Bill use boards to run through the pit and beat away the zombies like Hacksaw Jim Duggan while the army dudes beat the shit out of John.
Just as John's about to get messed up some more, the elevator alarm signal goes off. Miguel has used the elevator and gone back up the surface. Because he's as good as dead and a lunatic, he opens the zombie gates and then gets back onto the elevator.
As the zombies pile on and begin to eat him, he lowers the elevator, brining the zombies into the underground complex so everyone can die with him. With the army dudes distracted, John beats the shit out of Rhodes and takes his guns from him. John jumps into the zombie pit and goes off to find Bill and Sarah.
The military dudes, seeing the party of zombies come into their house run away as fast as they can. Rhodes speeds away on a golf cart, leaving his fellow men in the dust to get eaten. If only the Benny Hill "Yackety Sax" theme were playing during this.
Back in the lab, Bub escapes his chains and stumbles onto the corpse of Dr. Logan. Once he realizes that Logan is dead, Bub becomes very upset, going so far as to cry as best a zombie can. I know it sounds weird, but it's actually a pretty moving scene. You WILL believe a zombie can cry! He finds the guns that were stripped from the scientists earlier and arms himself.
Meanwhile, the army grunts are doing a spectacular job of being ripped apart and eaten by zombies. There's a nice effect as a army guy screams while having his head torn off, where he voice begins to screech and squeal in a high pitched girl tone as his neck is gradually pulled apart. Another eating of note is one guy getting the top of his head ripped off.
Bub chases one army guy around with his pistol but never gets the chance to kill him before zombies corner the army guy. Faced with no better alternative, the army guy shoots himself in the head. In the underground, John meets up with Bill and Sarah and gives them some weapons. The three find a ladder that enables them to climb out of the caverns.
Rhodes is loading up with guns, but runs into Bub in a hallway. Bub takes aim and fires, but his undead aim is pretty shitty as he only catches Rhodes in the leg. I guess he's a decent shot for a zombie. Rhodes' walk is about as slow as Bub's now. Bub shambles after him and shoots Rhodes yet again.
Rhodes tries to escape through a doorway but when he opens it he finds zombies. He turns around to flee, but Bub shoots him in the chest, then salutes Rhodes before leaving him to be ripped apart by zombies that play with his intestines. Rhodes' last words to the zombies are to "CHOKE ON EM."
You sure showed those zombies. Unfortunately, this is the last we'll see of Bub. The character has excellent spin-off potential. Maybe Romero should try and make an Adventures of Bub the Zombie movie.
Sarah, Bill, and John climb their way back to the surface and make a run for the helicopter. Sarah opens the door to the helicopter and zombie hands jump out and grab for her. Suddenly, she wakes up from a dream to find herself on a tropical island with Bill and John out fishing.
Yeah, it's kind of a cop-out ending not showing the escape, but I can live with it. I'm guessing the three live together on the island for the rest of their days, away from the horrors of the rest of the world.
I enjoy this movie more each time I see it. The entire premise is unique to me. Instead of trying to find a way to solve the problems and save the world, the characters must resign themselves to the fact that their old world is dead and there's no brining it back. It seems like abandoning responsibilities, but it's not. Their chief responsibility is to start a new world, and that involves abandoning the old and leaving it to its final fate.
Another thing I love about the film is Sherman Howard's portrayal of Bub, the only character in the film I find to be truly innocent. It's an awesome acting job, as Howard lets you see the wonder and curiosity in Bub's eyes while seeing these relics of his old life, as well as his anger and sadness at the death of his father figure. I'm tempted to call Bub the hero of the movie in a way.
If you've seen this movie before but disliked it and felt it was a letdown, I really encourage you to give it another go. With your expectations for a movie more like Dawn of the Dead in check, you'll go into Day able to appreciate it for what it is. I'm not even sure it should be measured next to Night or Dawn, as Day is its own movie with a feel all its own.
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