User reviews

Our rewatching of the original Romero trilogy comes to an end with "Day of the Dead" which is perhaps the most unloved of the three but has some of the best gore moments of the series and a legendary jump scare at the beginning.

With the planet all but lost, a team of scientists and soldiers have formed an uneasy alliance in a large bunker in Florida. Tensions are high between them though, with the soldiers bearing the bulk of losses, trying to capture zombies for experimentation. The situation comes to a head though, when it becomes apparent that chief scientist, Dr Logan (Richard Liberty) is more interested in taming the threat, than eliminating it.

In so many ways, this is the best film of the original trilogy. The acting performances are better than any that have gone before. Lori Cardille in particular is excellent as Sarah, one of the scientists and the lead of the movie. Joseph Pilato, who has a tiny role in "Dawn" has a much bulkier one here, with Rhodes being the chief antagonist. Tom Savini's effects are the best we've seen, with some of the disembowelment that occurs towards the finale being the most striking and still very much holding up 35 years later. The character of 'Bub' is perhaps the most effecting of the entire series, though I do have to admit the idea of the zombies learning is an uncomfortable one and I'm glad that most don't explore that idea.

Plot wise, it could be better though. Initially starting with a big scope, and showing a Floridian town destroyed by the outbreak - it sinks back down into the only real storyline zombie films have, that of man's intolerance of each other ultimately causing our downfall. This might have something to do with the increasing cuts to the planned story, that budgetary restraints forced on Romero. It's the bleakest of the films, demonstrating not just that survival is unlikely, but perhaps even undeserved would this really happen.

That bleakness though speaks to me, and I do enjoy the film. "Dawn" is still my favourite; the score and the location alone see to that, but "Day" isn't that far behind.

Day of the Dead is George A. Romero's third Zombie film and it's by far my favorite. It has a lot of great social commentary on how we view the people with power and how corrupt that system can get. I enjoy the characters and the practical effects are absolutely amazing. Bub is probably my favorite Zombie in a movie because the character is pulled off so well. The entire movie has a lot of building tension that leads into one of the best third acts in any Zombie film. And just like with Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead I really can't find anything I dislike about this movie.

I'm giving George A. Romero's Day of the Dead a 9.8/10.

In 1985 this zombie movie virtually went by unnoticed except for many Romero fans. It was virtually dead a week or two after it hit the theaters. Many attribute its failings to the other many horror films released that year including "Re-Animator", "Fright Night", and "Return of the Living Dead". All these movies were R though and day was not. Romero stuck to his guns and made a very gory movie. Unfortunately, when dawn was released there were still many independent theaters, but by 1985 the chains had taken over and one thing chains do is not show movies like this. So it went by unnoticed and those that did notice it usually had nothing good to say about it other than the zombies looked really good. So suffice to say, I wasn't expecting much when I bought this movie except the zombies would look good. However, I am happy to report that I was very pleasantly surprised. Granted, Dawn was still a better film as it had more likable characters than the ones featured in this film. This would be the final Dead film George Romero would do until Land of the Dead was released, but I do not count that one as part of his original trilogy as they seem to belong together because Night showed us the humble beginnings of the zombie outbreak, Dawn showed us the zombies beginning to overrun us and this film shows us a bleak world where the zombies now outnumber the living 400,000 to one.

The story has a group at the beginning flying a helicopter in the hopes of finding some survivors. All they find is the dead and quite frankly, any survivors out there would be better off keeping their mouth shut as they do not want to go back to the facility this group belongs to. It is like a bunker and in it we have scientists who have no clue what they are doing, army people in a rush to leave said facility even though there is no indication there are any people left, two civilian guys just doing their jobs and Bub the most awesome zombie ever! Tensions are running high in the facility as the army people want to leave and there is a lot of arguing; however, things take a turn for the even worse and the zombies that are topside begin to lick their lips!

This film has great looking zombies and it does a good job with its setting. Originally, George wanted to do something much larger in scope, but could not get the funding so he had to scale back immensely which is why we sadly on get the one shot topside in the city and get to see how much the zombies have taken over. Everything in this film is rather good, except the characters! Seriously, Bub who is a zombie is the most likable character and then civilian guys. Everyone else just wants to yell and rant and this film is not a good one to watch when you have a headache! The good news is that this creates a finale where you really want to see a few of these guys eaten and suffer, unlike Dawn where you just kind of get a random motorcycle gang out of nowhere.

So this film is good, just not as good as Dawn as this one just does not have the action of that film and for a good portion of the film the only thing you have to look forward too in between the shouting matches between the scientists and evil Bono are the Bub scenes. It does help build up the finale and like I said, you really want to watch these guys get eaten, but it also tends to get annoying as no one really seems right. That is just the way it goes though, mankind is pretty much lost here and so why worry about trying to cure something that cannot be cured when you can just try and live out your life the best you can.

'Day Of The Dead' is one of the greatest sleepers in the history of horror movies. A flop when originally released almost twenty years ago, its reputation has slowly increased over the years, and now is generally regarded as a classic. I certainly underestimated it for a long time. In my opinion Romero's 'Night Of The Living Dead' and 'Dawn Of The Dead' are two of the greatest horror movies ever made, but I always thought that 'Day...' was a bit of a let down. But after watching it again for the first time in several years (via the highly recommended double disc "special edition" DVD) I must humbly eat my words. This is a GREAT movie! Romero and special effects Tom Savini do wonders on a limited budget, and the movie is full of suspense, a claustrophobic atmosphere and plenty of gore. It probably flopped the first time around because it's so bleak, but now that's one of its strengths. Interestingly Romero features a strong female protagonist (Lori Cardille) and a strong black supporting character (Terry Alexander), something not all that common in horror movies. Both actors give good performances, the soldiers led by Rhodes (Joseph Pilato) are all suitably ultra macho and deranged, and it was cool to see John Amplas ('Martin') in a supporting role, but the two stand out performances are by Richard Liberty ('The Crazies') as Dr. Logan (who the soldiers refer to as "Frankenstein"), and Howard Sherman as Bub, the zombie he has tamed. The sequences between Logan and Bub are just terrific and add a whole new level of pathos to the movie. The only negative comment I can make about 'Day Of The Dead' is that it brings home the depressing fact that George Romero hasn't made a truly outstanding movie in close to twenty years. I really hope he makes his long threatened fourth Dead movie 'Dead Reckoning' and that it turns out to be his masterpiece. But whatever happens he has already carved his name out in horror history as the creator of three classic zombie movies that just get better and better as the years go by.

As a zombie aficionado is it impossible to not have watched the Romero zombie movies, especially as they are such big milestones in the zombie genre. And also as they are the zombie movies that has the most heart put into it, no pun intended.

This 1985 movie, directed by George A. Romero, is the third of zombie movies in his lineage of zombie storytelling. And it continues with the usual bleak world overrun by the living dead. Society has collapsed and the world is in disarray, with small clusters of people struggling for survival. But it is not the threat of the living dead that proves the only danger is the new dying world.

Romero does a great job at telling the story he has in mind, and it is presented in a very enjoyable manner, which makes his movies quite entertaining and watchable.

The story in the 1985 movie "Day of the Dead" is about a group of soldiers and scientists who have barricaded themselves in an underground bunker facility. Here they try to survive the dying world around them. Some scientists are studying the living dead in order to understand more about them and to control them, a study which does not sit well with the armed military forces.

Granted that this movie is from 1985, so the special effects and zombie make-up is a bit outdated by today's standards. But it still works fine though, and the effects are still believable. But in the Romero movies it is not the special effects that drive the movie, it is the story and the characters; the special effects just help to progress the story and add a visual imagery to the dying world.

The acting in "Day of the Dead" was quite good, and there is a very memorable gallery of characters in the movie. And there was even a very memorable zombie known as Bub. And they had managed to cast some good talents to portray the various role and characters. I must admit that I was surprised to find out that special effects master Greg Nicotero was in the movie.

I assume that you are already familiar with this 1985 classic zombie movie if you are a fan of the zombie genre. If you are not, shame on you, then it is about due time that you get around to watching it. In fact, watch all the Romero zombie movies, as they are important to the zombie genre.

I have watched "Day of the Dead" several times, as I have with all of Romeros movies, and it can sustain multiple viewings, because the story is so well-written and executed on the screen.

"Day of the Dead" receives a seven out of ten stars from me. This is a good, wholesome zombie movie.

The third film in George A. Romero's immensely popular "Living Dead" trilogy is by far the bleakest and most complex film the director has ever worked on. "Day of the Dead" received a lot of negative press upon its release in 1985 - people picked apart unsavory characters, OVER-acting from a no-name cast, and outlandishly gory special effects that only Tom Savini himself could be proud of.

But none of this makes it a bad experience really, does it? I don't think so. For the reason that I usually detest zombie flicks, I have worked up a fondness for the works of Romero and over the last two weeks have separately watched each film in his trilogy.

"Night of the Living Dead" (1968) virtually defined a new genre of horror movie-making and basically set the standards for the many zombie flicks that would follow in its footsteps. Next up to bat was the most praised film in the trilogy - "Dawn of the Dead" (1978) - which was more of an action film than a horror movie and was nothing short of epic. Then came "Day" in 1985, which got the tongue-lashing that I described earlier.

However those that did like it, praised the Savini effects, its complex, plot-driven characters, and satire. While "Day" is certainly a step down from "Night" and "Dawn," "Day" is more of a claustrophobic horror movie and that allows it to stand on its own as a fitting end to Romero's trilogy. It's more in sync with the tension of "Night" than it is with the adrenalin-laced action, zombie-slaughterfest that was "Dawn."

A team of civilian scientists and a loose army unit clash with each other's motives after they have taken shelter at an underground military base from the hordes of living dead that storm the surface above. The civilian scientists aren't seeking to eradicate the zombies like the soldiers are hell-bent on doing, but are instead trying to get to the bottom of what is causing them to be what they are.

In doing so, they need live zombie specimens, which are held captive in a maze of dark underground tunnels where they're corralled like cattle. We later get what is one of the most profound and moving experiences in the entire trilogy with "Day," when we see one zombie, nicknamed "Bub" by one particularly eccentric scientist, who eventually learns what it means to be "alive," so to speak.

"Day of the Dead" obviously isn't a perfect movie, but is more or less a fitting conclusion to one of the most daring film trilogies in the horror genre. It may be best to not watch "Day" thinking it'll be anything like "Dawn" just because it has military men blasting away mercilessly at the living dead. Zombie slaughter is few and far between and much of the first hour of the film is clashing dialogue between the characters.

The darkest day in the world - "Day of the Dead."

9/10

While not quite up to the levels of Night or Dawn, Day Of The Dead still packs a story line that is just as relevant to day as it was in 1985, and boasts performances that are better than it should be. I really loved Lori Cardille here, and I'm surprised she didn't do much, much more than this.

It has one of the best openings in horror movie history (and Dr. Tongue is likely the most impressive zombie in any of these films), but it does drag just a little bit in the middle. The antagonists (of which there are more than one), aren't your typical mustache twirlers, and Romero gave them some depth and nuances that actually made most of their actions completely believable.

The climax more than makes up for the middle drag, and I love how Romero injected his undead with both horror and humor. A must for not only Romero fans, not only zombie fans, but horror fans in general.

George Romero's zombie movies have always been standouts in the genre. Easily the best zombie movies ever, and contenders for the best horror movies ever. Night of the Living Dead (his first movie) set the ground work for every single zombie movie to come after it, and Dawn of the Dead, which came 10 years later in 1978 set the new standard for splatter and gore flicks. If you ask me, without George Romero's zombie trilogy, horror movies would have never been the same.

Day of the Dead takes place after the entire Earth has become over-run with zombies. Every human must either hide, fight, or die. The movie follows two groups of people: doctors and army men. The army men pose as the bad guys in this movie (just as Mr. Cooper did in Night of the Living Dead) and the doctors pose as the good guys (as Ben did in Night). The groups of people are hiding out in a secluded underground base. The zombies await outside, while the humans try to come up with a plan to eliminate the zombie plague.

Day of the Dead falls at the end of the trilogy. Being made in 1985, zombie movies were already high on the charts. Since the popularity of Dawn of the Dead, especially in Europe, a ton of independent film makers were pushing out these zero-budget zombie flicks faster than you could watch them. Finally, in 1985, George Romero and Tom Savini grouped back together to show the kids how it was done. Day of the Dead fixed all the mistakes that occurred in Dawn of the Dead, and turned out to be the perfect zombie movie. Day of the Dead IS the best zombie movie ever made.

The main mistake that was fixed was the way the zombies looked. In 1978, Tom Savini (special makeup effects) was fairly new to the job, and couldn't take on the very large amount of zombies he had to apply make-up to. Therefore, he simply painted their faces blue. Here, Tom Savini had his own team of make up artist. The zombies in Day of the Dead look far more disgusting and gross. Facial decays and bite marks were abundant in this movie. Not only that, but every zombie looked different. No two zombies looked exactly the same, which added a small shock element every time a zombie appeared on screen. The gore in Day of the Dead was even more amped up than Dawn of the Dead. It looked more real, and came in much higher amounts. Day of the Dead ranks up with some of the goriest movies of all time; only Cannibal Ferox and Dead-Alive surpass Day of the Dead. For the way the gore looked, Day of the Dead holds the trophy for the best special effects I've ever seen in a movie - bar none.

While the special effects have greatly improved, they aren't even the main reason I favor Day of the Dead over every other zombie movie. The reason Day of the Dead is, and always will be labeled as my favorite, is for the extremely serious tone of the movie. The characters in this movie (with the small exception of the doctor) are extremely serious and brutal in tone and pose an even bigger threat to the good guys than the zombies! It's Night of the Living Dead turned up to 11! The characters in this movie (especially Captain Rhodes) are very, very well written characters, although I wouldn't hold then as high as the characters in Dawn of the Dead.

Day of the Dead is an extremely serious zombie flick with absolutely no humor whatsoever. It's serious, it's brutal, and has an extremely thick script with plenty to offer. Remember to bring a barf bag!

This classic zombie movie doesn't hold back on the gore. I'm not a huge fan of the kind of horror that simply seeks to gross me out. While there are moments of gratuitous guts and gore, this movie offers much more. It reminded me of The Walking Dead series in the way that it focuses mostly on the drama between the surviving people. This movie puts us inside an underground bunker with this small group of survivors who are seemingly safe in their little fortress. The problem they run into is that the real monsters are the living people inside the bunker. The interactions between them are extremely tense. The suspense is real as we watch and wait for the moment when it all falls apart for these survivors. With the exception of the zombies, the acting is really good.

A group of stressed survivors, composed by soldiers and civilians, share an underground military bunker surrounded by an increasing number of zombies. When the commander of the base dies, the tyrannical Capt. Rhodes (Joe Pilato) occupies his spot and the friction with the team of scientist reaches an uncontrollable level. Meanwhile, Dr. Logan (Richard Liberty), the leader of the scientists, develops a kind affection to the zombie Bub (Howard Sherman), showing signs of insanity. Sarah (Lori Cardille), the helicopter pilot John (Terry Alexander) and their alcoholic friend William (Jarlath Conroy) are the only lucid persons, being threatened by the rest of the survivors and the zombies. 'Day of the Dead' is a great conclusion of the George Romero's trilogy. Yesterday I watched it again, maybe for the fourth or fifth time, and I found a very claustrophobic story, having excellent nasty special effects. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): 'Dia dos Mortos' ('Day of the Dead')

I saw DAY OF THE DEAD at a drive-in; the second half of the double bill was DAWN OF THE DEAD (which I'd seen a dozen times by then, most often at midnight showings). I was stunned. DAY OF THE DEAD was as tight and as dramatic and as frightening as anything I'd ever seen. Although I'd championed Romero's movies in the pages of magazines like Famous Monsters of Filmland, Fantastic Films and Fangoria for years, I was totally blown away by the savvy evinced in DAY OF THE DEAD. No more of the tell-tale amateurishness of a "regional filmmaker," no more overindulgence: this is Romero at his very best, and a great movie by any standards. For critics who espouse the virtues of DAWN OF THE DEAD over DAY OF THE DEAD, take this simple test: watch them back to back, as I did the night DAY OF THE DEAD opened. If you're still not convinced, you may be a zombie yourself...

Acceptable though inferior third part on George Romero's Zombie series initiated in the original classic film Night of the living dead and with expert make-up artist , Tom Savini along with Greg Nicotero . This powerful horror film with more budget than George A Romero classic film , one of the most successful independent films of all time that was initially dismissed as exploitation, but when was re-released , it struck deeply with a disillusioned youth angry . Here there is a team searching for survivors of a terrible crisis that began almost a year earlier . Flesh-eating zombies taking over the world and scientific experimenting on zombies . It deal with a small group of military officers and scientists (Lori Cardille , Terry Alexander) dwell in an underground bunker as the world above is overrun by zombies . As creatures trap a female scientific named Sarah and an army of angry soldiers commanded by a stiff-upper-lip officer called Rhodes (Joseph Pilato) . There a scientist wants to study them .

This gory film contains chills , thrills , graphic scenes of cannibalism and violence , dismemberment and other scary carnage in which real pig intestines were used during the gore scenes. Gruesome third film, combining gore, 'bona fide' frights horror and in dirty style with simple characterization . The first time the Zombies appeared was in ¨White Zombie(1932)¨. From then on Zombies remained a firm staple of terror B-genre , bringing the dead back to life was a popular pastime in the 30s and 40s . The early zombies were basically genteel beings and generally likable and agreeable types . Romero created in Pittsburg his own production company Image Ten Productions with his friends, John Russo among them and they each contributed 10.000 dollars and formed the budget for his first ¨Night of living dead¨ movie which made Romero world famous and he gave birth to the modern Zombie genre . Most of the zombie extras in this film were Pittsburgh residents who volunteered to help in the film . This follow-up that doesn't hold up to its predecessors is mostly set in an underground bunker , but results to be relentless claustrophobic and talky for over an hour . The underground facility was not on a soundstage , it was shot in the Wampum mine, a former limestone mine near Pittsburgh, that was being used for a underground storage facility ¨Day of the dead¨ is even gorier than the first two "Dead" films . Unlike the other pictures this one has no truly agreeable roles to root for . Being easily the least of the entries and the lowest grossing film in George A. Romero's "Dead" trilogy. Nonetheless, it's gained a cult following over the last two decades and director George A. Romero claims this is his favorite film out of the original "dead trilogy".

This trilogy formed by ¨Night of the living dead¨, ¨Dawn of the dead¨ and this ¨Day of the dead¨ were of the first successful independent terror productions influencing and inspiring countless imitations, copies and rip-offs . Romero gave birth to the modern Zombie genre and the film has had a lasting importance , giving interesting consideration to the violence executed by the zombies . And many years later Romero directed ¨Land of dead (2005)¨ with high budget played by Simon Baker , Asia Argento and Dennis Hooper . And also an inferior remake in 1990 by Tom Savini with Tone Todd , Patricia Tallman in which again a bunch of people are pursued by ghouls Zombies .

How could such a great series of films end so badly??

The strength of the two previous efforts was that as well as being creepy, they made some sort of comment on society. Night highlighted the way that humans tend to crack and fight between themselves when under pressure, and Dawn (one of my favourite films) had a nice line in anti-consumerism. Day, on the other hand, seems to be hitting on the same theme as Night but misses by a mile because most of the characters are portrayed as being pretty nasty/twisted/insane in the first place. There's no transition - we start with a bunch of losers, we end with a bunch of losers.

Besides that, there's no atmosphere (mainly because of the drab shooting locations - just a bit of moody lighting would have helped immeasurably, even if it isn't very realistic). Oh, and the characters are mostly cliches (aggressive army commander who shouts a lot, trigger-happy redneck soldiers, scotch-drinking irishman, laid-back jamaican, and a mad professor who even has white frizzy hair!). The gore is fairly shocking but not nearly as much as in Dawn or even Night because the characters are almost uniformly unlikeable.

What a pity. 3 out of 10 on a good day.

"Day of the Dead" is a film that is an unfortunate sufferer of the "Alien 3 Syndrome". And, no, I don't classify those that are affected by the syndrome to be disappointing final entries in a trilogy. To suffer from "Alien 3 Syndrome", you must follow two exceptional films, and the entry that has preceded you must be so exciting and action-packed that when you dare take a grimmer, more deliberately paced approach to your material, you will become universally reviled, with many people failing to notice that you have more than your fair share of merits on your own. In fact, "Day of the Dead" has a LOT of merits - even more than the film that its syndrome is based on. While it doesn't quite approach the greatness of "Dawn of the Dead", it is still an intelligent, first-rate horror effort and stands as one of the best genre films of the 80s.

In this final entry of George Romero's "Living Dead" trilogy, the walking dead supposedly outnumber the humans by a ratio of 400,000 to 1. Twelve people who have devoted themselves to studying and wiping out the zombies hole up together in an underground missile silo, and for all we know, these could be the last twelve living humans on the face of the planet. Most of these people don't capture our sympathy like the foursome who holed up in the shopping mall in "Dawn". Half of them are gung-ho soldiers who seem to take great pleasure in threatening the scientific team, and Romero spends much of the first half focusing on the bickering and intense conflicts between these people. In fact, for over an hour, the hordes of living dead get very little screen time, as the story focuses on the tension between the characters, and the efforts of an off-the-wall scientist to train a captured zombie named Bub to act human. Compared to its predecessors, this long section of the film may seem slow and talky, but it is always interesting and, for the most part, effectively performed by its unknown cast. Besides, it all eventually leads up to a corker of finale when the zombies finally invade the compound, and most of the humans become showcases for the brilliance of Tom Savini, who outdoes even himself in the gore F/X department.

While most of this material is very grim, "Day" ironically has the most hopeful, upbeat conclusion in the trilogy - which, alas, is its only major shortcoming. The quick transition to the final scene is so abrupt and unexpected that the audience feels cheated, leaving the impression that the production ran out of money before the whole climax could be filmed. Indeed, Romero has often expressed his unhappiness about being underfunded for this project, which prevented him from creating a truly definitive final chapter for the trilogy. But while "Day of the Dead" may not quite be the ultimate finish to one of the greatest trilogies of all time, it is still a very satisfying conclusion (at least until Romero gets funding for his long-rumoured "Twilight of the Dead"). It may not be popular among everyone, due to many unfair comparisons to its superior predecessors, but on its own, it is about as good as horror films get.

Following the collapse of society to the zombie apocalypse, a joint military/civilian scientist group of 12 operating out of a bunker in Florida is seemingly the last human stronghold as no one has been able to be reached. With the death of army leader Major Cooper, Captain Rhodes (Joseph Pilato) becomes the self-appointed head of the group and exhibits increasingly tyrannical and unhinged behavior. Meanwhile scientist Sarah (Lori Cardille) attempts to search for a reversal of the process, while main scientist Dr. Logan (Richard Liberty) finds a way of conditioning "civil" responses in the undead namely in his test subject zombie Bub (Sherman Howard).

Following the success of Dawn of the Dead, Romero intended Day of the Dead to be by his words "The Gone with the Wind of zombie films" but was unable to achieve this desired goal due to budget disputes and the artistic need to release the film unrated leaving the film with half its intended budget at $3.5 million. Upon initial release critical reception was more reserved in comparison to reviews for Night and Dawn with Roger Ebert who'd given high praise to the first two installments giving only one and a half out of four stars to Day of the Dead but most critical reception seemed to view the film somewhat favorably. The film also didn't see the same level of success as Dawn had seen making only around $5 million in the United States, but did do better internationally making $34 million in total, but another Romero helmed Dead movie wouldn't be made for another 20 years until Land of the Dead was made utilizing some of the abandoned concepts for Day. Day of the Dead while looked back upon more favorably with time is still a more mixed entry in the series, but it's still prime Romero with good effects from Savini so it's well worth a watch.

The movie's biggest stumbling block is in the very limited location of the bunker as despite Day of the Dead having roughly six times the budget of Dawn of the Dead, it feels like we're given a smaller scale view of things almost on par with the scale in Night of the Living Dead as we spend a good deal of time in the bunker and it's just not as visually interesting as the shopping mall from Dawn or even the farm house from Night. Lori Carille is good as Sarah and plays a harder edged female character than we'd seen in this series up to this point, but while Carille's performance is good I don't think the script gives her as much to do with her research mostly an off screen affair with most of the important stuff being done by Doctor Logan and I think Romero would do this type of character a bit more justice when he reimagined Barbara in his Night of the Living Dead remake five years later.

Despite the movie's scale feeling more restrained this time around, the movie is kept engaging by its cast especially in Joseph Pilato playing the unhinged Captain Rhodes who's let the power go to his head and rules over this bunker with a tyrannical countenance often giving way to unhinged rages and abuse of power. Richard Liberty is also very good as the unscrupulous Dr. Logan who believes he can cultivate "good behavior" out of zombies which leads us to easily the best character and thing most people take away from this movie in Sherman Howard's portrayal of Bub the zombie. Bub is easily the best reason to see this movie as despite being mute, he's the most emotionally resonant character in this film and the one who you care the most about as a result. Howard's mannerisms as Bub give the character a sense of identity and personality and the payoff for Bub in the climax makes the more middling sections of the film all the more worth it. Tom Savini's gore work has also taken a massive jump in quality from Dawn of the Dead with the gore and blood splatter colors more balanced and nuanced and some more elaborate kill sequences including one of the best antagonist deaths we've seen in this series.

Day of the Dead doesn't match the heights of Dawn or Night but it does still find new and inventive ways to use the zombies. While the movie does feel more constrained by its choice of location and doesn't feature any breakout human characters along the lines of Duane Jones' Ben or Ken Foree's Peter, it does give us some high tension, improved gore work, and a solid pantomime performance from Sherman Howard as Bub the zombie.

Sure it's talky as hell, but the script deserved an Oscar.

Utter paranoia and hopelessness made this film a 'I'm glad it's not real but wouldn't it be cool if it WAS?' paradox.

Lori Cardile pre-dated Thelma & Louise in the hardcore female hero sweepstakes. (That's right. 'Hero.' Not heroine.) The supporting cast was top notch as well.

Joe Pilato as the nasty Col. Rhodes nearly stole the film. You hated him, but wanted to keep dealing with him.

Richard Liberty (love the name) played a great mad scientist prototype. Likable even if you couldn't 'get' him. And he practiced what he preached for what it was worth.

The Brit radioman and rasta chopper pilot made a nice balance. And I liked Steele too. A perfect savage idiot. Good job to that man.

Howard Sherman was the real deal as 'Bub.' And admit it, you loved it when he saluted the Colonel the second time.

The third movie of the Dead pentalogy, this largely takes place in a military bunker. Like the cult classic Dawn of the Dead, Land… explores secondary issues like the treatment of minorities and exposes the dictatorial tendencies, the suppression of dissent and the racist and misogynistic streaks which run in people when they know they are not answerable to anyone. The screenplay is the real winner here as Romero writes a mean follow up to Dawn…which is commendable. There is a brilliant segment about the attempt to domesticate the zombie, echoes of which were present in a small sub-section of World War Z, the book. The gore quotient is remarkably high for a movie of the 80s with the last fifteen minutes straight from hell, thanks to Tom Savini, the SFX guru.

For a while, I could not see what the fuss was about George A. Romero's third installment in the 'Dead' series, for quite a few years. I considered it my least favorite of the lot (until Survival, maybe Diary too but I have a soft spot for that), but in retrospect I think I was a un-fair in some of the departments I criticized.

The thing about Day of the Dead is that it tends to grow on the viewer looking to allow it to, especially as time goes on and the 1980's carry a different flavor than, say, in the late 90's. And I saw that the dialog came off weak (at least weak when compared to others), the characters didn't have the strength and need to really care about them like in 'Dawn' and 'Night', and the music just flat out stunk. Years later and many more repeat viewings around friends who loved the film, I grew to like it, and by now (this is many years later) I find that some sequences top even those in Dawn of the Dead. Marking it as still my least favorite of the 20th century 'Dead' films doesn't mean it's bad at all.

Actually, there is a certain style and sense of humor that tends to somehow work better with more time given with the derangement and over-the-top methods amid the dark atmosphere- the "camp" of the series, or at least the cartoonish aspects, stay fresh as ever. And the zombies look magnificently, as Tom Savini creates a kind of masterpiece of make-up, alongside future notable make-up man Greg Nicotero. To say that the zombies are the real stars of the film (in particular the infant-like 'Bub', played in a very good performance by the actor) is almost an under-statement. When Romero brings it on, he does bring it on well, and does go for broke in topping his wild, outlandish, and shockingly funny climax in Dawn of the Dead. So, in other words, I do enjoy it more after seeing it a few more times over the years, and I definitely don't see it as a C- movie; far from it, it's actually, in its own camp-art way, a great achievement.

I adore this film, but I don't know why... Maybe because I didn't see it until many years after it came out and I was older and could appreciate it. Or, maybe because I just love John and Billy so much. I even like Steel and Rhodes in their nastiness. The one character I do hate is Miguel! I don't know if they intended to make Miguel such a loathsome character or not, but geesh! It isn't because he is mentally falling apart from stress, as Sarah so aptly points out in the beginning, but not only is there little character development for him, but what we do learn is that he does nothing to stand up for himself or his girlfriend, and doesn't speak up at all when he screws up, whether it's his fault or not. I just completely resent his character. Dr. Logan, aka Frankenstein, is even likable in his insanity. I was surprised to read that this installment of the dead by George Romero was the least popular of the three in theaters.

Not a huge fan a zombie movies, but I liked this one. The story was good and the effects looked amazing. Joe Pilato's performance is so over the top - it's hilarious.

Imagine your one of the few people who survive the earth getting infested by zombies. Now your stuck in a military bunker with less than a dozen other people and your experimenting on the walking dead.Somehow in the middle of all of this the humans still find a way to end up in two opposing camps. Romero may be trying to capture the human factor of the original Night of the living dead but here it only seems to get in the way of an otherwise great zombie fest.The makeup is first rate and the gore is delectable but in my opinion this may be the weakest of the four Romero zombie movies.None the less this is required viewing for any horror fan.