Review - Day of the Dead

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Day of the Dead was much scarier than I remember it being . . .

. . . when I sat down with friends to watch this George A. Romero zombie classic I made the comment "oh this one wasn't all that scary". And let me tell you - the other three guys in the room looked at me like I was insane. After the film was through, I understood what those looks were all about.

From the creepy soundtrack to the awesomely gory zombies to the almost utter hopelessness portrayed in Day of the Dead I have to say that I think this is now my favorite in the series. Of course, I may watch another in the series tomorrow and decide that is my favorite - that's just me, I'm fickle like that.

But I digress. In this installment we meet Sarah (Lori Cardille) as she flies in John's (Terry Alexander) whirlybird with Bill (Jarlath Conroy) and Salazar (Anthony Dileo Jr.) in the hopes of finding some evidence of life along the Florida coast. They return to their underground research center which is becoming increasingly militarily run by Captain Rhodes (Joseph Pilato) who seems to be holding onto his sanity by only the thinnest of threads.

Captain Rhodes along with his crazy and exhausted band of brothers are becoming ever so impatient with Sarah and her other researcher buddies who are supposed to be trying to find a solution to the outnumbering onslaught of the walking dead. When they find out that Dr. Logan's (Richard Liberty) - aka Dr. Frankenstein - only "successful" specimen affectionately referred to as Bub (Sherman Howard) is being treated to leftover army body parts - well let's just say they are less than thrilled.

Rhodes finally snaps and decides to throw Sarah and Bill to the dead whilst he, his buddies and John fly themselves out of the hell they are in. One problem is that John is not being cooperative about leaving anyone down there and another is that Salazar has also gone mad and decides to mete out his own brand of justice.

One of the things I really enjoyed about Day of the Dead was that with all of the other crap that was going on, there was still an element of humor woven into the seriousness of the living dead pandemic. Take for instance, Bub who in life was an Army guy himself, all he wanted was a little salute from the captain. Well the captain would not oblige and later on this came up to bite him in the ass . . . quite literally actually.

As I stated earlier, this one was also much scarier than I remembered. I just kept thinking throughout it how if something like this ever happened how much I would just hate to have to be in some underground hideout. Especially one like this which also contained living dead specimens. I just got chills thinking about that!

Absolutely watch this one my friends, unlike the 1st two installments of the Dead series this one had a pretty quick pace. Not that I didn't enjoy the first two mind you, but Day of the Dead is one I could watch over and over again and I feel not get bored with it.

If you enjoyed Day of the Dead, here are reviews of other recommended movies:

Land of the Dead
Zombi 2 (Zombie)

Day of the Dead Movie Cast and Credits

Directed by
George A. Romero

Writing credits
(in alphabetical order)
George A. Romero written by

Cast (in credits order)
Lori Cardille ... Sarah
Terry Alexander ... John
Joseph Pilato ... Capt. Rhodes (as Joe Pilato)
Jarlath Conroy ... William McDermott
Anthony Dileo Jr. ... Pvt. Miguel Salazar (as Antonè DiLeo)
Richard Liberty ... Logan
Sherman Howard ... Bub (as Howard Sherman)
Gary Howard Klar ... Pvt. Steel (as G. Howard Klar)
Ralph Marrero ... Pvt. Rickles
John Amplas ... Dr. Ted Fisher
Phillip G. Kellams ... Pvt. Miller
Taso N. Stavrakis ... Pvt. Torrez
Gregory Nicotero ... Pvt. Johnson
Don Brockett ... Featured Zombie (chief)
William Cameron ... Featured Zombie
Deborah Carter ... Featured Zombie
Winnie Flynn ... Featured Zombie
Debra Gordon ... Featured Zombie (1st pulled out of mine)
Jeff Hogan ... Featured Zombie
Barbara Holmes ... Featured Zombie
David Kindlon ... Featured Zombie
Bruce Kirkpatrick ... Featured Zombie
William Andrew Laczko ... Featured Zombie
Susan Martinelli ... Featured Zombie
Kim Maxwell ... Featured Zombie
Barbara Russell ... Featured Zombie (who kills Miller)
Gene A. Saraceni ... Featured Zombie
John D. Schwartz ... Featured Zombie (as John Schwartz)
Mark Tierno ... Featured Zombie (2nd pulled out of mine)
Mike Trcic ... Eviscerated Zombie (as Michael Trcic)
John Vulich ... Featured Zombie
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
J.R. Bookwalter ... Zombie (uncredited)
Donald Farmer ... Underground zombie (uncredited)
Peter Iasillo Jr. ... Elevator zombie (Tip O'Neil zombie) (uncredited)
Daniel Krell ... Zombie (uncredited)
Robert Martin ... Zombie (uncredited)
George A. Romero ... Zombie with scarf (uncredited)

More Day of the Dead Movie Reviews

Review of Day of the Dead from Movie Gazette
Day of the Dead Movie Review at Scifilm

Rating: 8.00 (1 vote) - Rate this Article -

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Poster	Thread
hannibal	Posted: 2007/4/14 12:29 Updated: 2007/4/14 12:31
Pooka Joined: 2005/5/16 From: Posts: 22	Re: Day of the Dead I always thought Day of the Dead was the best movie in the Dead series -- although not by much. While I have never been a big fan of Night of the Living Dead (although I've had several people tell me I need to watch the early nineties remake) I did like Dawn of the Dead almost as much as this one. Day just seems to have everything -- from the underground setting, to the mad scientist and the perfect zombies -- this is the scariest movie in the series for me.