Day of the Dead (1985)

Director:

George A. Romero

Writer:

George A. Romero (written by)

Release Date:

19 July 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

The Dead have waited. The day has come.

Plot:

A small group of military officers and scientists dwell in an underground bunker as the world above is overrun by zombies.

Plot Keywords:

Scientist | Military | Bunker | Florida | Zombie

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

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

Also Known As:

George A. Romero's Day of the Dead (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

102 min | Argentina:101 min | Norway:97 min | Australia:97 min | Canada:96 min (Ontario)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:18 (video rating) (1986) (cut) | UK:18 (video re-rating) (1997) | UK:18 (original rating) (cut) | Canada:18+ (Quebec) (video rating) (1998) | Canada:(Banned) (Nova Scotia/Ontario) (uncut version) | Canada:R (Manitoba) | Canada:R (Ontario) (cut) | Finland:(Banned) (original rating) | Chile:14 (uncut DVD version) | Canada:14A (Ontario) (Re-rated 2008) | Portugal:M/16 | Argentina:16 | Australia:R | Denmark:16 | Finland:K-18 | France:-12 | Hong Kong:III | Ireland:18 | Italy:VM14 | Japan:R-15 | Norway:(Banned) (original rating) | Norway:15 (re-rating) | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | USA:Unrated | West Germany:(Banned) | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Florida, USA

Company:

Dead Films Inc.

Trivia:

Cameo: [Akram Midani]The former Dean of Fine Arts in Carnegie Mellon appears as a Fisherman Zombie pursuing Steel through the Mines. (You can see his wife Watfa Midani right next to him as another Zombie.)

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: An obvious stunt-double for Anthony "Miguel" Dileo for the scene where he's thrown off of the platform by "Steele". (The stuntman appears to be Taso Stavrakis, who also plays the character of "Torrez" in the film.)

Quotes:

[first lines]
McDermott: Nothing, nothing at all.
Sarah: Send again.
McDermott: I've been sending up and down the coast from Sarasota to the Everglades and still getting back the same dead air. There's nothing! There's nobody or at least nobody with a radio.
Sarah: All right then let's set down, we'll use the bullhorn.
McDermott: Set down? Wait a minute, that's not in our contract!
Sarah: It's the biggest city within 150 miles and we're going to give it every chance.
McDermott: Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Sarah: Set down, John!
John: I'll set us down. But I won't leave my seat and I'll keep the engine running. Now the first sign of trouble, I'm going up. If you ain't on board when that happens, you're likely to have a lousy afternoon.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Step Up 2: The Streets (2008)

Soundtrack:

If Tomorrow Comes

Incredibly under-rated

This is one of the most under-rated films ever. It was practically doomed to cult-status from the word go. Basically, George Romero wrote a script and took it to a company to get it funded. They like the script and offered George 7 million dollars on the condition he would make the film R rated. George however refused to compromise so they only gave him half that, 3.5 million dollars (next to nothing for a movie) to film an Unrated film -this was because an Unrated movie wouldn't make too much money back. This led to the script being completely re-written so it could be made on the budget. Most of the elements from the original Day were worked into the recent Land of the Dead. Unfortunately, not many cinemas were willing to screen Unrated films as they were too much hassle and not many people would go to see them. Even more unfortunately, 1985 saw many big R rated horror films being released which attracted all the attention away from Day. Many critics and fans complain about this movie, calling it the worst in the series. This is far from the truth. Most people who don't like this movie judge it purely on technical details such as the standard of the acting or the music. Considering the budget, everything in this film is amazing. I personally thought the music completely worked in the film too and some of it was incredibly effective. And the make-up and special effects were incredible, even by today's standards. This film has the best zombie make-up ever, period. For people who don't mind B-movie standard acting, or few locations and other features of low budget movies, you should definitely give this film a try. It's continues with the social messages of society we see in all of Romero's movies. This time it's a mix of how the military basically take control and cock stuff up and (in the style of Lord of the Flies) with no policing, people turn into monsters. Along with the bleak view looking at how easily our society fell apart. The opening of this movie is incredible and very atmospheric. This film also features the greatest zombie ever: Bub. He's friendly, and uber-cool. Trained by scientist Dr. Logan to not eat people. Believe it or not, this film is the closest a movie has ever been to making me cry (if you've seen it I'm talking about when Bub discovers a certain someone's body in the freezer). I don't know what that says about me but whatever. This movie is also the only film I have seen which managed to make me jump with me watching it on the small screen (very, very start with the arms coming through the wall). The film plays off it's sense of claustrophobia well to make it what is probably the scariest in the Dead series (though that still isn't saying much). By the way, Gorillaz, an amazing band seem to love this movie as they have sampled sound clips on several of their tracks including "M1 A1" and "Hip Albatross". They've done the same thing with the original Dawn of the Dead too. Too anyone who has seen 28 Days Later..., 28 Days Later... is a Day of the Dead rip-off! I'll go into that when I get round to reviewing 28 Days Later..., for now, just take my word for it. Not that 28 Days Later... is bad by any means though, but Day of the Dead is still way better. Finally, Day of the Dead actually tries something new with the genre. It would have been so easy for Mr. Romero to simply show a few survivors in a bunker hiding from zombies for most of the movie; instead he mixed in the ideas of experimenting on and training the zombies. He's a magnificent director. In short this movie surpasses it's predecessors "Night of the Living Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead" and both films set the bar incredibly high. It has the best story, make-up, atmosphere, character development, is scariest and is generally the best of the 3. It's also better than it's sequel "Land of the Dead".