Day of the Dead (film)
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{{Infobox Film
|name = Day of the Dead
|image = Day of the dead.jpg
|director = George A. Romero
|producer = Richard P. Rubinstein
|writer = George A. Romero
|starring = Lori Cardille
Terry Alexander
Joseph Pilato
|movie_music= John Harrison
|distributor= United Film Distribution Company
|released= July 3, 1985
|runtime = 102 min.
|language = English
|imdb_id = 0088993
|music =
|awards =
|budget = $3,500,000 (est.)
|}}
Day of the Dead (released 1985) is a horror film by director George A. Romero, and the third of four movies beginning with Night of the Living Dead, continued in Dawn of the Dead and completed in Land of the Dead. Steve Miner is directing a remake which is set to be out in 2007.
Day of the Dead deals with the zombie assault on a military establishment, satirizing the military mindset in the process. The film received the least enthusiastic critical review of the three films. Romero's original vision for the film was ambitious but accepted a prohibitively small budget in exchange for the production company tolerating an X-rating. If he had chosen to go for an R rating he would have had seven million dollars to work with, but aiming for an X, he was given a mere three and a half million. The resulting film was smaller than the original but introduces the possibility that the undead are more capable of adaption than was originally believed. The original script was considerably more complex and ambitious, involving the training of zombies to fight other zombies. Most of the lost themes were carried over to 2005's Land of the Dead.
The film has been widely criticized for various reasons. Many fans of the second film, Dawn of the Dead, were disappointed in this third offering, as its plot is considerably less sweeping in nature. Fans of the film point out, however, that the iconic human characters purposely contrast with the precocious zombie lead, "Bub", underscoring that zombies and humans are not so different. An outrageous selection of zombies are presented, the special effects are worlds ahead of what was presented in the previous installment. It was filmed in Pittsburgh (however, the setting is somewhere in Florida) just like the earlier installments and undead extras include the dean of Carnegie Mellon University and his wife.
The overall tone of the movie is grim, unrelenting and dour, a change from the comedic satire of Dawn. The violence and gore also reach a level of intensity that the two previous movies did not. Being killed by a zombie in this film is presented as a horrific and brutally drawn out ordeal. The survivors in this film fear that they are the last humans on the face of the earth, though in Land of the Dead, it is evident that this is not the case. Day of the Dead was released without a rating from the MPAA.
Despite its lacklustre critical reception, the film is noted for its special effects work, notably Tom Savini's make-up and special effects work; and it was honored in 1985 with a Saturn Award for Best Make-Up.
Miscellaneous
True zombie and Romero fans noted the change in zombie behavior in this film. Many of the zombies generally had a grey green color to their skin. This was done possibly to show the long term effects of decomposition and the elements. Another interesting change is the sudden increase in zombie strength. In both Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead (original), the zombies were generally weak and easy to push past. In Day of Dead, the zombies had the power to pull human limbs, heads and bodies apart with ease- thus some calling this the "Play-doh effect."
Romero once again presented the theme that people failing to work together was more dangerous than the actual threat of zombies. It was internal feuding and a failure to cooperate which led to the mutiny and total breach of the underground base. The casual viewer might not realize that the zombies posed very little direct threat. The antagonism between the characters is what destroyed the base.
The song "M1 A1", from the self-titled 2001 Gorillaz album, samples the pulsing synthesizers and the cries of "Hello! Is anyone out there?" from the opening of the film.
Template:Livingdeadde:Zombie 2 es:El Día de los Muertos fr:Le Jour des morts-vivants sv:Day of the Dead zh:喪屍出籠