Day of the Dead (1985)

Director: George A Romero
Starring: Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joseph Pilato

Synopsis:
Tensions run high between soldiers and civilians in an underground compound besieged by zombie hordes.

Impressions:
In my review of Dawn of the Dead, I noted that Romero becomes increasingly unsubtle with each movie. Well, this one is so blatant and the human cast such a thoroughly unlikable bag of a-holes that I really wanted to stop watching about 20 minutes in. Now, it doesn't help that at the point the movie starts, the characters are already stretched to their limits. If there was much redeeming quality to any of them, it's mostly gone by this point. In the Dawn review, I commented that the significant reduction of pointless bickering was one of its strong points. Well, this is practically Pointless Bickering: The Movie. Well, much as with Zeta Gundam, my hatred of the characters and desire to see them all die was largely rewarded.

The most positive thing I can say about this movie is that the effects are really good. The zombies look amazing. Of all the characters, Logan, a.k.a. 'Frankenstein', was the most entertaining. Bub the zombie was probably the most sympathetic. Sarah is also pretty good as a strong female protagonist and even though his accent seemed a bit overdone at times, Terry Alexander as John was pretty good too. I suppose there's some merit in the idea of humans devolving to the same level of savagery as the zombies, but it seems like it's specifically geared to be anti-military, which wouldn't be surprising in the post-Vietnam era. If that's the case, I return Romero's one-fingered salute with one of my own.

I really didn't like this movie, but the effects alone almost make it worthwhile. I'm going to be a little more generous with the rating than my gut tells me to be. If you've got sufficient tolerance for a bunch of thoroughly unlikable jackwagons bickering, threatening each other and doing other stupid crap before being torn apart by the ravening zombie hordes, then you'll probably want to give it a watch. Otherwise, pass on it.

Rating:
50/50