Of the various “___ of the Dead” movies by George A. Romero—the director who pioneered the zombie sub-genre with Night of the Living Dead—the third entry in his franchise is my favorite. That may be blasphemous to most zombie-horror fans out there, as it’s a movie that didn’t do well with critics or fans upon its release. It also wasn’t exactly a box-office success. Nonetheless, I do indeed think Romero peaked with Day and it’s his best of his iconic zombie franchise for a number of reasons. Night of the Living Dead is an undeniable classic that is extremely important to film history. Dawn of the Dead is a fantastic, fun continuation of the story. Dawn even has a pretty good remake, which is high praise when you consider how often remakes are terrible. However, if you asked me what my favorite zombie movie was… I’d say Shaun of the Dead, with Day of the Dead as a close second. You can always add the caveat that I’m not the biggest fan of zombies when it comes to horror if that claim makes you too uncomfortable to accept.

What Is It?

In an underground facility, somewhere in Florida, a group of survivors are trying to make it through the zombie apocalypse. The survivors consist of a group of scientists, soldiers from the U.S. military, a pilot, and a radio opperator. The team is there with the hopes of finding a solution to the zombies. The dialogue and setting suggesting that this was a U.S. government operation at some point with the soldiers meant to help facilitate the needs of the scientists. However, as is the case with any zombie apocalypse movie, tensions begin to flair among the survivors and suddenly the facility is far less safe than it once was.

Among the small group of scientists is Sarah (Lori Cardille), the main character. She’s looking for a cure or something to undo the infection, but is having more luck butting heads with the leader of the soldiers, Captain Roades (Joseph Pilato). Meanwhile, the other main scientist, Dr. Logan (Richard Liberty), is trying to find a way to domesticate the zombies through basic reward-based training. Unfortunately for him, and everyone else, Captain Roades is a ruthless leader who is far less sympathetic to the needs of the scientists than previous leaders. With them cut off from any superiors in Washington, they’re under his “care” for the remainder of their time there. And as more people of Roades’ unit fall to the zombie threat, the less patience he has for the operation and the scientists. It’s made apparent very early in the film who the real villain is, and you quickly understand what direction the story will take.

Why does It Stand Out?

Day of the Dead is a film that stands out from its other zombie-film contemporaries in a number of ways. First of all, the acting and direction in Day is arguably better than any other zombie film that George Romero made. While Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead are important in film history, and films I genuinely enjoy, I think Romero perfected his craft here. Night was an amateur project with fledgling actors and a shoe-string budget. So, while it did blow up as a sensational and groundbreaking film of its time, it has to be given a number of different passes when viewing critically through a modern lens. Dawn is a much different story, as Romero and his team had a much bigger budget and actors who were all very capable. It’s a great film that, again, pushed the boundaries of horror for the time. It also had a lot of fun moments with the characters playing around in the mall and with the big confrontation with the biker gang. Day, despite its namesake, is a much darker film.

From the opening credits, the film’s tone is established and it never really lets up until the end. With a John Carpenter-style synth score playing over the opening credits, a helicopter flies over an abandoned dilapidated city in Florida, with decayed corpses lining the streets. The setting and the way everything is shot paints a bleak picture. Then, a zombie with a missing jaw appears on screen, along with the film’s title. As the team attempts to contact any survivors on the radio, Sarah and the soldier on the verge of collapse, Miguel (Anthony Dileo Jr.), exit the helicopter to yell on a bullhorn in an attempt to reach anyone: “Hello?! Is anyone out there?” They repeat their calls many times, but nothing stirs except the undead residents of the city. Soon, the moans and cries of the zombies that have been awakened by Miguel’s calls reaches a volume that could be heard over the helicopter’s blades as a massive swarm of corpses floods the streets. Seeing the futility of the situation, they head back to their underground facility and do not come out into the sunlight again until the end of the movie.

The facility itself consists of a few primary locations. The dark caverns—what was likely a mine at some point—has a tall fence erected to keep out the wandering dead that had made their way into the area. It’s like a zombie playpen, and the soldiers collect the undead from here, one by one, to be used in the scientists’ experiments. In the laboratory areas of the facility, the rooms and halls are built around the rocky outgrowths of the area, giving a slight claustrophobic perspective to the dim rooms. However, it’s in the brightly-lit rooms, like the mess hall, where the real danger lies, as these are where Captain Roades often appears.

Roades is a great antagonist made even better by the intense performance of Joseph Pilato. He constantly looks on edge and often speaks with a menacing tone that only becomes more dangerously unhinged when he becomes enraged. Before we even see him, the other characters are already talking about how he’s not likely to be as pleasant as the previous leader of the facility, and they’re most certainly right. In the first scene he appears, he immediately clashes with Sarah verbally. When she attempts to leave a meeting with him, he threatens to have her shot if she doesn’t sit down. When she asks if he’s gone insane, he softly replies: “No ma’am, are you? I just told you I was willing to kill you if you didn’t get back in your chair. You didn’t get back in your chair.” The scene only escalates from there as the stubborn Sarah tries to call his bluff.

It’s not just Roades who is on edge. Every other character shows their distress and fatigue, as you would expect from a small group of people who are underground in a zombie apocalypse and not sleeping enough. Most other zombie films focus on the beginning of the disaster. Day of the Dead takes place already quite deep into the pandemic. Regardless, it wouldn’t take long for people to get worn out from all the stress of the world, and you don’t always get that perspective from the characters. If you haven’t figured it out, the main reason I enjoy this movie is because the characters are more interesting than other zombie films. There are certainly some one-note characters to fill out the cast, but the main characters have a lot more depth than you’d expect in a horror film like this.

Sarah is a strong female protagonist and would fit perfectly in my argument of how these types of characters were done much better than the modern intersectional-feminist interpretation of the term that has flooded movies lately. She has a strong will, a smart mouth, but she’s still vulnerable in certain parts of the movie. She stands up to Roades, but understands he has the power and has to back down when the guns come out. In a dramatic scene in which she’s protecting Miguel from him, she stands her ground until he leaves, but then breaks down and cries. She’s badass, but she’s sympathetic because she’s very human, unlike modern female protagonists who are just trying to be stoic, invincible men.

Sarah is not the only compelling character. Dr. Logan is also interesting. He’s the one who looks the most like someone who is not sleeping enough. The performance shows that he’s slipping into madness, but it’s happening gradually. He’s a smart character with some good lines of dialogue to talk his way out of trouble with Roades. But as he becomes more focused on his experiments, he continues to drift closer to conflict. In Logan’s attempts to domesticate the undead, he crosses several moral lines, which we’re alerted to mid-way through the movie. This sets up the tension for later in the plot. When things finally come to a head, it ends quickly and violently for everyone involved.

And when I say violently, this movie holds nothing back in terms of the gore. Tom Savini does the special effects here. You can look back at his earlier films and see how he was honing his craft of gory special effects, but Day of the Dead I consider his magnum opus. The last twenty minutes are gruesome and horrifying. People are getting their bodies ripped apart, piece by piece. If you have a weak stomach, it’s not an easy watch. I’m not a horror fan who is drawn to gore, but I still admire the special effects and the craft when it is done well. Since this, thankfully, came out before CGI arrived and partially ruined special effects for a few decades, everything is done practically, making it that much more believable.

TL;DR

Day of the Dead succeeds where Night of the Living Dead failed and improves upon the various minor issues I personally had with Dawn of the Dead. It’s a showstopper of practical effects. While there isn’t much action throughout the film, the tension of the setting and the drama of the people help keep the movie intense and captivating. The cast is full of characters that are more developed than other zombie films, including one of the best antagonists of the 1980s. If you’re a zombie nut and you have not seen 1985’s Day of the Dead, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

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