George A. Romero's Day Of The Dead (1985)
Let's face it. We watch zombie movies for one thing-the gore. There is nothing more perversley enjoyable than seeing someone being eaten in a grotesque manner. However, when Romero makes a zombie film it is always filled with social commentary and even an allegorical subtext.
Romero is the undisputed king of the zombie film. To date he has made 5 '..of the dead' films and each and everyone has spoken more succinctly about the socio-political climate of the time than many films that directly dealt with those issues. 'Night Of The Living Dead' was a thinly veiled attack on both America's involvement in Vietnam and racism. Ten years later we got the superlative 'Dawn Of The Dead' that heaped scorn upon consumerism and with 'Day Of The Dead' the theme played upon man's pitiful ignorance to the outside world. This again could be linked to the 80's phenomonem of money being god and screw everyone else.
'Day' unfortunately is not a fully realised movie. The original scipt was much wider in it's focus and required a bigger budget. However this was slashed in half to $3.5 m (a pittance today) and rewrites by Romero were hastily put together. Despite this we still have a wonderful film that embraces nihilism whilst simutaneously deriding it.
The worlds population is outnumbered approx 400,000:1 in favour of the zombies so a hastily planned team of soldiers and scientists are dispatched to an underground silo to provide answers and possible cures to the zombies. Unfortunately this leads to chaos and bitterness, with both sides blaming each other and being utterly intolerant; therefore abandoning a possible resolution and instead are virtually destroyed themselves. All of this because no one wanted to back down.
'Day' features some of the very best make up F/X seen in zombie films both before and since. This is entirely down to an undisputed master: Tom Savini. Savini was a Vietnam war photographer who used the horrors of Vietnam to fuel his love of make up and effects. Stomach contents slop to the floor. Arms and legs are torn off and craniums are drilled to death (literally) .
A big shout must also go the film's score by John Harrison. It is one of my favourite scores and is a classic 80's synth score that genuinely does add to the film and does'nt resort to cliche.
Romero should always be applauded for his liberal stance on film making ettiquette. In every film he has made he has always had very strong Female and African-American characters that are intrinsic to the story. This is what sets him miles apart from formulaic Horror directors.
'Day of The Dead' is probably the least dynamic of Romero's zombie films but it is wonderfully perverse and has a rich vein of black comedy that is still admired today (ask Simon Pegg what he thinks about the film and he could fill 3 pages on this forum professing his love for the film) and stands up as a veritable masterpiece in modern horror.
As a little aside. If you ever wondered where the intro for the Gorillaz track M1 A1 came from, then the beginning of 'Day' is your answer.