jackhammer

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.

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Subterfuge

For some reason I don't enjoy excessively gory film without a plot which flood the cinema nowadays.

Two films that I love are Poltergeist and the original Halloween.

RoemerMW

You'd probably like Don't Look Now. It's not gory, and it's really intense. It's probably my favorite horror film of all time.

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Akira

Not every day you get a Bono lookalike to be in your movie!!

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Bulldog

I wasn't exactly overwhelmed by Day Of the Dead. I liked it, but Dawn was the best one for me. Great review though, makes me wanna go and give it another chance. Good job man

jibber

Latest horror film I watched was a japanese movie called infection. The plot centres around a group of doctors/nurses treating a patient with some odd and disgusting symptoms. The title will give you enough information to get what the rest of the movie will be about.

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What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do -- especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.
William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways

Your toughest competitor lives in your head. Some days his name is fear, or pain, or gravity. Stomp his ass.

HOOKED ON THE WHITE POWDER

boo boo

Great review.

It was so satisfying to finally see Captain Rhodes and all those other assh*les get their come uppings.

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jackhammer

Slightly late review as Halloween has now passed but nevertheless it's no excuse to not include my all time favourite horror film. Halloween is one of the most successful independent horror films of all the time which is a remarkable feat in itself but couple that with critics approval and you have one of the finest horror films ever made.

There are many reasons for this but the creative umbrella for the films success ultimately belongs to master director John Carpenter. He not only directs, but writes (with Debra Hill) and scores the movie all on a ridiculously low budget of approx $300,000. Yes you read that right. 300k

Let's begin with THAT theme tune. Everybody knows it and the main reason why it is so unforgettable is that it is in 10/8 time which is unerving on it's own:



Another example of the film's plus points is the camerawork. The film's masterful opening Steadicam shot is a P.O.V shot that takes in the killer circling the house before entering and taking a knife and then preceding to murder the inhabitant. This seems like one continuous shot but there is a careful edit half way through. Nevertheless the reason why it works so well is because you are not passive in this, the director takes you into the killers mind and wants you to experience it further.

The use of a widescreen filming technique is utterly critical to this film and for a film with such a low budget, much praise has been heaped upon this. When you use the bigges widescreen ratio that you can, then you can make the background as interesting as the foreground. If you click on the shockwave presentation here:TV & film aspect ratios - Planet Of Tunes you will notice how much more you can see with the 2.35:1 ratio. This meant that he could have the killer encroaching upon the edge of shots without losing the composition shots and add a sense of someone always watching but who you can never quite see.

The film is also remarkable for the almost complete absence of gore. this was intentional. Although this film was the catalyst for the 80's blood soaked slasher genre, Halloween wanted to stray into psychological as much as physical horror.

The film's plot of a knife weilding maniac was hardly groundbreaking but the manner in which the story was fleshed out is. A film with a strong Female heroine was a year before horror cinemas most famous heroine (Ripley from 'Alien') and there is debate for it's moralistic stance. Characters who are murdered are pot smoking, promiscuous teenagers but the heroine is chaste.

The film has admittedly dated as more visceral horror has desensitised us to violence and murder but Halloween remains a truly supreme achievement due to it's highly effective use of composition, music, suggestion and intelligence and for me is still the greatest horror film ever made. (I have 3 different DVD versions of the film-now that's dedication/madness).

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Bulldog

Ah, Halloween, what a movie! Definitely in one of my favourite horror movies too (a notch or two below American Werewolf In London and American Psycho for me though). Another sharp review man, looking forward to some more

jackhammer

At least one of those films will be reviewed sometime.

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