Day of the Dead (1985 film)


Day of the Dead is a 1985 American zombie horror film written and directed by George A. Romero. It was produced by Richard P. Rubinstein. The film is the third film in Romero's Night of the Living Dead series. Romero described the film as a "tragedy about how a lack of human communication causes chaos and collapse even in this small little pie slice of society."
Day of the Dead was filmed in fall 1984 with above-ground scenes in the Florida cities of Fort Myers and Sanibel and underground scenes near Wampum, Pennsylvania. The film was made on a budget of approximately $4 million and grossed $34 million worldwide. The film was remade twice: the first is the 2008 film of the same name and the second is .

Plot

A zombie apocalypse has ravaged the entire world, with zombies outnumbering humans 400,000 to 1. The surviving humans live in security within barricaded camps and secure underground bunkers.
In an underground facility in the Everglades housing scientists and soldiers, the scientists are trying to find a solution to the zombie pandemic; the soldiers have been assigned to protect them. Dr. Sarah Bowman, her lover and soldier Private Miguel Salazar, radio operator Bill McDermott, and helicopter pilot John fly from their underground base to Fort Myers, Florida, in an attempt to locate additional survivors. They find only a large horde of the undead, and they return to the base, where they are told that the military detachment's officer-in-charge Major Cooper has died. Sarah becomes concerned over Miguel's worsening mental state.
Dr. Logan, the lead scientist, believes that the zombies can be made docile by training and conditioning. He keeps a collection of captive zombies for use as test subjects, in a large underground corral in the compound. The angry and reactionary Captain Rhodes and the soldiers that he leads vehemently object to the dangers involved in capturing zombies and keeping them inside the compound. The tension between soldiers and scientists worsens in the face of dwindling supplies, loss of communication with other survivors, and slow, uncertain progress in research.
During a meeting between the scientists and the soldiers, Rhodes declares that, following the death of Major Cooper, he is taking command of the base. He only grants the scientists "some" time to prove results, and declares that he will execute anyone who interferes with his leadership. He also threatens to abandon the scientists and leave the compound, cutting off their protection from the zombies. Shaken by Rhodes' threats, Sarah goes to the quarters shared by John and Bill to discuss the situation. John professes his conviction that the zombie-plague is a form of divine punishment against mankind, that the scientific mission is doomed to failure, and that the effort to preserve records of civilization is pointless. He suggests that the three of them should take the helicopter, abandon the soldiers, and fly to a desert island somewhere where they could live off the land and start a family.
Dr. Logan hopes to secure Rhodes' goodwill by showing him the results of his research. Logan is especially proud of "Bub", a friendly and non-aggressive zombie who remembers some parts of his past life and engages in rudimentary human behavior: listening to music, aiming a pistol, saluting Captain Rhodes, and repeating a string of garbled words. "Civility must be rewarded," Logan tells Rhodes. "If it's not rewarded, there's no use for it." Rhodes, however, is not impressed.
During a zombie roundup mission, a zombie escapes his harness when Miguel loses his focus, and the zombie fatally wounds Sergeant Miller, who fires his gun with his dying breath and accidentally shoots and kills a friendly soldier named Johnson. Miguel attempts to kill the creature, but another zombie bites him on the arm. Sarah amputates the arm and cauterizes it with fire to stop the spreading infection from killing Miguel and re-animating him into a zombie. Rhodes then calls off the experiments and demands that all captive zombies be destroyed, as well as severing any further help from him and his remaining men.
Sarah and Fisher later discover that Logan had been experimenting on the remains of the dead soldiers and an audio recording of him rambling to himself. Fearing that Logan has gone insane and with the conditions worsening, Bill decides that they should leave in the helicopter immediately. Rhodes finds out that Logan has been feeding the flesh of his dead soldiers to Bub as a reward for his docility and positive behavior. Enraged, Rhodes kills Logan and seizes the remaining scientists and non-military personnel, stripping them of their weapons. Rhodes brings his prisoners and attempts to force John to fly him and his remaining soldiers away from the base, which John refuses to do. In response, Rhodes kills Fisher, locks Sarah and Bill inside the zombie corral with the zombies, and orders Steel to beat John into submission.
Back in Dr. Logan's laboratory, Bub manages to escape from his chains, and finds Dr. Logan's corpse. In a display of human emotion, he mourns the loss of his instructor. He then picks up a pistol and goes in search of revenge.
Meanwhile, a suicidal Miguel heads off unnoticed to the outside fence, where he first opens the gate to allow hundreds of zombies to walk through, and then allows the zombies to begin tearing him apart before he presses the release button that lowers the steel loading gate and gives the zombies access to the base. While he is doing this, John overcomes his captors, steals their weapons and goes into the zombie corral to rescue Sarah and Bill. As the zombies rapidly enter the complex, Rhodes abandons his men and flees on a cart. Rhodes' subordinates are all killed. Bub finds Rhodes and fires at him. Rhodes hastily tries to escape, but he runs into a huge mass of zombies, and is cornered by Bub, who shoots him in the stomach. Bub sarcastically salutes Rhodes, who is then torn apart by the zombies.
John reunites with Sarah and Bill inside the zombie corral. They manage to get to the surface, and fly in the helicopter to a desert island, as John had earlier suggested. Sarah marks another day off her calendar.

Cast

Development

Romero originally intended the film to be "the Gone with the Wind of zombie films". Following budget disputes and the artistic need to release the film unrated, the budget of the film was cut in half, dropping from $7 million to $3.5 million. This forced Romero to scale back his story, rewriting the script and adjusting his original vision to fit the smaller budget.
A total of five scripts were written as Romero wrestled with the film's concepts and the budgetary constraints. The first draft was over 200 pages, which he later condensed to 122 pages. This is the true original script, and to date no copies of it have come to light. This version was likely rejected because UFDC felt it was too expensive for them to produce even with an R rating. Romero subsequently scaled down the scope of this script into a 165-page draft, then condensed it again to a 104-page draft labeled the 'second version, second draft' in an unsuccessful final attempt to get the story within budget parameters. When this failed, he drastically altered the original story concept and ultimately produced a shooting draft that numbered only 88 pages.
Filming took place in the fall of 1984 at locations in Pennsylvania and Florida. All above-ground scenes were filmed at several locations around Florida, where Romero was living at the time. The opening scene was filmed in Fort Myers, Florida. The fenced in compound with the helicopter landing pad was shot at a location called Bowman's Beach Helistop in Sanibel. Underground scenes were filmed in a former mine shaft located near Wampum, Pennsylvania, converted into a long-term storage facility for important documents. Though the mine maintained a constant temperature of about, its high humidity played havoc with the crew's equipment and props. Mechanical and electrical failures were a constant problem throughout filming, and caused several of special effects leader Tom Savini's props to fail during the filming. Despite these failures, Savini was nominated and won the 1985 Saturn Award for best makeup effects. The remote location also complicated the transportation of crew members and equipment. Cast and crew would often sleep in the mine overnight to avoid the time-consuming travel to and from the shooting location. "Zombie" extras were recruited from among the citizens of Pittsburgh, with preference given to those who had worked on previous Romero films. Extras were paid $1.00 for their services, and given a hat that read "I was a Zombie in Day of the Dead".
The film was given a very limited release. This is chronicled in the documentary "The Many Days of Day of the Dead" on the two-disc Anchor Bay special edition DVD of the film. Some of the original concepts and characters remain, but the film differs greatly from Romero's original script, as stated by actress Lori Cardille:

Casting

was cast as Rhodes, the film's antagonist. As stated by Pilato "He pretty much just gave it to me. I don't know if he auditioned other people, but it was very quick. I came in and it was like, "You got it!." Pilato had acted in two prior films directed by Romero, the first being Pilato's debut Dawn of the Dead and the second being Knightriders, in between those films he played his first lead role in a film entitled Effects. In an interview Pilato was asked if Romero "had him in mind", Pilato stated that one of the reasons why he got the role was because of the budget being scaled down from 7 to 3.5 million.

Release and reception

Subsequent to its theatrical release, the film has grossed over 30 million dollars worldwide. Day of the Dead would earn most of its gross revenue when the film was released internationally on VHS format, and later DVD and Blu-ray. This is in contrast to the film's poor box-office reception when it was released in cinemas.
and David Emge from Dawn of the Dead and Joseph Pilato from Day of the Dead at a Dead series convention.
Based on 37 reviews collected retrospectively by Rotten Tomatoes, Day of the Dead has an 81% approval rating, with a weighted average of 6.94/10. That rating is the lowest of the initial 3 films in Romero's Dead series with Night of the Living Dead having a 97% approval rating and Dawn of the Dead having a 93% approval rating. The websites critical consensus states that "Day of the Dead may arguably be the least haunting entry in George A. Romero's undead trilogy, but it will give audiences' plenty to chew on with its shocking gore and scathing view of society." On Metacritic the film holds a score of 60 out of 100 based on reviews from 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Day of the Dead had its world premiere on June 30, 1985, and was given a limited release on July 3, 1985. The film saw its wide release on July 19, 1985. Roger Ebert, who reacted favorably to other films of Romero's Dead series, gave Day of the Dead one and a half stars; he praised the special effects but was put off by what he referred to as "over-acting" in the movie, specifically that all of the actors screamed at each other for the entire film in a way that was not present in Romero's earlier films. BBC reviewer Almar Haflidason stated "It benefits from a far larger budget than its predecessors, but suffers from a story as malnourished as the zombies that are chewing it up," Haflidason would go on to give the film three out of five stars. As noted by The New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin "Yes, there are enough spilled guts and severed limbs to satisfy the bloodthirstiest fan. But these moments tend to be clustered together, and a lot of the film is devoted to windy argument." Allmovie reviewer Keith Phipps stated that: "The last, to date at least, of George Romero's living dead films is in many respects the least interesting, although it's not for a lack of ambition." Variety wrote that the film was the most unsatisfying of the original three films and that "The acting here is generally unimpressive and in the case of Sarah's romantic partner, Miguel, unintentionally risible." Dave Kehr praised the film in his review for The Chicago Reader, writing that "this time the focus is less political than philosophical. Beginning from a position of absolute misanthropy, Romero asks what it means to be human, and the answers are funny, horrifying, and ultimately hopeful."
Day of the Dead would peak at 23 on the Billboard chart Top VHS Sales in 1986 a year after its initial release.
The film grossed $5.8 million domestically. It fared much better internationally, grossing $28.2 million outside of the United States. Day of the Deads total gross is a little over $34 million. The film is also noted for its special effects work, notably Tom Savini's make-up, he was honored with his second Saturn Award in 1985 for Best Make-Up, the first time being with Dawn of the Dead in 1980. Jonathan Rosenbaum placed the film in his personal canon of 1000 favorite films, one of two Romero films chosen by Rosenbaum. Romero himself cited Day of the Dead as his personal favorite of his original trilogy of zombie films. On May 9, 2012, the film headlined the 12 Hour Film Festival Hudson Horror Show V.

Home video

The film was released on DVD on November 24, 1998 in the United States and on March 5, 2001 in the United Kingdom. Both the theatrical and an unrated director's cut were released as special editions containing identical bonus features, and the DVD was released in the United Kingdom in a region 2 DVD. The Blu-ray version of Day of the Dead was released October 2, 2007. This edition includes many special features, including two audio commentary tracks with writer-director George A. Romero, Tom Savini, production designer Cletus Anderson, and lead actress Lori Cardille. There is also a second commentary with fellow filmmaker and self-proclaimed Romero fan, Roger Avary. It also includes two documentaries; the first one is entitled The Many Days of 'Day of the Dead, which focuses on the original script and the budget, it also included information about shooting in the Gateway Commerce Center. What is also mentioned is the casting details. The second documentary, entitled Day of the Dead: Behind the Scenes, focuses mostly on make-up effects. On March 29, 2010 Arrow Video released a 25th Anniversary Edition on Blu-ray exclusive to the UK.
Shout Factory! released the film under its Scream Factory label on September 17, 2013. The release is a Collector's Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack with all-new artwork and special features.

Popular culture

Near the end of the film version of Resident Evil, the protagonist Alice walks outside of her quarantine into a ravaged city street jammed with traffic. The camera pans past a newspaper blowing in the wind stating "The Dead Walk!", a direct homage to George Romero's work on Day of the Dead.
One episode of Stroker and Hoop featured the characters battling zombies using guns made by Double-Wide. They turn out to fire only sunlight, which he claims is because of zombies' vulnerability to sunlight, hinted at by the film being called Night of the Dead and not Day of the Dead. Coroner Rick yells at him "That was the sequel!"
The song "M1 A1", from the self-titled 2001 Gorillaz album samples the pulsing synthesizers and cries of "Hello! Is anyone there?" from the opening of the film. The song "Hip Albatross", also by Gorillaz, features a clip of Terry Alexander's dialogue. Furthermore, the artwork for the song "November has Come" off of the Gorillaz' 2005 album Demon Days has a picture of a calendar pinned to a brick wall set to the month of October with all the dates marked off in red Xs.
The song "Battlefield", from the This Is My Battlefield 2004 Panzer AG album samples Captain Rhodes asking Sarah in reference to Miguel's zombie bite: "You think he wants to walk around after he's dead? You think he wants to be one of these things?" The line "Sit down or so help me God I'll have you shot" appears once near the end of the song.
The band Through the Eyes of the Dead sampled a clip at the beginning of the song "Between the Gardens that Bathe in Blood", released on the Scars of Ages EP.
The Ministry song "Burning Inside" features an audio sample of the military station's warning horn and a few notes of composer John Harrison's synthesized score.
The song "Confessions of a Knife," from the 1990 album Confessions of a Knife... by My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult samples dialogue between Sarah and Captain Rhodes: Captain Rhodes: "I'll have you shot."
Sarah: "Are you out of your mind?"
Captain Rhodes: "No, ma'am. Are you?"
Along with dialogue from Private Steel and laughter from Private Rickles that repeats later throughout the song.
Steel: "Bang! You're dead!" followed by Rickles' laughter.
The song "The Only Good God Is a Dead God," from the 1992 album Psychological Warfare Technology Systems by Terror Against Terror, samples Captain Rhodes' final screams "Choke on them... choke on them," with the sounds of the zombies eating him.
American punk band the Misfits recorded a song about the film entitled "Day of the Dead" for their 1997 album American Psycho.
In 2014, Sherman Howard's zombie character Bub appeared in a cameo in the fifteenth episode of Season 4 of the AMC series The Walking Dead Season 4 episode "Us", as one of the walkers encountered by the characters Glenn and Tara in a railroad tunnel, an homage to not only the character but also to the underground setting of Day of the Dead.
The first episode of the third season of Stranger Things sees the main characters sneaking into their local cinema to watch an early screening of "Day of the Dead".
Seattle-based musical duo Little Black Bottles composed "Letter to Miguel", a tribute song to character Miguel Salazar, for their album Let Them Eat Red Velvet Cake.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on LP and cassette in the same year as the film by Saturn Records; it contained 6 tracks, all of which was composed and performed by John Harrison. The vocals came from Sputzy Sparacino who was the lead singer of the Pittsburgh R&B/Dance/Cover band Modern Man and Delilah, who was known at the time for being the lead singer of the Pittsburgh R&B/Gospel/Dance band Samson & Delilah on the tracks "If Tomorrow Comes" and "The World Inside Your Eyes". The album was re-issued in 2002 by Numenorean Records as a limited edition CD. The new edition was limited to 3000 copies and contained the original album plus five additional tracks from the music and effects reel. It also included a 12-page booklet with information from Harrison and Romero regarding the score.

Prequel and remakes

A prequel was released in 2005, entitled '. Although it is, by definition, an official sequel as Taurus Entertainment Company holds the rights to the original film, no one from the original Day of the Dead had any involvement in the film. The film also diverges from the continuity of the original in several respects.
A loose remake of the film, Day of the Dead, was released straight to DVD on April 8, 2008. Little of the original plot exists, with only a few basic elements remaining; notably the underground army base near the end of the movie, and some of the characters' names. This marks the second time that Ving Rhames makes an appearance in a remake of a George A. Romero zombie film, following Dawn of the Dead.
On July 10, 2013 it was announced that there would be another remake of Day of the Dead, titled '. Christa Campbell and Lati Grobman, two of the producers behind Texas Chainsaw 3D have obtained the rights. Campbell, who had a small role in the first remake said "We want to keep it as close to the Romero version as possible. To make sure that his fans are happy. These are not going to be zombies climbing walls and doing back flips like in World War Z." Campbell and Grobman are currently holding meetings with possible writers to figure out the best way to adapt the story. Directed by Hèctor Hernández Vicens, it began filming in June 2016. The film was released on January 5, 2018.
In March 2020, SyFy ordered a 10 episode first season of Day Of The Dead. Premiering next year on the SyFy Channel.

Comic

Stef Hutchinson wrote the 24-page comic Day of the Dead: Desertion, which was exclusively released to celebrate the movie's 25th anniversary and shows the origins of Bub, before becoming a zombie.