 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. So this is for the 1985 release day of the dead Yes, the George A. Romero day of the dead the final film in his of the dead trilogy so Prior to seeing dawn of the dead day of the dead was my favorite zombie film Now I've seen dawn of the dead and I rewatch day of the dead and I'm gonna say that I think dawn of the dead is now my favorite although I still really like day of the dead and I'll talk about why I'm Gonna hit all the aspects of it here. So written and directed by George A. Romero. I don't need to go into what he's done We all know George A. Romero. Oh, I will tell you that this is what I used To watch the film a nice blu-ray from scream factory quite good. I got it on Special I think it was like less than ten bucks. So that's a great deal for a great film. Anyway This was the lowest grossing film of the trilogy of the zombie films I Don't know if it was because people were kind of getting like about the zombies or if they felt like quality wise This wasn't the best one. I mean obviously the first film was such a big success because it was brand new It was a brand new concept dawn of the dead went even bigger and it followed up that brand new concept I think people maybe thought that day of the dead was a little too much of the same just because of The model aspect and dawn of the dead and the underground aspect in day of the dead does seem similar There are a bunch of similarities there with people kind of like fortifying themselves in these types of places But just a just some theories The original version of the script had scientists actually living above ground in a large compound with trained zombies as an army But the problem is they weren't able to shoot all that because of budgetary constraints Now there was actually a situation where The studio that Romero was working with on this said that if you get an R rating You can have the I think it was seven million dollar budget for this film But if it becomes unrated if you can't get that R then it gets cut in half to three and a half million. I Don't really know how you can do that to someone. I guess it's kind of like the the the carrot and stick situation where it's like Don't do this thing that we don't want you to do because otherwise you can't make this film like they're telling him up front I don't know. I think that was dumb though. I think they should have just gone with Doing the best film possible, but there's were different times. It's for financial reasons whatever now the original version of the script that Romero wrote was 200 pages and he had to you know, obviously whittled that down because of the budgetary constraints and Word on the street is that his shooting script was 88 pages Which 200 to 88? That's a big difference. I don't know if that's true or not, but it's an interesting rumor So the film wasn't actually shot on a soundstage, which is interesting It was shot in Wampa mine in Pittsburgh, which was actually a limestone mine Now they had a bunch of problems having to do with that one It was consistently 50 degrees so the nice thing is the temperature was always the same But the humidity was high and they for that reason they had a lot of problems with Their filming equipment with their audio equipment with the practical effects because of high humidity That type of stuff will come into play and it sucks So it's just interesting to know that they had that and they ended up having a lot of technical problems as well because of that they used real pig intestines in this one which Ended up being smelly, especially because of the humidity I assume kind of carried that smell a little bit more Um, but it also helped kind of take practical effects to the next level that you see in this film Obviously day of the dead has the best practical effects of the of the dead films It was a big deal and a lot of people do point to the day of the dead as kind of a marker Of practical effects in horror. So it you know, it's totally understandable All right, so getting into it. I love the way that the opening Nightmare scene looks with the zombie arms popping through the wall That's a very iconic scene from the film of sarah having this nightmare Which is very important Then I'll talk about later that they kind of laid this this ground work For sarah having these nightmares now Obviously it looks great with like the arm arms popping through and everything Apparently they had to do a retake of that because initially when they shot it The zombies pushed on it so hard that like the wall fell over on sarah She wasn't hurt or anything But they had to kind of reconstruct the wall and set it back up and it was apparently a real pain So this shows the largest scope of the zombie epidemic within the trilogy immediately to very very early on And that's one of the thing that remaro does within these films is he likes to set up very early on How chaotic it is how crazy things have gotten And the scope of the zombie epidemic And he does that obviously where they shot in florida because all the outside stuff was shot in florida obviously the inside stuff in That mine in pittsburgh But he shows on the streets of florida that it's just like desolate, you know, there's no people So it gives you the idea that the people you're seeing are potentially it for humanity or at least as far as they know As far as you as an audience member knows And then you start seeing all the zombies coming out and it's a large amount of zombies So I do like that start to it. It gives you the a great idea of what the situation is and how dire it is to This is the next step of the trilogy as well Because they're finally going to a military perspective. It is a different perspective It is doing something different But further than that like I talked about in dawn of the dead It's the next movement of going further into what are the zombies? How do the zombies function? How much humanity is left within the zombies? Obviously, you don't see much of anything in night of living dead You see a little bit in dawn of the dead With their kind of subconscious leading them to the mall And you do see a little bit of kind of like flashes of humanity in the faces of the zombies in dawn of the dead Obviously, you get a lot more of that in day of the dead Where they're looking inward with the zombies at least dr. Logan aka frankenstein Is doing with trying to figure out, you know, can you train them? Which is is what happened and based off the concept of the original Script they were going to have them as trained So that was an interesting concept, but it's just this continuation of You know going further with the story, which I like Excuse me the underground quarters in this seem insanely secure, but you really know that That's not gonna last they do really show you how kind of tucked away They are in the beginning, which is really cool But then you're like this is a this is day of the dead You know, it has to go wrong like we can't have a film where everything goes right it would that will never happen So, um, I just Found it interesting how you're like, man, this is super secure. So how does stuff go wrong? Obviously, it's much like with the mall and dawn of the dead. It's people people are the problem people are always the problem You're seeing aspects of where things could go wrong with the people who act really nonchalant about everything and when the guy chewing gum rickles Says they forgot to log When they were pulling some of the zombies out when they had that kind of like cattle shoot in a way From I they called a corral actually from the corral You know Sarah was looking at it and she's just like, oh, we haven't pulled any zombies out in x amount of time And he's like, oh, well, we don't always log them You know, like that early on is showing that there are people who aren't taking it Seriously who don't don't even really care that much And in a situation like that You have to be very meticulous about how you do things you have to be very safe about things So that lays the groundwork for you to understand that there are people who don't really care about what's going on People were kind of whatever about it and rickles himself. I mean That guy's something else because when he has his death scene He's laughing as he's almost about to die and he keeps laughing while he's being torn apart by zombies Like that guy's Yeah, and I don't know if that's because that's the way he was always or the you know epidemic of zombies made him that way I don't know Based on the interactions at the gate, you see how much tension there is between the surviving humans That's another aspect of it. They set up very very early all the conflicts and tensions going on between the two groups They're basically the military minded folks and the science minded folks Which you know creates this kind of like smarts versus brawn type situation That obviously leads to a very bad problem You see the effects of the stress wearing people down with Miguel's breakdown Who is military, but he has his you know, big breakdown and and he ends up being secluded because of that but um, I think that's You know, I you don't really see in dawn of the dead a whole lot of people like having a breakdown It's just them more in the mode of like we got to get this done. We got to take care of things So it was interesting to see that Miguel had this breakdown and so early in the film too But it shows the effects of the stress of having to live in a situation like that all the time Everyone seems real pissed off about Sarah and Miguel's relationship, and I put the question mark sexual frustration That's what I was kind of thinking about. There's a lot of like there's a lot of uh envy And jealousy that goes on there because it's commented on many times the relationship between Sarah and Miguel Because Sarah is the only female there and she's chosen to be with Miguel Now for that reason, I think it's an underlying issue of sexual frustration for these guys And they even kind of make comments about that from time to time So I'm wondering if part of their Hatred towards Miguel is because he is with the only woman there just saying Sarah makes a good point to dr. Logan that he needs to focus on what's causing the problem with the zombies and not what it You know what these zombific the zombification is doing basically He's very focused on how much humanity is still there and what he can do with the zombies As opposed to what would be helpful is if he was figuring out how did they become zombies? And then how do we prevent that? How do we get rid of that? How do we remedy this actual situation? This goes to the issue that people have all the time where they focus on The results of something and they don't focus on trying to fix the root cause And this is what Sarah's getting at when she's talking to dr. Logan Rhodes saying he would have uh have Sarah shot is the moment you realize humans once again Are going to be the main problem here You know that's taking those those conflicts those tensions that were already there and taking it to the level of Okay, this guy will just kill people like he does not care. He is going to just kill people So it's that foreshadowing You got to love the place uh that mcdermot and john have built for themselves Uh does remind me of the place that was built By the folks in dawn of the dead of their own little, you know home that they made So I really like it, you know, you go into the the the mobile home or the um I think it was a mobile home And then you go through it into the back and they have like this nice kind of like You know tropical theme laid out Which is a little bit of foreshadowing of where they're going to end up in the end which is on a tropical island Because they were able to fly there John's talk with sarah is interesting because it reveals a third type of person that's there The nihilists and also religious people that are kind of just surviving at that point Because you see the people who are who are like the military people who are like Let's just get out of here. Let's just fight. This is what we need to do Then you see the scientists who are kind of like let's understand this. Let's let's take it slow. Let's make the Most cautious and planned out actions that we can So john kind of reveals this third grouping which is It is what it is Everything we're doing is probably just pointless anyway. Let's just chill and just live out our days and relax And that's nihilists and that's religious people as well with which john is in that situation He's basically saying, you know humanity did something to piss god off and god is getting back and so i'm just gonna It is what it is. So When bub is given the handgun and he tries to shoot roads It's like he can sense evil because he's reconnected with his humanity due to dr. Logan That is one of the interesting things to me is is that first setup between bub And roads which obviously ends up coming back at the end of the film and is very satisfying at that point Where he's given the gun and his instinct isn't just to like try and shoot someone It's specifically to look at roads and try and shoot him So it gives you this idea that he senses that evil in roads and in this moment A zombie who's been one of the problems For the whole setup for the story Is more of a hero than an actual human Going to show that not everyone is a part of the solution In fact in a terrible situation you have a lot of people who should be a part of the solution And are actually more a part of the problem and a lot of times even worse than the problem that's going on The fact that dr. Logan is called frankenstein gives you the hint that there's something more sinister to him That's that kind of foreshadowing right there And you get that feeling more when he speaks in a bit of an unhinged way He has a few moments where he gets a little like shaky and he gets this weird look on his face And the way he speaks seems kind of unhinged and that's another one of those hints That there's something under the surface. There's something else going on with dr. Logan, which we end up finding out He's actually rewarding bub for learning and becoming more human by feeding body parts to him Of their dead comrades terrible Rhodes response to dr. Logan feeding the dead to bub isn't really the most Rational reaction. They they easily could have just um, you know Tied him up or imprisoned him or something like that because the other thing is they need him You know like every person there you need to keep the place running Especially someone like dr. Logan even though he's doing something wrong You need him for his brain. You need him to figure things out So it shows you really where Rhodes is where he just like he doesn't even really care that much about Survival in that situation. He just cares about himself and what he wants to do And then he goes and kills more people If Rhodes wants to leave he doesn't have to kill people. He could just leave That's another point that that I want to make about this. It's about killing people It's about being a vindictive bastard for Rhodes It's not about him actually wanting to go somewhere which he talks about many times If he really wanted to go he could just leave he could say to all his army guys who want to follow him Hey, let's just leave and let's leave these people here But no he wants to kill them and then leave vindictive evil basically The shovel cutting off of half of the head that gore gag I think is a really great gore gag in this film. I think that's the first gore gag that I really really really like in it That's someone where John gets that shovel You know, it wasn't John. It was McDermott gets the shovel and the zombies down and he like Crams it into his mouth and then pushes down on it with his foot and it pops The top half of his head off and it goes rolling really cool looked great and that kind of sets off The the kind of a waterfall that then happens of all the good gore gags Which I'll talk more about the ones when it comes up Notice that McDermott has run out of liquid courage His booze basically when he's found real courage I kind of noticed that is that he keeps going to the bottle throughout because he's just trying to maintain in this and He runs out as soon as they've started fighting the zombies And I found that as a statement that his liquid courage is done Because his real courage has kicked in he's become an actual hero of the story at this point one of them Once the horde of zombies is brought down by Miguel that place is a death trap That is a moment that you kind of like hold your breath Because of a little bit because you see what he's doing. He's trying to you know Get the zombies after Rhodes and his crew because of all the terrible stuff going on But you also know that there are other people caught in the crossfire at that point You have john you have McDermott and you have sarah. They are still there and they are still wanting to live and we're good people so it's tough I like how rickles laughs And right until the bitter end. I already talked about this, but I think it bears repeating That's a funny moment in the film and insane You got to love it when Rhodes gets his in the end because Because of bub bub finally killing him and how bub Salutes him and then he starts get ripped getting ripped up by the zombies and then that really great gore gag Probably the best one in the film of him getting torn in half In addition to that you also have the head rip Um the head getting ripped off of one of the other army guys much earlier But I think my favorite of the gore gags is literally Rhodes being torn in half and his body just being pulled along Really cool Love that and then you know just the impact of bub having taken care of Rhodes. It's great. It's great. I love it I'd normally be mad about a dream sequence at the end of a film I I would normally be mad about that But they did lay the groundwork of sarah having these nightmares So I think it actually worked and i'm okay with it And it actually was kind of a clever way to trick people into thinking that things ended poorly And then kind of turning around and be like no actually that's just her having a nightmare things ended very well So I was okay with that because it's not just the opening sequence nightmare that they have they have I think there's one other time before the end that that she has a nightmare It's the one where she sees miguel laying in bed and he sits up and all his guts kind of spill out Which is a cool scene by the way So yeah So in the end, uh, I I really want to call out sherman howard Sherman howard is the guy who played bub in this and his Performance was phenomenal. I think that's one of the best things about this film in my opinion His performance is so good. I mean just think about how hard it is Not just to do normal acting with actual lines But how much harder it is then to do acting with no lines And also did not act human to act like a zombie the way he did But then also go that next step of acting like a zombie Who's starting to get a bit of humanity back? That's a tough role. That's a very tough role And I think he did an amazing job with that. He really really really did so He's a star of the film in my opinion The remnants of humanity in zombies hit the next level after dawn of the dead. I kind of already talked about that There's a showing of brains versus brawn which plays out in pretty much every society eventually In reality those who are more apt to use brute force to solve problems become distrustful of the more intelligent people Who want to be more informed and precise when they're doing problem solving? That's the big setup that you get in the beginning of brains versus brawn going on and how contentious it is This actually happens in societies Where people who are more apt to act with force and just want to do things that way Become very distrustful of people who want to take their time and think things out and be as educated as possible When they do deal with stuff like this So it's a good mirroring of what happens in real life with this film So it makes it feel like if there was a zombie epidemic that this could happen Basically, it really does and it's just a cool film. It's a good film So I would be interested in hearing everyone's thoughts on this film Go ahead and put it down in the comments. Also, if you want to tell me, which is your favorite of the trilogy Um, is it dawn of the dead? Is the day of the dead? Is it the original? We'll find out Um, so out of five stars with half stars in play. I'm going to give this a very solid four star rating It I gave dawn of the dead four and a half This one has to get four because it's a little bit below it in my opinion But still a very nice very fun film Thank you. Thank you very much for checking this out. Do me a quick favor though Hit that subscribe button That is your way to repay me if you like this video or any video I've ever done on my channel That's how you repay me. It's quick. It's painless. Just a quick subscribe But also if you could hit the notification bell button because then that way you'll know when I'm putting up New videos, whether it's an in-depth review like this Or a no spoiler review of something new coming out or an unboxing or a haul video or an opinion piece Or any of that stuff. 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