Review of Day of the Dead (1985) by Daebu_Char — 24 Mar 2021
I honestly don't understand why this film receives so much flack when, in my opinion, it's the best one out of the three movies in the Living Dead series and certainly my personal favorite. From what I gathered, it wasn't as popular as the previous two films and more specifically "Dawn of the Dead" which seems to be the fan favorite.
It seems to me like people at the time more or less wanted Romero to deliver Dawn of the Dead 2 and set themselves up for disappointment when they found out this isn't a direct sequel. Instead, the film follows different characters while further fleshing out the post-apocalyptic world overrun with zombies.
One thing I personally find funny is the notion that the film has "bland" characters and "over-the-top acting" which I've noticed many people bring up... not sure about that because I thought the acting was incredible, and the protagonist--Sarah Bowman--one of the first 'strong female protagonists' in American film before that became a thing.
What I loved about Sarah's character, in particular, was the fact that she was strong (arguably one of the most resilient characters for sure), but she was still a woman at heart, not some manly ""badass"" Mary Sue cliché devoid of vulnerabilities sadly so prevalent today.
Over the course of the film, she faces sexism and death threats from an unhinged self-appointed leader of the military, and has to balance multiple things like her work as a scientist and taking care of her husband who's having a mental breakdown.
The other characters were quite intriguing as well, and the subplot involving the domestication of the zombies creepy and macabre. I honestly wish I hadn't seen movies like 'Resident Evil: Extinction' that flat out copied certain plot elements from this film prior to watching Day of the Dead.
As I said, I LOVED this chapter in the trilogy, and while it's different from the other two installments as far as the story and characters are concerned, the atmosphere is still distinctly Romero-esque and unique.
Without a doubt 10/10.
This review of Day of the Dead (1985) was written by Daebu_Char on 24 Mar 2021.
Day of the Dead has generally received positive reviews.
Was this review helpful?
