Day of the Dead

Despite the shorter span of time between this film and its prequel, significantly more time seems to have passed within this world since Dawn of the Dead than between that film and Night of the Living Dead. The undead have overrun the entire country at least, and a group of humans struggles to survive in an underground bunker. Despite having to rely on each other to live, nobody seems to be able to get along as the scientists researching the zombies butt heads with the military men who are supposed to protect them, and the strains of living in such conditions have started to weigh heavily on some. One guy's trying to domesticate the dead and is actually making progress with a particularly clever fellow named Bub, another wants to figure out what actually causes the transformation, and the new commander of the army presence just seems to want to be a dick all day. Day of the Dead is certainly less focused on a message than previously in the series, with the only thing you can gleam from it is again how men are their own downfall as much as the zombies are.

The gore is much improved this time, with guts falling all over the place, humans being ripped and torn apart, and a lot of heads being opened by bullets. It's harder for me to be disgusted by that sort of thing when the situation is so ludicrous, and people getting violently eaten was honestly a welcome respite from my boredom with the rest of the movie. It's shorter than Dawn of the Dead, but it still spends too much time on unimportant conversations and periods of nothing much happening. Bub and the scientist teaching him were an entertaining diversion for a while, but there's just not enough action to keep the movie going. Dawn had a pretty crazy scene in the beginning to set up the sense of carnage as society breaks down, but the opening here doesn't do a lot to get you excited. It succeeds better as a horror movie than Dawn did, as the zombies felt more like a real threat to their lives, and the last scenes where things go to hell are generally pretty effective. Overall Romero's quintessential zombie series hasn't done a tone to really impress me, but it hasn't felt like a waste of time either.

Dawn of the Dead

I'm fairly familiar with George Romero's Living Dead series, having seen the original, Land of the Dead, and Zack Snyder's remake of this very film. In general, they've been watchable if unexceptional, and this one is no different. In many ways, it's more of a social statement than a true horror movie. The first one had a message about race to go along with its low-budget black and white scares. Dawn seems to be more concerned with the increase in consumer culture, as it takes place mostly within a shopping mall. Most people back then had seen the rise of such fully-enclosed shopping centers within their lifetimes, and they're still a symbol today of our commercialism. And it's a pretty obvious statement the movie is trying to make when a character asks why so many of the undead are wandering around the mall and another speculates that it may be an instinct from when they were still alive.

Political stances aside, the movie is decent if a bit boring at times. Famous make-up artist Tom Savini came onto the series here and his gore effects are better, though because of the color end up looking a bit worse than the original. Whenever someone gets bitten into it looks like their flesh is made of foam rubber. Zombies are made a mockery of as often as they're treated as a genuine threat, easily pushed aside and ran past, and by the end they're literally getting pied in the face. One of the early survivors ends up getting bitten because of his rashness, but the rest of the main cast manages to set up a sustainable living that only gets threatened once another group of humans shows up, which may be another statement of some sort. In the end, it's generally stupidity that gets people killed, not the living dead. Sure, they do the finishing off, but they're just there for the meal. I generally prefer shambling zombies over sprinting ones, but they've gotta be more imposing than this to make an effective horror movie. A big factor might be how you treat them mentally. Zombies can either seem mindless or just unintelligent. The difference is slight, but it exists and makes a world of difference. See if you can figure out which one is better.