Review of "Day of the Dead" (1985) (DVD)

It's time to review an oldie but goodie. There is no denying that horror director George A. Romero is the king of all Zombie directors. Any zombie flick that has ever been made has directly stolen elements of Romero's films and implemented them into their own without even denying it. Romero is one of the few writer/directors who have put out Zombie flicks that people took seriously up until recently with "Resident Evil "(the movie) and "28 Days Later".

While I can't say much about "28 Day Later" since I haven't seen it yet, I can definitely tell you that if you liked "Resident Evil" - even a little bit - you definitely need to check out Romero's zombie flicks. You will easily see the rip-offs directly from these movies in "Resident Evil".

"Day of the Dead" is the 3rd in the trilogy that is "Night of the Living Dead", "Dawn of the Dead", and "Day of the Dead". Released in 1985, it has long since became a classic in the horror genre.

In this third movie, the entire world is overrun by zombies. The cool thing about these flicks is that they take place in different settings. They aren't about the same characters or locations from their preceding films. Each movie visits different parts of the world to show that what is going on is really an epidemic.

In "Day of the Dead", we are watching a group of military people and scientist locked inside an underground bunker trying to solve what exactly is causing the dead to walk and eat people. A loudmouth Army man thinks he is the one who should be in control. The pilot just wants to run off to an island and live it up. The leading lady tries to keep everything in order. The scientist believes the Zombies can be controlled. These characters feel that they may very well be the only people left on earth.

This film has an ever-present claustrophobic feel to it. The people spend most of the movie down in the underground thing. Just knowing that the entire world above, as well as select parts of their base, is completely infested by the undead leaves the viewer with an uneasy feeling

Overall, "Day of the Dead" is a great movie. I picked up the new two disc DVD and (thanks to Anchor Bay) it's stellar. The two discs are filled with features, such as Audio Commentary, Theatrical Trailers, TV Spots, featurettes, and the little booklet that comes with the DVD is designed like a notepad. It looks great.

Like I said before Romero's "Dead" trilogy has been eaten alive by copycats, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The originals are most appreciated. I loved this movie and the rest of the series growing up, and I love it today. It's entertaining without resulting to being stupid. I still can't understand while Dawn of the Dead wasn't put out on DVD first. I would have rather checked it out first, but I will get it when it comes. This one is definitely worth checking out in the meantime.