Monday 5 January 2009

Day of the Dead


Film: Day of the Dead, 1985
Director: George Romero
In a nutshell: Romero's third Living Dead movie, set a few years after the zombie apocalypse.

Man alive, this is one terrific zombie film. There's great stuff here, and although the plot itself is quite straightforward, the social problems that evolve are satisfyingly complex. As is often the case in Romero's stories, the characters are undone as much by their inability to communicate and work together as by the actual gut-gobbling living dead. The film also possesses a dignity that belies its genre: for example, the script's respectful treatment of the film's only woman, Sarah Bowman (the no-nonsense scientist), is a blessed antidote to the usual bouncy, ankle-twisting, pneumatic victims-in-waiting. And Bub - the ex-military zombie who's as much a fan of classical music as giblets - remains the only really likable zombie, well, ever. (In fact Bub elicits more sympathy from the viewer than most of the film's living characters.)

Like I said: great stuff. Personally, I have a special fondness for zombie films set some time after the apocalypse, as they explore the prospect of a survivalist utopia (even if the utopias inevitably crumble by the end of the second act). In Day of the Dead, the survivors - a volatile combo of scientists and soldiers - are holed up in an almost perfectly secure underground compound, with plentiful food, guns, and even a freaking helicopter. What more could you want? Well, as it turns out: how about a little social cohesion?

But by far the film's most remarkable moment is the revelation is that, after the apocalypse, the zombies will have alligators as pets! Like so:




Dude. This shot appears for no more than a second in the beginning of the film (the zombie and his alligator friend are lurching/slithering out of a bank in response to a loud noise), and the whole alligator-zombie-partnership is left tantalisingly unexplored for the rest of the film. But someone really ought to pick up this idea and make it the premise of a movie. Gold.

No comments:

Post a Comment