This Movie's Underrated: George Romero's "Day of the Dead"

Chances are that most of you have seen at least one type of zombie movie whether its tone tended towards actual horror, like 28 Days Later, comedy, like Shaun of the Dead, or ruining good things like World War Z. Given that variety, it's surprising that essentially the entire zombie genre as we know it today can be traced to one film: George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. This film established literally every rule about the modern conception of a zombie, as well as the modern conception of a zombie apocalypse: they shamble about, their heads are their only killing zone, they crave human flesh. Even the idea of a zombie as an exclusively undead creature (as opposed to voodoo zombies, which are basically brainwashed people) owes its existence to Night. Night's sequel, Dawn of the Dead, went even further, exploring the breakdown of society and government in the aftermath of a zombie outbreak, and codified basically all of the tropes you usually see in zombie apocalypse movies. Hence, it's easy to see why Night and Dawn are undisputed classics, even though the effects in Dawn have aged about as well as DOMA.

TOPICAL!

But recently, I watched Day of the Dead, the sequel to Night and Dawn. It's not usually held up as the same level of classic as Night and Dawn, and it's typically regarded as a failure. But after watching it, I think I actually appreciate it more than its predecessors, although I'm not sure I enjoyed it as much as them. Stick with me.

Day of the Dead takes place loosely after the previous two movies in the twilight hours of humanity. A scientist puts it best when he explains that they simply don't have enough ammunition to kill all the zombies now, and that humanity is now outnumbered almost 400,000 to 1. This scientist heads a research team dedicated to curing whatever keeps the dead walking, and the movie follows the team and the soldiers assigned to protect them. As tensions mount between the civilians and their increasingly unhinged military overseers, one scientist tries to keep herself and the men around her from falling into suicidal and homicidal despair.

"Tries" being the operative word.

Day is unlike most other zombie apocalypse movies in a number of ways. Normally, zombie apocalypse movies chronicle the beginning or middle of a zombie apocalypse: the first outbreaks, the downfall of government and civil services, the transformation of the cities into deathtraps. Things are quite clearly about to go to shit or are in the process of doing so, but there are still plenty of people and supplies left. See both Dawns of the Dead, 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead, and most Resident Evil movies for examples.

Or...actually, don't. Nevermind.

But Day of the Dead takes place in the waning years of human existence. It's not just that the zombies outnumber us; there's a pervading undertone of despair, fate, and futility in Day; humanity's days are numbered. We have crossed the point of no return, where no amount of vigorous breeding, no amount of headshots, and no amount of rebuilding will bring us back from the brink. The main characters of Day are just as much the walking dead as the shuffling zombies surrounding the base. In that way, Day of the Dead is tonally similar to Children of Men; it's only a matter of time before the world is devoid of human life. But where Children of Men is about a rediscovery of hope, there is no hope to be found in Day of the Dead. The most they can hope for is to die in peace, not at the teeth and hands of the zombies.

And in this way the movie acts as the culmination of the themes explored in the previous two Dead movies. The major theme of Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead is that humanity is its own worst enemy. Really, the zombies in all Dead movies are pretty fucking harmless if you're smart, careful, and you've got some friends to help you. Most of the deaths in these movies happen from people being fatally stupid or brash. The deaths that aren't stupid result from people just not being able to get along and work together to survive, or from people generally being shitty to each other: see the endings of Night and Dawn for that. Day is unique in that it has almost no stupid deaths. Rather, almost every death results from the people being on the brink of suicide: stressed, depressed, broken, and occasionally insane. And in particular, the entire climax of Day happens because a soldier crosses the Despair Event Horizon and lets the zombies in, desperate to end his tortured existence.

The ending is really the only action-packed part of Day, which is perhaps the biggest departure from the previous movies. It's much less of an action movie, and much more of a drama. Most of the running time consists of power struggles and metaphorical Mexican standoffs between the scientists and the military. The scientists want to cure the disease or, in the case of the insane leader of the labcoats, train the zombies to be docile and useful with human flesh as a reward. The military wants to exterminate all the zombies, and (by the end of the movie) the scientists as well. But both sides' goals are unrealistic. As mentioned before the military doesn't have nearly enough men or ammunition, and have lost contact with any other survivors or government officials that might provide support. The scientists are working with antiquated equipment and limited personnel, and one of them has completely lost his grip on reality.

Bub, on the other hand? He knows what the fuck's up.

This constant tension and drama was actually one of the things I liked most about Day of the Dead. I can see how some might find the comparative lack of action boring, but I found the philosophizing and power struggles fascinating and poignant. The world is ending with a whimper, but the military wants to go out with a bang, and the scientists don't want to go out at all. And that interplay and their inability to come together to assure their mutual survival is the purest expression of the themes of Romero's movies.

This is not to say that Day of the Dead is lacking in gore or action. Actually, it has the best practical zombie effects I've ever seen, and I'm still wracking my brain trying to figure out some of them. And the ending is one long shit-going-to-hell-fest where soldiers get ripped apart in increasingly, wondrously creative ways. One of the deaths in this movie disturbed me more than any other movie death besides that guy who gets turned into a literal basket case in Looper. In the final assault, a soldier's head gets ripped off of his body as he's screaming, and his voice pitches up into inaudibility. You think it's funny at first, and then you realize: his god damn vocal chords are being stretched and torn as his head is pulled away. Even worse: that's actually what would happen in real life.

But the zombie gore and death in Day is used sparingly, and until the ending it comes only in tense bursts. That's what I enjoyed about Drive's approach to violence, and it makes the impact of every death in Day more brutal, especially because there are almost no people left. The rest of the horror in Day is purely psychological, as the characters grapple with the inhumanity of each other and the prospect of being the last humans alive, slowly dying.

However, as you've probably gleaned, those aspects also make Day of the Dead a profoundly depressing movie. It's a mean movie. Very few characters have redeeming qualities, and even those characters have long ago reached their breaking point. If you ARE looking for just pure zombie killing action, than one of the other Dead movies is probably more your style. In addition, there seems to be a very high incidence of hammy acting, with both the head scientist Dr. Logan and head soldier Captain Rhodes engaging in glorious ham to ham combat every second they're on the screen.

But if you see this movie for one thing besides the zombie effects, see it for Bub the Trained Zombie. Bub is the pet project of Dr. Logan, a zombie he's been training to be docile, and Bub shows some vestiges of his former self, remembering how to use a razor and a gun. Bub even gets a line of dialogue, the only one ever spoken by a zombie in Romero's movies. Sherman Howard brings an incredible physical presence to Bub, and I dare say it may be the finest performance as a zombie I've ever seen. That seems like faint praise, but when you can take a shambling corpse and invoke pathos and heartbreak with a single moan (not to mention making it the most sympathetic character in the movie), you done good. You done real good.

Bub's a nice parallel of humanity. In movies like these, everyone likes to boil the theme down to “humans are the real monsters”. Sometimes that's true, but in all Dead movies there are very good people doing their best to survive in the worst situation imaginable. Similarly, Day of the Dead has people being general shitty to each other, but they've been pushed past their breaking point, and even then some are trying to keep the group civilized, or at least together. Likewise, the zombies are unquestionably monsters, but they are neutral animals, acting not out of malice. And the character of Bub shows that even zombies might not be the completely mindless force of nature that we think they are. Hence, I think the real theme of these movies, especially Day of the Dead, is that humanity is good and bad, and it's really our inability to work together that kills us. Unfortunately for us tasty humans, working together is one thing at which zombies excel.