Review of Day of the Dead

Concluding the "Dead" franchise that began decades earlier, George A. Romero's "Day of the Dead" is a marginal improvement on many of the less developed areas of the prior entries. A number of intriguing building blocks are connected with residuum, as if the characters in "Dawn of the Dead" exist within the same universe as that of the previous sequel. Visually, a footprint is discernible, yet the main group of characters, and their motives and predicament differ greatly from the preceding films, although the premise remains: a zombie apocalypse has extremely decimated the human population, with the few remaining survivors forced to live in barricaded "security" in camps or underground. In one such facility, soldiers protect scientists attempting to find a solution to the pandemic. Previously, the zombies instinctively returned to their dull consumerist lifestyles by attacking a trio of survivors hiding out in a shopping mall; once in the presence of said humans, all succumbed to their innermost natures. In the present, the zombies are encircling an underground missile silo, with the soldiers and scientists offering different perspectives on exactly how to reverse the end of the world; simmering tensions and increasing animosity generate many tonal variances within the film, constituting the connective tissue of a plot structure. Each film has an explicit imprint, thematically and in terms of pervasive mood - in contrast to the claustrophobic horror onslaught of the first, a decidedly humorous, slapstick feel is evident in the second film. "Day of the Dead" is arguably the bleakest entry in the trilogy, examining the wider repercussions of the outbreak as well as the subtle interrelationships amid two opposed parties. As the character study yields to horror conventions once the soldiers learn that one such mad scientist is rehabilitating an imprisoned zombie through positive reinforcement and reward: the flesh of dead soldiers. All hell breaks loose as supplies dwindle, uncertainty abounds and initial veiled dismay and objection devolves into barely concealed verbal conflict and affray. Upon being unable to prove results in their mission and no additional survivors to be had, progress stalls and leadership struggles take hold, further damaging the morale. Romero observes the psychological dynamics of the group as if it were a social experiment as riveting and enthralling as the special effect-laden scenes incorporating the marauding zombies.

"Dawn of the Dead" revised and expanded upon the first film's race relations angle without referring to it implicitly, whereas "Day of the Dead" acknowledges the role of societal collapse in humanity's retrogression, proffering the root causes of the pandemic, namely, agitation, dissimulation, delusion, misinformation, opportunism, and a general lack of discourse. Survival and social unrest are entrenched in capitalism, the defining characteristic of the 1980s political landscape. Capitalism promotes self-preservation, maximisation, apathy and intransigence, and one could view the escalation of the situation within the bunker as a microcosm of Cold War tensions; as communication breaks down, the collective response to the situation descends into chaos as a scientist and her male cohorts clash with the increasingly toxic, dictatorial military personnel at the base. It is this intense pressure cooker environment that precipitates the film's tautly executed, strained sections of interplay, allowing for a much more satisfying pay-off as the group's cumulative animosity aggrandises to the point of no return. Romero constructs a logical edifice from the updated premise of each film in the trilogy, incorporating social commentary, i.e. rising hostilities and eroded societal systems, within a horror context. In studying two sequestered factions as they respond to the aftermath of a global emergency, dissension arises and tribalism becomes apparent in the strained interactions, highlighting volatility, paranoia and desperation as being incompatible with decision-making and diplomacy necessary to combat the disintegration of society and civilisation, with even the slightest incident capable of throwing us off course. Romero's conceit suggests that humanity's selfish myopia caused its own downfall, thus preventing them from averting further global catastrophe, which is in this case what happens after zombies have outnumbered humans - how do the survivors deal with the problem at hand? As expected, they panic, feud and refuse to compromise until complacency and in-fighting causes slip-ups; essentially, they slowly self-destruct.

I subscribe to Romero's pessimistic foretelling of the dissolution of society in all three films, but his most scathing attack on the military's magical thinking and belligerence incontrovertibly supports the fact that open discussion, transparency, amicability and neutral debate are imperative to avoid a combustible social situation unconducive to rectification. Scientific investigation and martial law fail to provide any resolution, and Romero's film ends on a dour note, but that is not to say the film is entirely depressing and despondent. In actuality, the film's prevailing mood is admittedly sombre, yet the dialogue-heavy sequences, littered with pithy put-downs and blackly comic touches courtesy of the soldiers and their zombie corral, as well as the mad scientist's grisly surgical and socialisation experiments, are funny and frank, derived from the first sequel's darkly humorous streak. Several of the most gruesome scenes vacillate between horror and comedy, though not at the expense of salience in terms of the plot or its sociopolitical slant, and therein lies Romero's genius. "Day of the Dead" stands in contrast to its predecessors in many respects, from the deeply haunting score, palpably claustrophobic sets, appreciable character development, to the overriding portent and unremitting menace present from the outset. Far less traditionally constructed, "Day of the Dead" therefore compensates for the second film's commercial leanings and characterisation shortcomings, resulting in a suspenseful, gratifying study of the human condition, with Romero's emblematic sociological substance tempering the ample gore and drollery. A satisfactory, fitting and ultimately hopeful closure to the trilogy that may be the least action-packed and ambitious but is definitely the eeriest and most philosophical zombie apocalypse movie of all-time.