Article: Gore Spotlight: Day of The Dead
When one thinks of gore, a couple of images come to mind. It may be 'Cannibal Holocaust' or 'Gates of Hell', but for Ryan, it's the name of a man, Tom Savini.
To alot of people, 'Day of the Dead' is an inferior installment to George A. Romero's 'Dead Trilogy', but to a heaping hand full of other 'Day' fans, it's as good as 'Dawn'. Ok, before you go all ballistic, let me explain just a little bit. 'Dawn of the Dead' will always be my favorite for nostalgic reasons, and for the sheer fact that it was one of the first horror films I ever saw. 'Day of the Dead' will always be a favorite of mine for its mind numbing effects and sheer hopeless apocalyptic overtone. Let's face it, 'Day of the Dead' is a dark depressing film that will ultimately have you wanting to commit a mass homicide by the time your left sitting there bundled in this huge dark cloud .. To me, this is what horror is all about. Sure, comedy in allot of horror films actually works, as in 'Return of the Living Dead' and the 'Evil Dead' series and a few others, but for a good old fashioned no holds barred horror film, 'Day of the Dead' pulls no punches and leaves you completely out of touch in the end.
By the time 'Day of the Dead' rolls around, the human population has pretty much dwindled down to something to the effects of 400,000 to 1, with the zombies outranking the humans. We have a small group of people who are most uncomfortable holed up in an underground missile silo. They mostly consist of a bunch of power-hungry Military men and a team of civilian scientist with a pilot and a drunken Irish electrician.
It's probably known to any hardcore 'trilogy' fan that 'Day' didn't receive the initial budget it was promised, but instead got half of what it was supposed to have. This was due to the simple fact that Romero refused to compromise the shocking special effects from an 'Unrated' version to a 'R' version, therefore resulting in the aforementioned cut in the production. Many people blame this cutback for the talkative aspect of the film as in dodging 'production potholes' or what-have-you, and at times I really would have to agree. It's true, we're subjected to numerous shouting matches between the characters. Hardly any of the characters have any redeeming qualities about them. Later on we are introduced to a rather strange soul by the name of Dr. Logan. The rest of the crew fittingly refer to him as Dr. Frankenstein because of all the strange and secretive experiments he conducts behind closed office doors. What sets him apart from the rest of the doomed characters is that he seems to enjoy the whole thing. He seems to have a passion for the 'disease' that makes zombies, and it ultimately leads him down the road to insanity. Ole Dr. Frank even has his own 'pet zombie' named Bub(his Fathers nickname) which he tries to train, or 'domesticate' . He seems to be doing a pretty decent job until he gets torn to bits by flying bullets.
'Day of the Dead' is a dirty film. I mean this literally. The whole feel of 'Day' is that of a rotted corpse as you can almost smell the stench of the decaying zombies sitting in your living room. The feeling of claustrophobia is always present as the impending concrete walls seem to be closing in on the characters as the movie goes along. I have found myself getting frustrated with the characters in the film, almost to the point where I'm yelling at the screen! This by far is not a bad thing. This only proves that Romero was still capable of delivering theatrical mayhem and ultimately dropping it right into your lap. 'Day of the Dead' grabs you by the proverbial reigns and engrosses you into the dark world of our characters. Different ideas abound and the tension begins to run high between our ill fated aggressors.(And yes, I call them all aggressors. because everyone wanted to be boss). One set wants to do this while the other group wants to do something different. It was almost obvious that the film was to end up in an 'every man for himself' rendition of its predecessor 'Night of the Living Dead', only to be left open ended for another potential installment. Allot of people refer to the ending as a cop out, and in some aspects this is true, so I guess either Romero had fittingly used up his budget, or just simply run out of ideas. Either way, this movie cannot be denied for its ability to shock the person watching.
In one such scene, we have a zombie cadaver which has most gruesomely been butchered open by the hands of Dr. Logan.. Slowly the zombie raises up as his entrails fall to the floor with the most sickening 'SPLAT I have ever heard! (We later get to see a dream sequence which basically features the same thing, but only on a different character). We get to see a severed head move his mouth back and forth in one of the most realistic scenes in cult film history! We get to see a few 'fill scenes' of an occasional flesh munch, but good ole George saved the dessert for later. The 'finale' as I like to refer it to is really what makes this film an underground cult legend. The talented F/x team of Tom Savini and Company really outdid themselves. For a newcomer to gore-films, it would totally leave your mind numb, and your jaw dropped, and maybe even leave you depressed for the rest of the day.
The last 20 minutes is filled with tension, blood, sweat and guts. One of the soldiers ends up losing his head while trying to escape the hoard of rotting ghouls. While lying on some old wooden crates, pinned down by numerous decaying hands, he has his head completely pulled off his shoulders in one of the baddest scenes I have ever witnessed!! As his neck stretches from being pulled from the zombies, his larynx gives as his voice becomes this very painful high pitched scream until the ghouls have his head for their feast. Another unforgettable scene involves another soldier in all his insanity as he bursts out in laughter while being surrounded by the zombies. We get a great 'forehead peeling' as his eye sockets are basically ripped out. A few fingers get bitten off in gruesomely graphic detail and he even manages to let off a few giggles while in the process of getting torn to bits! The last and final character to get slaughtered by the zombies had to work a little to gain his 'gut showing' status. We get to see a great chase scene involving the Captain of the Army crew and Dr. Logans little pet walking dead man named 'Bub'. It seems as if Bub has controlled his appetite for flesh, but not his thirst for revenge. Bub finds a gun in all his new educated glory and fires a few shots into Captain Rhodes. Being half crippled, Rhodes manages to make it to a doorway only to be greeted by thousands of flesh hungry zombies. What comes next really disturbed me the first time I saw it back in the 80's. Bad old Rhodes is quickly subjected to one of the most graphic cinematic deaths in the history of horror, or any other genre. The zombies in all their lust for skin proceed to dig into Capt. Rhodes in all directions as soon he is literally ripped apart from the waste down!! We also get to see what Mr. Rhodes had for lunch earlier! We see his legs dragged through the hallway by the hoard as they fight over his body parts!. I really cannot describe how gruesome that particular death scene is. It's definitely my favorite scene of all time. We soon get to see the zombies run amuck, un attended to as they feast on the fresh meat of their new kills. Body parts are scattered everywhere as zombies fight for intestines, livers, kidneys, hearts, and every other major organ in the human body! It doesn't get anymore realistic than this my friends!
There are a few scenes that I didn't mention because it is crucial to some of the different 'subplots' or instances with the characters occurring all at the same time. Quest for supremacy, racism, shovenistic attitudes, alcoholism...all are elements in the film that one will probably find interesting. Although the movie doesn't elaborate on those much, it still manages to stick to the back of your mind. If by some chance any of you reading this haven't seen this movie, I almost demand you to go find it. Don't let all the bad hype this films receives keep you from giving it a chance. If you're a gore fan, you'll love it right away, but if your the subtle horror fan weaned on 90's Slashers, chances are you're not gonna recognize the impact this movie delivers. It's almost as if haunts you from time to time. Big words, I know, but when a director manages to state a point through celluloid, I think it deserves honorable mention.
There some interesting tidbits concerning a few of the actors who appeared in 'Day of the Dead'. Sara(Lori Cardille), the heroine and only woman in the scenario has since to announce her traumatic experiences as a child, concerning her uncle, and how he sexually abused her during her childhood. She has her own website and since published a book dealing with healing the scars of sexual abuse. Steele(Gary Klar) has appeared on 'Dateline NBC' in a most interesting story. It seemed as if Klar had incidentally ended up marrying his childhood sweetheart, but he didn't realize that he was actually married to his blood sister! Klar later on found out that his best friend all the way through high school to adult years was actually his real life brother! The guy who portrayed another one of the loudmouth wise cracking soldiers graced a demise in which one just couldn't wipe his make-up off before going home. Ralph Marerro (Rickles) was incidentally killed in a car accident in mid 1991. He is credited for a film even after the date of his death, but I'm sure that the director just ended rapping things up before his death, and released after. So, was 'Day of the Dead' a curse or not? Probably not, but what it is, is a film which delivers raw emotion and the notion of different mentalities, along with a blatant look on racism This is an in-you-face look at life and the possibility of a world as portrayed in 'Day of the Dead'.....or the '..darkest day of horror the world has ever known...'
