Day of the Dead

     First, there was Night of the Living Dead. Then there was Dawn of the Dead. Now it's Day of the Dead, the third entry to what was at the time a perfect trilogy. Three separate movies where the events are supposed to be literally only a day or so after the first movie. The irony is that there were ten years between "Night" and "Dawn", and eight years between "Dawn" and "Day". One simultaneous event stretched over 18 years. The differences in clothing and hairstyles are obvious and dramatic, yet the film's creator George Romero makes no apologies for his continuity shortcomings. Frankly, the movies are so great that nobody really cares. 

      Day of the Dead takes place in an abandoned underground missile silo, where a handful of scientists and soldiers have been grouped together to help figure out a way to end this horrible zombie fiasco. This film has many elements of the first movie, being that the real story doesn't have much to do with the zombie outbreak, and it's merely a backdrop for a story concerning people with strong personalities and the dynamics of those relationships in a desperate situation. 

      The head soldier, who's a total prick (and a terrible over-actor) demands answers from the scientist half of the group and as usual, gets no answers. The soldiers are all a bunch of obnoxious Neanderthals and the scientists are really demented (well, at least one is). The head scientist Dr. Logan is obsessed with mutilating zombies in an effort to understand the zombie situation. He's convinced that the key to mankind's survival is teaching zombies to be good little boys and girls by rewarding them. Finding this preposterous, the relationship between the scientists and the soldiers comes to a boiling point. And when it's discovered that Dr. Logan's "rewards" are the remains of some of the recently departed soldiers that were assumed to be buried in the makeshift graveyard up on the surface of the silo, all hell breaks loose... again. 

      Violence and death run rampant when one of the soldiers who has been bitten and knows he's gonna die, opens up the gates to the silo, letting all the zombies in. One of the scientists, the radio guy, and the helicopter pilot make it out to the surface while the rest of the soldiers are made into a zombie buffet. The soldiers were real pricks all through the movie so their very graphic dismemberment by the zombies in the end was very satisfying. The three that made it out, make it to a zombie-free island, giving us hope for the resurrection of humanity... or at least another sequel!