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Day of the Dead (film)
Encyclopedia
Day of the Dead is a 1985 horror film
directed by George A. Romero
and is the third film in Romero's Dead Series, being preceded by Night of the Living Dead
(1968) and Dawn of the Dead (1978).
Director George A. Romero describes the film as a "tragedy about how a lack of human communication causes chaos and collapse even in this small little pie slice of society". This film features Sherman Howard
in an early appearance as Bub and make-up artist Gregory Nicotero
playing Pvt. Johnson and doing the make-up effects.
, and search for survivors. They are instead met by a zombie horde, and quickly escape via helicopter to an underground Army base in the Everglades
. Inside, a small group of scientists search for a way to stop or reverse the zombie process, assisted by a skeleton crew of Army soldiers. Sarah is a member of the scientific team, but she and Dr. Logan have different opinions of what should be done. He's looking to control the zombies after studying their biology, which Sarah thinks a waste of time. She's seeking a way to cure the problem by reversing the zombificiation process. She is also Miguel's girlfriend, and the only woman left in the complex, possibly in the world.
Dr. Logan, the lead scientist, earnestly believes zombies can be trained to become docile. He and his fellow scientists have amassed a collection of zombie test subjects, which are kept in underground corrals. Logan's nemesis, Capt. Rhodes, the base commander, loathes the zombies and wants to kill them. The tension between the soldiers and the scientists is worsened by dwindling supplies, loss of communication with other survivors, and a lack of progress in research.
Miguel, a soldier who is on the verge of a mental breakdown, is attacked by some of the captive zombies. Two other soldiers die in the attack, and Miguel is bitten on the arm, and because of his carelessness, leads to the death of some other soldiers. Sarah amputates Miguel's arm to prevent the zombie process and saves his life. The attack further enrages Capt. Rhodes, who orders the research shut down, and sends Miguel further into a breakdown.
Dr. Logan, meanwhile, continues his research. He is especially proud of Bub, a docile zombie who remembers parts of his past life, and recognizes common objects like a tape recorder and a book. Sarah is mortified when she learns Logan has been using the bodies of the dead soldiers in his research, and devises a plan with John and Bill to escape from the complex. Their plans are thwarted by Capt. Rhodes, who kills Logan after he discovers the corpses of his soldiers in a freezer. Rhodes then locks Sarah, Bill, and John inside the zombie corral, murdering Dr. Fisher, Logan's assistant. Sarah is the only scientist left.
Miguel has since gone insane, and heads to the surface to commit suicide. He opens the gate and allows the zombies to enter the complex -- and is devoured in the process. The zombies invade the underground bunker and kill the remaining soldiers. Rhodes attempts to escape, but is shot by Bub, and is fatally attacked by a nearby zombie horde. Sarah, John, and Bill manage to find an escape through the corral, and head to the surface. Sarah boards the helicopter, and is attacked by a zombie.
The attack is quickly revealed to be a nightmare; Sarah, John, and Bill are actually on a tropical beach. As John and Bill fish in the nearby water, Sarah smiles and crosses a day off her calendar.
Stavrakis was also the film's Stunt Coordinator
, while Nicotero was a member of Tom Savini's special effects make-up crew.
In an outtake scene the director wanted to lighten the mood up, so had the entire cast and some zombies extra do a musical 1950 style number, sadly this clip was destroyed, but rumours still exist.
; "the Gone with the Wind
of zombie films." Following budget disputes and the artistic need to release the film unrated, the budget of the film was cut in half, dropping from $7 million to a scant $3.5 million. This forced Romero to scale back his story, rewriting the script and adjusting his original vision to fit the smaller budget.
Filming took place in the fall of 1984 at locations in Pennsylvania
and Florida
. All above ground scenes were filmed at several locations around Florida, where Romero was living at the time. The opening scene was filmed in Fort Myers, Florida
. Underground scenes were filmed in a former mine shaft located near Wampum, Pennsylvania
, which had been converted into a long-term storage facility for important documents. Though the mine maintained a constant temperature of about 50 F, its high humidity played havoc with the crew's equipment and props. Mechanical and electrical failures were a constant problem throughout filming, and caused several of special effects leader Tom Savini's props to fail during the filming of crucial scenes. The remote location also complicated the transportation of crew members and equipment. Cast and crew would often sleep in the mine overnight to avoid the timely travel to and from the shooting location while not shooting. "Zombie" extras were recruited from among the citizens of Pittsburgh, with preference given to those who had worked on previous Romero films. Extras were paid $1.00 for their services, and given a hat that read "I was a Zombie in Day of the Dead".
The film was given a very limited release. This is chronicled in the documentary "The Many Days of Day of the Dead" on the 2-disc Anchor Bay special edition DVD of the film. Some of the original concepts and characters remain, but the film differs greatly from Romero's original script, as stated by actress Lori Cardille
:
was cast as Rhodes, the film's antagonist. As stated by Pilato "He pretty much just gave it to me. I don't know if he auditioned other people, but it was very quick. I came in and it was like, "You got it!." Pilato had acted in two prior films directed by Romero, the first being Pilato's debut Dawn of the Dead and the second being Knightriders
, in between those films he played his first lead role in a film entitled Effects. In an interview Pilato was asked if Romero "had him in mind", Pilato stated that one of the reasons why he got the role was because of the budget being scaled down from 7 to 3.5 million.
format, and later DVD
and Blu-ray. This is in contrast to the films poor box-office reception when it was released in domestic cinema
.
Based on 29 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes
, Day of the Dead had a high approval rating, with 21 critics rating it "fresh" and only 6 rating it "rotten." Overall, it received a 79% approval rating. Even so, that rating is the lowest of the initial 3 films in Romero's Dead series with Night of the Living Dead
which has a 96% approval rating and Dawn of the Dead which has a 94% approval rating.
Day of the Dead was given a limited release on July 3, 1985 and a wide release on July 19, 1985. It opened to generally mixed reviews, with some critics complaining that the film was too depressing and slow. Roger Ebert
, who reacted favorably to other films of Romero's Dead Series, gave Day of the Dead one and a half stars. BBC
reviewer Almar Haflidason stated "It benefits from a far larger budget than its predecessors, but suffers from a story as malnourished as the zombies that are chewing it up," Haflidason would go on to give the film three out of five stars. As noted by the New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin
"Yes, there are enough spilled guts and severed limbs to satisfy the bloodthirstiest fan. But these moments tend to be clustered together, and a lot of the film is devoted to windy argument. " Allmovie reviewer Keith Phipps stated that: "The last, to date at least, of George Romero's living dead films is in many respects the least interesting, although it's not for a lack of ambition." Variety
wrote that the film was the most unsatisfying of the original three films and that "The acting here is generally unimpressive and in the case of Sarah's romantic partner, Miguel (Antone DiLeo Jr), unintentionally risible."
Day of the Dead would peak at 23 on the Billboard
chart Top VHS Sales in 1986 a year after its initial release.
The film grossed $5.8 million domestically. It fared much better internationally, grossing $28.2 million outside of the United States. Day of the Dead' s total gross is a little over $34 million. The film is also noted for its special effect
s work, notably Tom Savini
's make-up, he was honored with his second Saturn Award
in 1985 for Best Make-Up, the first time being with Dawn of the Dead in 1980. Romero himself cites Day of the Dead as his personal favorite of his original trilogy of zombie films. The film will re-release on 30 April 2010 of the Con-Tamination 2010 narrated by Dave Dyer.
on November 24, 1998 in the United States and on March 5, 2001 in the United Kingdom. Both the theatrical and an unrated director's cut were released as a special editions containing identical bonus features, the DVD was released in the United Kingdom in a region 2 DVD. The Blu-ray version of Day of the Dead was released October 2, 2007. This edition includes many special features, including two audio commentary tracks with writer-director George A. Romero
, Tom Savini
, production designer
Cletus Anderson, and lead actress Lori Cardille
. There is also a second commentary with fellow filmmaker and self-proclaimed Romero fan, Roger Avary
. It also includes two documentaries, the first one is entitled The Many Days of 'Day of the Dead, which focuses on the original script and the budget, it also included information about shooting in the Gateway Commerce Center. What is also mentioned is the casting details. The second documentary entitled Day of the Dead: Behind the Scenes, focuses mostly on make-up effects. On 29 March 2010 Arrow Video
released a 25th Anniversary Edition on Blu-ray exclusive to the UK.
, the British military were mostly psychopathic like Rhodes and his men. Like in Day of the Dead, they were keeping an "infected" in captivity for testing.
Near the end of Resident Evil
, the protagonist Alice walks outside of her quarantine into a ravaged city street jammed with traffic. The camera pans past a newspaper blowing in the wind stating "The Dead Walk!", a direct homage to George Romero's work on Day of the Dead. Another homage is one episode of Stroker & Hoop
featured the characters battling zombies using guns made by Double-Wide. They turn out to fire only sunlight, to which he claims because the film is called Night of the Dead and not Day of the Dead to hint out their weakness to sunlight. Coroner Rick yells at him "That was the sequel!"
The song "M1 A1", from the self-titled
2001 Gorillaz
album samples the pulsing synthesizers and cries of "Hello! Is anyone there?" from the opening of the film. The song "Hip Albatross", also by Gorillaz, features a clip of Terry Alexander's dialogue. Furthermore, the artwork for the song "November has Come" off of the Gorillaz' 2005 album Demon Days
has a picture of a calendar pinned to a brick wall set to the month of October with all the dates marked off in red Xs (reminiscent of the opening scene in Day of the Dead).
The song "Battlefield", from the This Is My Battlefield
2004 Panzer AG
album samples Captain Rhodes asking Sarah in reference to Miguel's zombie bite: "You think he wants to walk around after he's dead? You think he want to be one of these things?"
The band Through the Eyes of the Dead
sampled a clip at the beginning of the song "Between the Gardens that Bathe in Blood", released on the Scars of Ages
EP.
The Ministry
song "Burning Inside
" (from the album The Mind Is a Terrible Thing To Taste
) features an audio sample of the military station's warning horn and a few notes of composer John Harrison's synthesized score.
America punk band The Misfits has made a song about the movie called simply "Day of The Dead" off the album American Pyscho.
The film "Resident Evil: Extinction
", incorporates many plot points, such as trying to train a zombie to be human, or in a deleted scene when trying to capture zombies to experiment on. Also, the idea of an underground facility and how the floor moves up without any indication on the surface (impossible to know it was there) is also very similar.
The band The Little Black Bottles have a song about Day of the Dead called "Letter to Miguel" on their 2011 album "Let Them Eat Red Velvet Cake"
. The vocals came from Sputzy Sparacino who is the lead singer of Modern Man and Delilah on the tracks "If Tomorrow Comes" and "The World Inside Your Eyes". The album was re-issued in 2002 by Numenorean Records as a limited edition CD. The new edition was limited to 3000 copies and contained the original album plus five additional tracks from the music and effects reel (the only surviving recording of the film score). It also included a 12 page booklet with information from Harrison and Romero regarding the score.
. Although it is, by definition, an official sequel as Taurus Entertainment Company hold the rights to the original film, no one from the original Day of the Dead had any involvement in the film.
A loose remake of the film was released straight to DVD on April 8, 2008. Little of the original plot exists, with only a few basic elements remaining; notably the underground army base near the end of the movie, and some of the characters names. This marks the second time that Ving Rhames
makes an appearance in a remake of a George A. Romero
zombie film, following Dawn of the Dead.
Taurus Entertainment announced over Bloody Disgusting
in February 2010, the start of the writing of the screenbook of Day of the Dead: Epidemic.
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by George A. Romero
George A. Romero
George Andrew Romero is a Canadian-American film director, screenwriter and editor, best known for his gruesome and satirical horror films about a hypothetical zombie apocalypse. He is nicknamed "Godfather of all Zombies." -Life and career:...
and is the third film in Romero's Dead Series, being preceded by Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent black-and-white zombie film and cult film directed by George A. Romero, starring Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea and Karl Hardman. It premiered on October 1, 1968, and was completed on a USD$114,000 budget. After decades of cinematic re-releases, it...
(1968) and Dawn of the Dead (1978).
Director George A. Romero describes the film as a "tragedy about how a lack of human communication causes chaos and collapse even in this small little pie slice of society". This film features Sherman Howard
Sherman Howard
Howard Lee Sherman is an American actor.-Theatre:In 1989 he appeared at the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival in Louisville, Kentucky. He played the title role in Hamlet and Malvolio in Twelfth Night...
in an early appearance as Bub and make-up artist Gregory Nicotero
Gregory Nicotero
Gregory Nicotero is an American special effects creator and actor. In 1988, along with Robert Kurtzman and Howard Berger, he formed KNB Efx Group, a special effects studio which has gone on to work on over 400 film and television projects...
playing Pvt. Johnson and doing the make-up effects.
Plot
Some time after the events of "Dawn of the Dead," zombies have overrun the world. The remaining fragments of the U.S. government and military hide out in fortified enclaves, attempting to find both survivors and a solution to the zombie phenomenon. Sarah, John, Bill, and Miguel -- four such survivors -- arrive in the deserted streets of Fort Myers, FloridaFort Myers, Florida
Fort Myers is the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. Its population was 62,298 in the 2010 census, a 29.23 percent increase over the 2000 figure....
, and search for survivors. They are instead met by a zombie horde, and quickly escape via helicopter to an underground Army base in the Everglades
Everglades
The Everglades are subtropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large watershed. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee...
. Inside, a small group of scientists search for a way to stop or reverse the zombie process, assisted by a skeleton crew of Army soldiers. Sarah is a member of the scientific team, but she and Dr. Logan have different opinions of what should be done. He's looking to control the zombies after studying their biology, which Sarah thinks a waste of time. She's seeking a way to cure the problem by reversing the zombificiation process. She is also Miguel's girlfriend, and the only woman left in the complex, possibly in the world.
Dr. Logan, the lead scientist, earnestly believes zombies can be trained to become docile. He and his fellow scientists have amassed a collection of zombie test subjects, which are kept in underground corrals. Logan's nemesis, Capt. Rhodes, the base commander, loathes the zombies and wants to kill them. The tension between the soldiers and the scientists is worsened by dwindling supplies, loss of communication with other survivors, and a lack of progress in research.
Miguel, a soldier who is on the verge of a mental breakdown, is attacked by some of the captive zombies. Two other soldiers die in the attack, and Miguel is bitten on the arm, and because of his carelessness, leads to the death of some other soldiers. Sarah amputates Miguel's arm to prevent the zombie process and saves his life. The attack further enrages Capt. Rhodes, who orders the research shut down, and sends Miguel further into a breakdown.
Dr. Logan, meanwhile, continues his research. He is especially proud of Bub, a docile zombie who remembers parts of his past life, and recognizes common objects like a tape recorder and a book. Sarah is mortified when she learns Logan has been using the bodies of the dead soldiers in his research, and devises a plan with John and Bill to escape from the complex. Their plans are thwarted by Capt. Rhodes, who kills Logan after he discovers the corpses of his soldiers in a freezer. Rhodes then locks Sarah, Bill, and John inside the zombie corral, murdering Dr. Fisher, Logan's assistant. Sarah is the only scientist left.
Miguel has since gone insane, and heads to the surface to commit suicide. He opens the gate and allows the zombies to enter the complex -- and is devoured in the process. The zombies invade the underground bunker and kill the remaining soldiers. Rhodes attempts to escape, but is shot by Bub, and is fatally attacked by a nearby zombie horde. Sarah, John, and Bill manage to find an escape through the corral, and head to the surface. Sarah boards the helicopter, and is attacked by a zombie.
The attack is quickly revealed to be a nightmare; Sarah, John, and Bill are actually on a tropical beach. As John and Bill fish in the nearby water, Sarah smiles and crosses a day off her calendar.
Cast
- Lori CardilleLori CardilleLori Cardille is an American actress, best known for her lead role in George A. Romero's Day of the Dead . Her father, Bill "Chilly Billy" Cardille, appeared as a reporter in the original Night of the Living Dead ....
as Dr. Sarah Bowman - Terry Alexander as John
- Joseph PilatoJoseph PilatoJoseph Pilato is an American film and voice actor. He is perhaps best known for his performance as the psychotic Captain Rhodes in the 1985 film Day of the Dead.-Early Life:...
as Captain Rhodes - Jarlath ConroyJarlath ConroyJarlath Conroy is an Irish-born theater, film and television actor. Since 1971, he has become a successful actor appearing in film and television, including NYPD Blue, Law & Order, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. He also appeared in the movie Day of the Dead. His most recent appearance is as the...
as William McDermott - Anthony Dileo Jr. as Pvt. Miguel Salazar
- Richard LibertyRichard LibertyRichard Liberty was an American film and television actor. His film work included George A. Romero's The Crazies , the Kirk Douglas vehicle The Final Countdown, Porky's II: The Next Day, and Flight of the Navigator. Television appearances included roles on Miami Vice and Key West...
as Dr. "Frankenstein" Logan - Sherman HowardSherman HowardHoward Lee Sherman is an American actor.-Theatre:In 1989 he appeared at the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival in Louisville, Kentucky. He played the title role in Hamlet and Malvolio in Twelfth Night...
as Bub the Zombie - Gary Howard Klar as Pvt. Steel
- Ralph Marrero as Pvt. Rickles
- John AmplasJohn AmplasJohn Amplas is an American actor known primarily for his work with director George A. Romero. His first work with Romero was the cult classic Martin , in which he played the title role...
as Dr. Ted Fisher - Phillip G. Kellams as Pvt. Miller
- Taso N. StavrakisTaso N. StavrakisTaso Nicholas Stavrakis is an American film and television actor and stunt performer best known for his appearances in the George A. Romero films Dawn of the Dead, Knightriders, and Day of the Dead...
as Pvt. Torrez - Gregory NicoteroGregory NicoteroGregory Nicotero is an American special effects creator and actor. In 1988, along with Robert Kurtzman and Howard Berger, he formed KNB Efx Group, a special effects studio which has gone on to work on over 400 film and television projects...
as Pvt. Johnson
Stavrakis was also the film's Stunt Coordinator
Stunt coordinator
A stunt coordinator, usually an experienced stunt performer, is hired by a TV, film or theatre director or production company to arrange the casting and performance of stunts for a film, television programme or a live audience...
, while Nicotero was a member of Tom Savini's special effects make-up crew.
In an outtake scene the director wanted to lighten the mood up, so had the entire cast and some zombies extra do a musical 1950 style number, sadly this clip was destroyed, but rumours still exist.
Development
Romero originally intended the film to be his undead epicEpic film
An epic is a genre of film that emphasizes human drama on a grand scale. Epics are more ambitious in scope than other film genres, and their ambitious nature helps to differentiate them from similar genres such as the period piece or adventure film...
; "the Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind (film)
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...
of zombie films." Following budget disputes and the artistic need to release the film unrated, the budget of the film was cut in half, dropping from $7 million to a scant $3.5 million. This forced Romero to scale back his story, rewriting the script and adjusting his original vision to fit the smaller budget.
Filming took place in the fall of 1984 at locations in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
and Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. All above ground scenes were filmed at several locations around Florida, where Romero was living at the time. The opening scene was filmed in Fort Myers, Florida
Fort Myers, Florida
Fort Myers is the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. Its population was 62,298 in the 2010 census, a 29.23 percent increase over the 2000 figure....
. Underground scenes were filmed in a former mine shaft located near Wampum, Pennsylvania
Wampum, Pennsylvania
Wampum is a borough in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 678 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Wampum is located at ....
, which had been converted into a long-term storage facility for important documents. Though the mine maintained a constant temperature of about 50 F, its high humidity played havoc with the crew's equipment and props. Mechanical and electrical failures were a constant problem throughout filming, and caused several of special effects leader Tom Savini's props to fail during the filming of crucial scenes. The remote location also complicated the transportation of crew members and equipment. Cast and crew would often sleep in the mine overnight to avoid the timely travel to and from the shooting location while not shooting. "Zombie" extras were recruited from among the citizens of Pittsburgh, with preference given to those who had worked on previous Romero films. Extras were paid $1.00 for their services, and given a hat that read "I was a Zombie in Day of the Dead".
The film was given a very limited release. This is chronicled in the documentary "The Many Days of Day of the Dead" on the 2-disc Anchor Bay special edition DVD of the film. Some of the original concepts and characters remain, but the film differs greatly from Romero's original script, as stated by actress Lori Cardille
Lori Cardille
Lori Cardille is an American actress, best known for her lead role in George A. Romero's Day of the Dead . Her father, Bill "Chilly Billy" Cardille, appeared as a reporter in the original Night of the Living Dead ....
:
Casting
Joseph PilatoJoseph Pilato
Joseph Pilato is an American film and voice actor. He is perhaps best known for his performance as the psychotic Captain Rhodes in the 1985 film Day of the Dead.-Early Life:...
was cast as Rhodes, the film's antagonist. As stated by Pilato "He pretty much just gave it to me. I don't know if he auditioned other people, but it was very quick. I came in and it was like, "You got it!." Pilato had acted in two prior films directed by Romero, the first being Pilato's debut Dawn of the Dead and the second being Knightriders
Knightriders
Knightriders is a 1981 film written and directed by George A. Romero. It was filmed entirely on location in Pennsylvania, especially in Fawn Township and Natrona...
, in between those films he played his first lead role in a film entitled Effects. In an interview Pilato was asked if Romero "had him in mind", Pilato stated that one of the reasons why he got the role was because of the budget being scaled down from 7 to 3.5 million.
Release and reception
Subsequent to its theatrical release, the film has grossed over 30 million dollars worldwide. Day of the Dead would earn most of its gross revenue when the film was released internationally on VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
format, and later DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and Blu-ray. This is in contrast to the films poor box-office reception when it was released in domestic cinema
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
.
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, Day of the Dead had a high approval rating, with 21 critics rating it "fresh" and only 6 rating it "rotten." Overall, it received a 79% approval rating. Even so, that rating is the lowest of the initial 3 films in Romero's Dead series with Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent black-and-white zombie film and cult film directed by George A. Romero, starring Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea and Karl Hardman. It premiered on October 1, 1968, and was completed on a USD$114,000 budget. After decades of cinematic re-releases, it...
which has a 96% approval rating and Dawn of the Dead which has a 94% approval rating.
Day of the Dead was given a limited release on July 3, 1985 and a wide release on July 19, 1985. It opened to generally mixed reviews, with some critics complaining that the film was too depressing and slow. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
, who reacted favorably to other films of Romero's Dead Series, gave Day of the Dead one and a half stars. BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
reviewer Almar Haflidason stated "It benefits from a far larger budget than its predecessors, but suffers from a story as malnourished as the zombies that are chewing it up," Haflidason would go on to give the film three out of five stars. As noted by the New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
"Yes, there are enough spilled guts and severed limbs to satisfy the bloodthirstiest fan. But these moments tend to be clustered together, and a lot of the film is devoted to windy argument. " Allmovie reviewer Keith Phipps stated that: "The last, to date at least, of George Romero's living dead films is in many respects the least interesting, although it's not for a lack of ambition." Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
wrote that the film was the most unsatisfying of the original three films and that "The acting here is generally unimpressive and in the case of Sarah's romantic partner, Miguel (Antone DiLeo Jr), unintentionally risible."
Day of the Dead would peak at 23 on the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
chart Top VHS Sales in 1986 a year after its initial release.
The film grossed $5.8 million domestically. It fared much better internationally, grossing $28.2 million outside of the United States. Day of the Dead
Special effect
The illusions used in the film, television, theatre, or entertainment industries to simulate the imagined events in a story are traditionally called special effects ....
s work, notably Tom Savini
Tom Savini
Thomas Vincent "Tom" Savini is an American actor, stuntman, director, award-winning special effects and makeup artist. He is known for his work on the Living Dead films directed by George A. Romero, as well as Creepshow, The Burning, Friday the 13th, The Prowler, and Maniac. He directed the 1990...
's make-up, he was honored with his second Saturn Award
Saturn Award
The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...
in 1985 for Best Make-Up, the first time being with Dawn of the Dead in 1980. Romero himself cites Day of the Dead as his personal favorite of his original trilogy of zombie films. The film will re-release on 30 April 2010 of the Con-Tamination 2010 narrated by Dave Dyer.
Home video
The film was released on DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
on November 24, 1998 in the United States and on March 5, 2001 in the United Kingdom. Both the theatrical and an unrated director's cut were released as a special editions containing identical bonus features, the DVD was released in the United Kingdom in a region 2 DVD. The Blu-ray version of Day of the Dead was released October 2, 2007. This edition includes many special features, including two audio commentary tracks with writer-director George A. Romero
George A. Romero
George Andrew Romero is a Canadian-American film director, screenwriter and editor, best known for his gruesome and satirical horror films about a hypothetical zombie apocalypse. He is nicknamed "Godfather of all Zombies." -Life and career:...
, Tom Savini
Tom Savini
Thomas Vincent "Tom" Savini is an American actor, stuntman, director, award-winning special effects and makeup artist. He is known for his work on the Living Dead films directed by George A. Romero, as well as Creepshow, The Burning, Friday the 13th, The Prowler, and Maniac. He directed the 1990...
, production designer
Production designer
In film and television, a production designer is the person responsible for the overall look of a filmed event such as films, TV programs, music videos or adverts. Production designers have one of the key creative roles in the creation of motion pictures and television. Working directly with the...
Cletus Anderson, and lead actress Lori Cardille
Lori Cardille
Lori Cardille is an American actress, best known for her lead role in George A. Romero's Day of the Dead . Her father, Bill "Chilly Billy" Cardille, appeared as a reporter in the original Night of the Living Dead ....
. There is also a second commentary with fellow filmmaker and self-proclaimed Romero fan, Roger Avary
Roger Avary
Roger Avary is a Canadian film and television producer, screenwriter, olive farmer and director in the American mass media industry. He was behind the screenplays of the films Silent Hill and Beowulf...
. It also includes two documentaries, the first one is entitled The Many Days of 'Day of the Dead, which focuses on the original script and the budget, it also included information about shooting in the Gateway Commerce Center. What is also mentioned is the casting details. The second documentary entitled Day of the Dead: Behind the Scenes, focuses mostly on make-up effects. On 29 March 2010 Arrow Video
Arrow Films
Arrow Films is a UK distributor of classic, horror, and cult films on Blu-ray and DVD.-Arrow Films:Arrow Films is one of the UK's leading independent distributors of world cinema, arthouse, horror and classic films...
released a 25th Anniversary Edition on Blu-ray exclusive to the UK.
Popular culture
In 28 Days Later28 Days Later
28 Days Later is an acclaimed 2002 British horror film directed by Danny Boyle. The screenplay was written by Alex Garland, and the film stars Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns, and Christopher Eccleston...
, the British military were mostly psychopathic like Rhodes and his men. Like in Day of the Dead, they were keeping an "infected" in captivity for testing.
Near the end of Resident Evil
Resident Evil (film)
Resident Evil is a British-German 2002 horror film written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. The film stars Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Mabius, and James Purefoy...
, the protagonist Alice walks outside of her quarantine into a ravaged city street jammed with traffic. The camera pans past a newspaper blowing in the wind stating "The Dead Walk!", a direct homage to George Romero's work on Day of the Dead. Another homage is one episode of Stroker & Hoop
Stroker and Hoop
Stroker and Hoop is an American Flash animated television series on Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim. The series is a parody of buddy cop films and television series such as Starsky and Hutch, and features the voices of Jon Glaser as Stroker and Timothy "Speed" Levitch as...
featured the characters battling zombies using guns made by Double-Wide. They turn out to fire only sunlight, to which he claims because the film is called Night of the Dead and not Day of the Dead to hint out their weakness to sunlight. Coroner Rick yells at him "That was the sequel!"
The song "M1 A1", from the self-titled
Gorillaz (album)
Gorillaz is the debut album by the British virtual band Gorillaz, released in March 2001. It includes the singles "Clint Eastwood", "19-2000", "Rock the House" and "Tomorrow Comes Today"...
2001 Gorillaz
Gorillaz
Gorillaz is an English musical project created in 1998 by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. This project consists of Gorillaz music itself and an extensive fictional universe depicting a "virtual band" of cartoon characters...
album samples the pulsing synthesizers and cries of "Hello! Is anyone there?" from the opening of the film. The song "Hip Albatross", also by Gorillaz, features a clip of Terry Alexander's dialogue. Furthermore, the artwork for the song "November has Come" off of the Gorillaz' 2005 album Demon Days
Demon Days
Demon Days is the second studio album by British virtual band Gorillaz, released in May 2005. The album features contributions from De La Soul, Neneh Cherry, Martina Topley-Bird, Roots Manuva, MF DOOM, Ike Turner, Bootie Brown of the Pharcyde, Shaun Ryder, Dennis Hopper, the London Community Gospel...
has a picture of a calendar pinned to a brick wall set to the month of October with all the dates marked off in red Xs (reminiscent of the opening scene in Day of the Dead).
The song "Battlefield", from the This Is My Battlefield
This is My Battlefield
This Is My Battlefield is a 2004 album by the Norwegian industrial music project Panzer AG.-Track listing:# “Introduction Of The Damned” – 1:41# “Filth God” – 4:45# “Battlefield” – 5:00# “Chemical Breed” – 4:05# “When Death Embrace Me” – 4:43...
2004 Panzer AG
Panzer AG
Panzer AG is the name of an aggrotech/industrial rock side-project by Norwegian Andy LaPlegua, the founder of futurepop band Icon of Coil. Formed in 2004, Panzer AG's sound combines Power noise, Industrial, Trance, Rock and other genres to create a caustic but danceable form of music.-History:After...
album samples Captain Rhodes asking Sarah in reference to Miguel's zombie bite: "You think he wants to walk around after he's dead? You think he want to be one of these things?"
The band Through the Eyes of the Dead
Through the Eyes of the Dead
Through the Eyes of the Dead is an American deathcore band from Florence, South Carolina, formed in 2003. They have released three full-length albums, one EP, and one split album with The Knife Trade.-History:...
sampled a clip at the beginning of the song "Between the Gardens that Bathe in Blood", released on the Scars of Ages
The Scars of Ages
- Track listing :-Credits:Performers*Anthony Gunnells - Vocals*Justin Longshore - Guitar*Richard Turbeville - Guitar*Jeff Springs - Bass*Dayton Cantley - DrumsProduction*Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered September 2003 at The Basement Studios with Jamie King....
EP.
The Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...
song "Burning Inside
Burning Inside (song)
"Burning Inside" is a song from American industrial metal band, Ministry, and was the band's breakout single. It was released as the first single from the band's 1989 album The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste. The band Burning Inside named themselves after this song. The song was covered by...
" (from the album The Mind Is a Terrible Thing To Taste
The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste
The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste is the fourth studio album by industrial metal band Ministry, released in 1989 through Sire/Warner Bros. Records. The music took a more hardcore, aggressively guitar-driven direction...
) features an audio sample of the military station's warning horn and a few notes of composer John Harrison's synthesized score.
America punk band The Misfits has made a song about the movie called simply "Day of The Dead" off the album American Pyscho.
The film "Resident Evil: Extinction
Resident Evil: Extinction
Resident Evil: Extinction is a Canadian-British 2007 science fiction action horror film also categorized as a doomsday and zombie film, and is the third installment in the Resident Evil film series, which is based on the Capcom survival horror series Resident Evil...
", incorporates many plot points, such as trying to train a zombie to be human, or in a deleted scene when trying to capture zombies to experiment on. Also, the idea of an underground facility and how the floor moves up without any indication on the surface (impossible to know it was there) is also very similar.
The band The Little Black Bottles have a song about Day of the Dead called "Letter to Miguel" on their 2011 album "Let Them Eat Red Velvet Cake"
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was released on LP and cassette in the same year as the film (1985) by Saturn Records; it contained 6 tracks, all of which was composed and performed by John HarrisonJohn Harrison (filmmaker)
John Harrison is a writer, director, producer and composer.Harrison was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. He graduated from Emerson College in Boston with a BS in Theater Arts. For several years after that, he performed on the road with his band Homebrew before moving back to Pittsburgh to take a...
. The vocals came from Sputzy Sparacino who is the lead singer of Modern Man and Delilah on the tracks "If Tomorrow Comes" and "The World Inside Your Eyes". The album was re-issued in 2002 by Numenorean Records as a limited edition CD. The new edition was limited to 3000 copies and contained the original album plus five additional tracks from the music and effects reel (the only surviving recording of the film score). It also included a 12 page booklet with information from Harrison and Romero regarding the score.
Sequels and remake
A prequel was released in 2005, entitled Day of the Dead 2: ContagiumDay of the Dead 2: Contagium
Day of the Dead 2: Contagium is a 2005 horror film written by Ana Clavell and directed by Clavell and James Dudelson, starring Justin Ipock, Laurie Maria Baranyay and John F. Henry III. It is half a sequel and half prequel to Day of the Dead...
. Although it is, by definition, an official sequel as Taurus Entertainment Company hold the rights to the original film, no one from the original Day of the Dead had any involvement in the film.
A loose remake of the film was released straight to DVD on April 8, 2008. Little of the original plot exists, with only a few basic elements remaining; notably the underground army base near the end of the movie, and some of the characters names. This marks the second time that Ving Rhames
Ving Rhames
Irving Rameses "Ving" Rhames is an American actor best known for his work in Bringing Out the Dead, Pulp Fiction, Baby Boy, Don King: Only in America, and the Mission: Impossible film series.-Early life and education:...
makes an appearance in a remake of a George A. Romero
George A. Romero
George Andrew Romero is a Canadian-American film director, screenwriter and editor, best known for his gruesome and satirical horror films about a hypothetical zombie apocalypse. He is nicknamed "Godfather of all Zombies." -Life and career:...
zombie film, following Dawn of the Dead.
Taurus Entertainment announced over Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting is a website that covers horror movies with reviews, interviews and news. It is currently run by Brad Miska, and Tom Owen. According to one source, the site has 1.5 million unique visitors and 20 million page views each month. It is widely considered to be the "world's most...
in February 2010, the start of the writing of the screenbook of Day of the Dead: Epidemic.