DAY OF THE DEAD

With the recent run of recent and soon-to-be released zombie movies, new audiences have discovered the living dead are among us what better time to re-discover one of the classics of this sub-genre of horror, George A. Romero's DAY OF THE DEAD? Has it really been 18 years since DAY first came out?

In many ways I had forgotten about the third film in Romero's LIVING DEAD trilogy. It's the least talked about film in the franchise, overshadowed by the groundbreaking NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and the more popular DAWN OF THE DEAD (that's the original, not the forthcoming remake I'm talking about). When I first saw DAY back in 1986 on home video, it didn't appeal to me the same way that DAWN had years earlier. I couldn't quite figure out why at the time. Now that I've watched the film again thanks to the new Divimax DVD just released by Anchor Bay, I think that DAY OF THE DEAD might in fact be the best film of the series.

Picking up an unknown amount of time after the dead have risen from their graves, the world of man has just about disappeared from the face of the Earth. This film isn't about a bunch of scared folk trapped inside a farmhouse while the world goes crazy, nor is it about the survivors trying to impose a sense of order in a world gone mad. Instead, from those opening scenes of DAY we're witness to the fact that our world, its laws, its culture, everything about it... is dead. The zombies have won. So where could Romero go from there?

By going further. Romero shows us that just when you think you know what the most horrific thing in the world could be, he's willing to go a step further and show us that horror comes in a variety of forms. I'm not just talking visually (although DAY is by far the most graphic and gruesome in the trilogy) but also on a emotional level; the motley group of survivors in DAY are all people who've seen the most indescribable things imaginable and survived so they can relive the experience when they shut their eyes at night. They're shell-shocked, they're strung out, they're each dealing with their nightmare world in their own messed-up way. From the very moment DAY begins to nearly the conclusion of the film, a sense of numbness permeates the film. There are many kinds of horrors a person can face and this kind of creeping dread is but one of them. Very few films in the horror genre choose to tackle this kind of foreboding storytelling. With DAY OF THE DEAD, Romero succeeds in spades.

Simply put, Anchor Bay's done a fantastic job on this disc. The new widescreen transfer makes the film look gorgeous on your screen, picking up the muted and vibrant colors, the deeper darks and the nebulous shadows, making this film look so much more vivid and entertaining than the bad videocassettes from the mid-'80s. The soundtrack is done in DTS and Dolby Digital Surround so your zombie walla is going to be heard by the neighbors next door.

There's two separate commentary tracks, one with Romero and special effects guru Tom Savini, production designer Cletus Anderson and the film's main actor, Lori Cardille. Here's where you find out all the cool behind-the-scenes stories about the making of the film, how Savini pulled off the effects and how the team made a monster classic on an independent budget. Next, there's a commentary by director Roger Avary. Yeah, Avary had nothing whatsoever to do with the making of DAY but he's one of the film industry's biggest horror fans and the only guy that I can think of right now who's won an Oscar (for co-writing PULP FICTION) and isn't ashamed to admit he's a geek for this kind of celluloid carnage. Good on you, Roger! He peppers his commentary with DAY trivia and thoughts so for the die-hard fans of the genre, this is like a buddy hanging out with you and talking zombie for a couple of hours.

And that's just disc one, amigos.

Disc two is the one the fans have been waiting for. We've got a brand new documentary featuring interviews with many of the show's stars and creators; 31 minutes of great behind-the-scenes footage of Savini and his FX team getting the extras to look like reanimated corpses; the film's trailers, TV commercials, production stills, photos, posters, art even the promotional video used by the company who owned the mine where DAY OF THE DEAD shot its underground scenes! And using the DVD-ROM portion of the disc unlocks Romero's original screenplay. Sweet Petunia, this disc is loaded!

If you call yourself a horror enthusiast at all, you need this disc in your collection. If, like me, it's been a while since you've seen the film and you're on the fence about it, this is the perfect opportunity to give the movie another chance. I think the world has finally caught up to what Romero was trying to show us back in '85, and in just about every way DAY OF THE DEAD is just as fresh and scary as it was back then. Today's zombie flicks, like RESIDENT EVIL, are light years away from the apocalyptic world that Romero gives us. I just wish there were more tales from his DEAD universe that followed this one.

Hey George, you listening to me? Your work isn't done yet!