Day of the Dead (1985)

--Reviewed by Lindy Loo

Plotline: The world has been overrun by zombies, and a small group of military men and scientists have made a home for themselves out of an underground bunker. The scientists are trying to study the zombies in the hopes of finding some sort of cure, and the military men don't do much but mill about, shout things at people, wave their guns, and make sexual innuendos at the only female living underground with them. Soon unrest washes through the bunker, and the scientists and military men reach a state of upheaval. All hell breaks loose, quite literally.

Scariness factor: The zombies are slow-movers like in all old-school zombie flicks, so they're not all that threatening. Alas.



Gross-Out Factor: Awesome--the special effects in this are at their old-school peak. Damn good moments of zombies eating flesh, zombies ripping flesh, zombies tearing heads off, etc.

Complaints: The first half of this movie: way too much talking and philosophizing, not nearly enough zombies.

High Points: The second half of this movie. Right when I was starting to get fidgety and sick of hearing people talk, it suddenly became full-on zombie action. They special fx are AWESOME. You can tell that the special fx artists are just having WAY too much fun toying with all this stuff--and it's reflected in some damn good quality zombie gruesomeness. The bad guy is a kick-ass sleazeball, the kind you just LOVE to hate. And although I had mixed feelings about the introduction of the idea that zombies *can* start to redevelop old habits, be emotional, develop attachments and all that (I moreso just like the spooky notion that zombies are just hard-core automatons, and that there ain't nothing that'd ever change that fact--they just kill and eat and kill some more), I kinda hearted the "good" zombie. I found myself wanting to go AWWWWWW really loudly every time he'd learn something new, or when he got upset because his good buddy died. And I found myself wanting to shout, GO, ZOMBIE when he hunts down the bad guy with a gun later in the film... He's cute. In a "I wanna pinch your cheeks and squish you" kind of way--perhaps not ideal for a zombie flick, but fun nonetheless. The movie is horribly 1980's, but it actually kind of works to its advantage for some reason--it made me enjoy it more. But seriously--the best part of this flick is the special fx. They are glorious, over-the-top, and wonderfully old-school.



Overall: Rent it. Be patient through the first 45 minutes or so, and I promise, you'll be rewarded in the end.

Grade: A