Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joseph Pilato

A small group of military officers and scientists dwell in an underground bunker as the world above is overrun by zombies.

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73% liked it

55,834 ratings

Critics

79% liked it

28 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 42 min.

Directed by: George A. Romero

Release Date: July 3, 1985

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DVD Release Date: November 10, 1998

Stats: 3,227 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (3,227)


  • September 7, 2009
    Day of the Dead has a great scene with a zombie listening to a Walkman. Zombies enter the 80's in this very enjoyable horror that's not as good as the previous two but is still one of the best in the genres!
  • August 25, 2009
    This is one of the most under-rated films ever. It was practically doomed to cult-status from the word go. Basically, George Romero wrote a script and took it to a company to get it funded. They like the script and offered George 7 million dollars on the condition he would make t...( read more)he film R rated. George however refused to compromise so they only gave him half that, 3.5 million dollars (next to nothing for a movie) to film an Unrated film -this was because an Unrated movie wouldn't make too much money back. This led to the script being completely re-written so it could be made on the budget. Most of the elements from the original Day were worked into the recent Land of the Dead. Unfortunately, not many cinemas were willing to screen Unrated films as they were too much hassle and not many people would go to see them. Even more unfortunately, 1985 saw many big R rated horror films being released which attracted all the attention away from Day. Many critics and fans complain about this movie, calling it the worst in the series. This is far from the truth. Most people who don't like this movie judge it purely on technical details such as the standard of the acting or the music. Considering the budget, everything in this film is amazing. I personally thought the music completely worked in the film too and some of it was incredibly effective. And the make-up and special effects were incredible, even by today's standards. This film has the best zombie make-up ever, period. For people who don't mind B-movie standard acting, or few locations and other features of low budget movies, you should definitely give this film a try. It's continues with the social messages of society we see in all of Romero's movies. This time it's a mix of how the military basically take control and cock stuff up and (in the style of Lord of the Flies) with no policing, people turn into monsters. Along with the bleak view looking at how easily our society fell apart. The opening of this movie is incredible and very atmospheric. This film also features the greatest zombie ever: Bub. He's friendly, and uber-cool. Trained by scientist Dr. Logan to not eat people. Believe it or not, this film is the closest a movie has ever been to making me cry (if you've seen it I'm talking about when Bub discovers a certain someone's body in the freezer). I don't know what that says about me but whatever. This movie is also the only film I have seen which managed to make me jump with me watching it on the small screen (very, very start with the arms coming through the wall). The film plays off it's sense of claustrophobia well to make it what is probably the scariest in the Dead series (though that still isn't saying much). By the way, Gorillaz, an amazing band seem to love this movie as they have sampled sound clips on several of their tracks including "M1 A1" and "Hip Albatross". They've done the same thing with the original Dawn of the Dead too. Too anyone who has seen 28 Days Later..., 28 Days Later... is a Day of the Dead rip-off! I'll go into that when I get round to reviewing 28 Days Later..., for now, just take my word for it. Not that 28 Days Later... is bad by any means though, but Day of the Dead is still way better. Finally, Day of the Dead actually tries something new with the genre. It would have been so easy for Mr. Romero to simply show a few survivors in a bunker hiding from zombies for most of the movie; instead he mixed in the ideas of experimenting on and training the zombies. He's a magnificent director. In short this movie surpasses it's predecessors "Night of the Living Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead" and both films set the bar incredibly high. It has the best story, make-up, atmosphere, character development, is scariest and is generally the best of the 3. It's also better than it's sequel "Land of the Dead".
  • October 10, 2008
    In 1985 this zombie movie virtually went by unnoticed except for many Romero fans. It was virtually dead a week or two after it hit the theaters. Many attribute its failings to the other many horror films released that year including "Re-Animator", "Fright Night", and "Return of ...( read more)the Living Dead". All these movies were R though and day was not. Romero stuck to his guns and made a very gory movie. Unfortunately, when dawn was released there were still many independent theaters, but by 1985 the chains had taken over and one thing chains do is not show movies like this. So it went by unnoticed and those that did notice it usually had nothing good to say about it other than the zombies looked really good. So suffice to say, I wasn't expecting much when I bought this movie except the zombies would look good. However, I am happy to report that I was very pleasantly surprised. The movie mainly takes place in an underground facility though there is the scene at the beginning in the town. I wish there were more scenes above ground as the one there is, is very well done. In the underground facility there is a lot of bickering between some scientists and some army guys who look and act nothing like army guys. Then again who knows how long they have been down there so people are bound to crack. There are also a couple of guys who may be army, but act like civilians and definitely have cooler heads than the rest of them. There is also a doctor who is trying to teach the zombies how to be more docile. All the wildness and arguing eventually leads to a major meltdown which leads to of course zombies penetrating the base and this leads to a very good gory finish. Not quite as good as Dawn, but not as far off as I was lead to believe this movie is very entertaining.
  • August 10, 2008
    Interesting ideas kicked around, impressive special effects for their day and the acting stays just the right side of hammy
  • August 10, 2008
    The (up until recently!) final chapter of the Romero zombie trilogy sees a research installation operating on the ragged edge in a world seemingly populated by nothing but zombies. Easily the weakest of the original three films it lacks the impact of Night, and the suspense of Da...( read more)wn. The acting is rather amateurish and not a great deal happens plot-wise but it has some memorable lines (when there is no more room in hell...) and an interesting attempt to expand on the idea rather than retreading the same ground. Easily the best characters are "Frankenstein", the scientist in charge of researching the phenomenon and his zombie sidekick Bub; the scene when they listen to his tapes is genuinely chilling in an "All work and no play..." kind of way! There are some low budget but inventive effects but the biggest drawback is ironically the strength of the opening; the scene of a completely deserted city populated entirely by zombies being roused into action by the presence of a rescue helicopter is easily the best part of the film and it unfortunately fails to deliver on the promise it shows. Still, despite it's flaws and a rather anti-climactic ending, it's a solid zombie flick with some nice ideas.
  • November 18, 2009
    The plot is amazing, but the execution not so much. The acting was pretty bad, even for a movie not requiring much talent. It's worth watching for the crazy experiments on zombies, great effects. It just seems that not as much effort was put into this as there was for its predece...( read more)ssors. You can feel the drag at times and the directing was not as ambitious, but this is the curse of making great movies and creating expectations for fans.
  • November 3, 2009
    Rather Diary of the Dead!
  • October 24, 2009
    The only Romero zombie flick I didnt like
  • October 14, 2009
    Part of Romero's original dead trilogy (but he has gone on to do Land of the Dead & Diary of the Dead) is not nearly as good as Night of the Living Dead or Dawn of the Dead. The zombies have a little more depth (Bub anyways) but the rest of the characters suffer in the shallowne...( read more)ss as there is more gun play then character development as in the previous 2 entries. Really just a show case for Tom Savini which he does an excellent job
  • October 11, 2009
    Pretty fascinating film and very different, with some very good performances and a great final act makes this film one of the best zombie films ever made.

Critic Reviews


May 3, 2005
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

The film's frosty pessimism about mankind's future does eventually get under your skin. full review

View more Day of the Dead reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • ton24968
    July 26, 2008
    You want to put some kind of explanation on all this? Here's one as good as any other. We're bein' punished by the Creator. He visited a curse on us. Maybe He didn't want to see us blow ourselves up, put a big hole in the sky. Maybe He just wanted to show us He's still the Boss Man. Maybe He figure, we gettin' too big for our britches, tryin' to figure His shit out.
  • Aritosgold
    October 20, 2007
    Good for one of the many Dead movies;;
  • ImmortalDisciple
    May 7, 2007
    The zombies flesh is a blue/grey color because their flesh is dead and cold.

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Day of the Dead Trivia


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