Zombie Movie Review (26) of the Week: Day of the Dead 2008

I am finally getting around to doing Day of the Dead 2008. Sorry it took me slow long, it is just with the keyboard breaking, the holidays, and the fact that this movie is worse than Dawn of the Dead 2004 (that is right, I have decided which is worse), that I have been putting it off.

I will run through the movie quickly so that I can get to the critiquing and let me tell you there are so many problems I have with this movie. I have seen zombie movies that are worse but with fewer problems than this.

The movie, like the Dawn of the Dead remake is a standalone non-sequel unlike the original. It also starts pre-zombie apocalypse unlike the original. The film takes place in a small town in Colorado and has little related to the original other than a few things. One of the main characters is named Sarah she in the military except in this one she looks like she is my age and is not a scientist. The movie stars out with her brother, his girlfriend, and another couple making out in the upper level of an abandoned Nike factory where it appears that is the usual place the teens go to make out. Towards the end of the movie, it turns out that underneath that is a secret military lab not much unlike the Hive from the first Resident Evil film except this time it is the government and not an evil corporation behind it. The military is in town to quarantine after a strange flu epidemic sweeps the place causing over half the population to get sick including Sarah’s mom. Sarah, along with her brother and his girlfriend, head to the hospital with mom. Also along for the ride is a private in transportation who goes by the name “Bud”, not Bub, but Bud, who divulges that he is a vegetarian.

They head to the hospital, which quickly becomes a slaughterhouse. There, Sarah’s Captain, Rhodes, is killed. This is also, where Sarah meets Dr. Logan. They end up getting split up because the brother and girlfriend realize they should leave way before this idea dawns on anyone else. They end up at the radio studio where one of the few good actors the movie has, plays the DJ. Sarah and the rest make it to the radio studio but only after Bud gets bit and turns into a zombie.

They all try to get out of town by heading down the old fire road that goes by the area that the old factory is located which they end up having to make a run for once a zombie causes them to crash. They find the secret lab where they also find Dr. Logan who explains that the military was trying to create a virus that could paralyze enemy soldiers for a few hours so that rather than kill them, they could be easily detained. Logan dies and they kill all the zombies with old missile ignition tanks.

What does this version have in common with the good version?

There is an underground facility that has a lab and has a missile silo at the back, the hero is called Sarah, there is a friendly zombie named “Bud”, there is a Captain Rhodes, there is a Dr. Logan, and there are zombies.

However, Rhodes is not an asshole in this, he is instead kick-ass, and instead of Rhodes as the antagonist, Dr. Logan is the jerk. It is as if their roles were reversed. The zombie that does not try to eat people’s name is wrong and the reason the film gives for him not eating people is that while he was alive he was a vegetarian.

I hate these zombies for several reasons: they are fast but that is not my biggest problem. They are also smart and retain something of what they were. This seems like it should make them more scary but it does not. It ruins the concept of zombies and gives credence to those people who want to keep them alive and locked up because there is still part of them there—if you have seen many zombie movies, you know the people I am talking about. These zombies run, leap, plan, drive cars, shoot guns, etc, but they do not act intelligent like the zombies in the Return of the Living Dead series, at least that made sense in context. These zombies seem more like the aliens from the Predator series without the gear and technology. The makeup and affects for the zombies are also stupid and bad. As soon as a person dies they turn into a zombie—that I am ok with—however, also when this happens, they immediately begin to necrotize (rot) meaning the recently deceased look as if they have been dead for months. This does not make any sense but what makes even less sense is that they cannot only still run, but are more intelligent than typical Romero zombies are. If they rot so quickly then logically this includes their muscles and their brains, which means no thinking and no running.

I mentioned the movie copying stuff from Resident Evil and another example of this is the film’s background music—it sounds like a cheap knock off of the HIM music done in RE.

The sound affects in this are shoddy as well, the guns sound like toys and when someone gets a nosebleed, the affect sound like the typical blood sounds of someone whose throat has been sliced. It does not sound realistic.

Speaking of realistic, the acting in this movie is not the worst I have ever seen and in truth, some of the actors are good. However, mostly the acting is subpar and some of the things they say and how they react to certain things are just very unrealistic.

Also, half the people that get eaten appear not to come back to life but the movie actually says that anyone bit, even immune people, will become infected. Um…..continuity seems to be on vacation.

The camera and editing are shitty also. Sometimes I felt sick; the camera was more unorthodox than found footage films!

There are also some “day for night” shots, which take even more points away from the movie.

Ok, so the movie does have some suspense going for it—I mean there were times where I felt emotionally invested in whether someone died or not. However, in general the film sucks. The affects suck, the acting is not great for the most part, the cinematography sucks, the sounds suck, the zombies suck and I feel like the creators of this movie did not even watch the original nut just looked at its imdb page and read the summary and the list of characters but nothing else. This all\could possibly be explained by the director, Steve Miner, who is notorious for pumping out bad horror and making, what are seen by most, as the worst movies in a horror movie series like Halloween and Friday the 13^th. However, this film can still be entertaining even though it is bad which is exactly how I feel about it. Therefore, in general I give this film a 1.75 out of 5 purely because it can be fun to watch.

Zombie Movie Review (3) of the Day: Day of the Dead (10/22/11)

"Herwo, Aunt Awreesha"

Today we end the original George Romero Zombie Trilogy with Day of the Dead. In 1968 he brought us into the night, in 1978 he took us thru the dawn, and now, in 1985, he brings us "into the darkest day of horror the world has ever known" (as the trailer puts it). The reasoning behind this was simple. He made a film in the late 60's and late 70's so why not make one in the late 80's? This was so he could make each film socio-politically relevant to the times and have some deep messages in them. In the 80’s there was lack of faith in government and in the economy, as things seemed to start to fall apart.

The movie takes place pretty much the day after the end of Dawn. Although we have no way of knowing this for sure, in the beginning of Day, we see the main character looking at a calendar and it is the day before Halloween and Dawn took place over about a month and a half beginning in the second week of September. This means that this movie is more of a Halloween themed movie than the last two. This idea was inspired by of course Halloween the film.

Once again, we have Tom Savini doing the make-up and effects. He is not in the movie this time but that hardly matters as he is at his best. We meet our protagonists and main group in the opening shot. The main character Sarah (doctor) is played by Bill "Chilly Billy" Cardille's daughter. Bill Cardille played himself as the reporter in the original Night of the Living Dead. Just a little fun fact. Our other main heroes are John, the copter pilot, William McDermott, the radio techie, and Private Miguel Salazar who is Sarah's boyfriend and the only soldier in Day of the Dead that is not a bad person (like the Scottish soldier in 28 Days Later)...although, Miguel is still unstable like the rest of them. The other characters are another doctor, several soldier, Logan, the mad scientist, and Rhodes, the epitome of the person you love to hate. He takes being an asshole to a completely new level. I would not say he is evil per se, but clearly, the zombie apocalypse has taken a toll on him just like all the others. The other important character is Bub, probably the most beloved central zombie character of all time. Bub is a smart zombie, and as Howard Sherman (Bub) said, "a smart zombie is pretty much as smart as a dumb dog".

This time our group is located in an underground bunker. They have been taking the chopper out looking for survivors but to no avail. Tensions rise between the scientists + civilians and the soldiers. The soldiers have lost more people and they think that the science team’s mission is pointless (finding a cure, immunity, or a way to control the dead. And they do have a point.

We find out that Bub holds a lot of promise, as he appears to have more memory than the average zombie does. Bub is clearly the exception to the rule. However, Logan also easily trains him to him as a father and not as a free meal. But the soldiers think it is all stupid.

Things get really bad when they find out Logan has been feeding the dead soldiers to Bub and that is when the climax of the film really hits.

Since they were shooting and pretty much living underground in this bunker for most of the duration of making the film, a lot of the cast and crew became depressed and lethargic and so Romero called up a doctor to come down and give everyone shots of Vitamin D.

Also, they had so many zombies in this movie, more than they ever had in Night or Dawn or probably even combined, that they put a call out to anyone in the area who wanted to be a zombie. Of course, they ended up with way more zombies than they needs (as you will see in the film). In fact, some of the zombies are actually famous people. Look for the fisherman zombie; he is played by the dean of Carnegie at the time. Another zombie is Chef Brockett from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (also filmed in PN)

Day of the Dead is also the most degusting, bloody, and gory Romero movie up to this point and since then. Tom Savini was truly at his peak. An interesting fact, this is where Greg Nicotero really got his start in him make-up career by studying under Savini who loves to teach people the tricks of the trade. Nicotero, whose most early films were John Carpenter films, also has a cameo in Day. His later Romero movie cameos are very small roles but in Day, he plays Pvt. Johnson.

Day has many socio-political themes going on. The main theme, being a group of people hiding in an underground place away from their problems and the truth, during the Reagan Era. In addition, the movie brings back a couple of themes found in Night, one being on racism. Most of the soldiers are bigots except funny enough, Rhodes—the person you are meant to hate. Also, the theme of two groups of people with different ideas about what to do and in the end neither is really more right or more wrong. This film also has a lot of zombie action involving lots of gore while the zombies eat people. Furthermore, this film has a signature Romero Ironic ending and let me tell you it is fantastic. Esp., if you have followed the trilogy. You will love the ending to Day of the Dead. Trust me. I will not spoil it for you. I am sure if you want it spoiled, you can find the clip on YouTube but I suggest watching the movie.

So how do I rate Day of the Dead? Well Dawn is the best, but Day comes pretty close. It has less camp and action and more gore and claustrophobia. I give Day of the Dead 4 out of 5 stars