Day of the Dead Poster # 1 George Romero / Tom Savini Zombie

Description

Day of the Dead is a 1985 American horror film written and directed by George A. Romero and the third film in Romero’s Dead Series, being preceded by Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Dawn of the Dead (1978). 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”.

Dr. Logan, the lead scientist – also known as “Frankenstein” due to his grisly surgical dissections of zombies – believes that the zombies can be trained to become docile, and accordingly has amassed a collection of test subjects, which are kept in a large underground corral in the compound, in spite of the objections of base-commander Captain Henry Rhodes. The tension between soldiers and scientists worsens in the face of dwindling supplies, loss of communication with other survivors, and slow progress in research.

The carnage in this movie is unbelievable and the FX are top notch. Some of Savini’s best work. Just check out the zombie that rises from the operating table, only for it’s insides to fall out onto the floor! I still have no idea how it was done, but it is amazing. This film features Sherman Howard in an early appearance as Bub, and make-up artist Gregory Nicotero playing Pvt. Johnson and assisting Tom Savini with the make-up effects.

Underground scenes were filmed in a former mine shaft located near Wampum, Pennsylvania, converted into a long-term storage facility for important documents. Though the mine maintained a constant temperature of about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, 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. Despite these failures, Savini was nominated and won the 1985 Saturn Award for best makeup effects.

“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”.

A half prequel, half sequel was released in 2005, entitled Day of the Dead 2: Contagium. 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, Day of the Dead, 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.

On July 10, 2013 it was announced that there would be another remake of Day of the Dead. Christa Campbell and Lati Grobman, two of the producers behind Texas Chainsaw 3D have obtained the rights. Campbell, who had a small role in the first remake said “We want to keep it as close to the Romero version as possible. To make sure that his fans are happy. These are not going to be zombies climbing walls and doing back flips like in World War Z.”.

Near mint condition.