A small group of military officers and scientists dwell in an underground bunker as the world above is overrun by zombies.
It didn’t take ten years this time, just seven but definitely worth the wait as omero once again delivered.
I’m often very biased when it comes to this film as it’s my favourite entry in the original dead trilogy, though it’s definitely not the same for a-lot of fans as I feel it gets a-lot of unfair criticism. A-lot of third entries get this criticism and I still find it hard to understand, I must be missing something.
I’m not the only one who thinks this is the best of the “Dead Trilogy”, Director George A. Romero claims this is his favourite film out of the original “dead trilogy” as-well. Despite this, this feature is the lowest grossing film in George A. Romero’s “Dead” trilogy.
I feel this film has the darkest tone of them all, it shows the true dark nature of humanity in all it’s insane glory. Romero’s content really does work well and creates some truly complex characters, each character has a role in the plot and they all drive the film forward without looking back.
If you don’t like the script then you always have Savini’s amazing effects work which I dare anybody to fault, it’s easily some of his greatest work as he truly does thrive with this old school gore filled feature. He truly does outdo himself here and it’s a great example of why he is the legend he is.
As I stated, this is my favourite of the original trilogy and just writing about it makes me want to go and watch it again, which I’m going to do now and I suggest you do too.
Miscellaneous facts about the film:
All the extras who portrayed zombies in the climax received for their services: a cap that said “I Played A Zombie In ‘Day of the Dead'”, a copy of the newspaper from the beginning of the film (the one that says THE DEAD WALK!), and one dollar.
Tony Todd auditioned for the role of John.
Most of the zombie extras in this film were Pittsburgh residents who volunteered to help in the film.
The original script, for which George A. Romero couldn’t get budget for, involved the scientists living above ground in a fortress protected by electrified fences and the military living safely underground. It also involved a small army of trained zombies, and the conclusion to the trilogy more brutal than the released version. This later became the basis of Land of the Dead (2005)
The book Dr. Logan gives to Bub is Stephen King’s “Salem’s Lot.” George A. Romero and King have been friends for many years.
According to Lori Cardille, the first attempt to shoot the beginning dream scene where the zombie arms suddenly spring out of the wall and attack her resulted in the faux wall and many of the actors behind it toppling over on her. The wall ended up needing to be completely rebuilt, this time much more stable.
In the cafeteria scene, William McDermott (Jarlath Conroy) says that “All of the shopping malls are closed.” This is a clear reference to the film’s predecessor Dawn of the Dead (1978), which is set in a shopping mall.
During a holiday break in filming, makeup artist Greg Nicotero used the realistic and gruesome model of his own head (as seen in a laboratory scene in the film) to play a practical joke on his mother.
First attempts to shoot the scene where Sarah performs surgery on Miguel’s arm failed when it simply bounced off the rubber, so Tom Savini remade it in wax and it worked perfectly.
The underground facility was not on a soundstage. It was shot in the Wampum mine, a former limestone mine near Pittsburgh, that was being used for an underground storage facility. The 2,500,000 square foot mine is now operated as the Gateway Commerce Center who now called it a “subsurface storage facility”.
Right after Logan tells the zombie that it needs to sit in the dark and think about what it did, and punishes it by turning off the light, a little bit of the “The Gonk” music from Dawn of the Dead (1978) can be heard in the transition of scenes.
During Miguel’s sedation, Lori Cardille told Anthony Dileo Jr. to actually slap her to make it look more authentic.
Gaylen Ross (“Francine” from Dawn of the Dead (1978)) is credited as “NYC Casting” in the end credits.
Sarah, John, McDermott, Miguel, Dr. Logan, Bub, and of course Captain Rhodes were the only characters from George A. Romero’s original script that made it to the final version.
British band Gorillaz have sampled several audio clips from both Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985): portions of the music and some dialogue (“Hello? Is there anyone there?”) from the latter feature in the track, “M1 A1”, on their 2001 debut album; and some of Bub the zombie’s grunts appear alongside sound-clips of the news reporters from Dawn of the Dead (1978) on one of their B-sides, “Hip Albatross”. Furthermore, part of the score from Dawn of the Dead (1978) is used in the intro track on the 2005 album, ‘Demon Days’. This album also features a track narrated by Dennis Hopper, who portrayed Kaufman in George A. Romero’s sequel that year, Land of the Dead (2005).
The first scene (abandoned city) of the movie was filmed in Fort Myers and Sanibel Island, Florida. The theatre shown in the opening is the Edison. Thomas A. Edison used to summer in Ft. Myers and his house there is a tourist attraction.
During the opening dream sequence when zombie arms attack Sarah through the wall, one of them was Lori Cardille’s husband.
Both actors playing Cpt. Rhodes in the two versions of Day of the Dead also appeared in both versions of Dawn of the Dead as police officers. In Dawn of the Dead (1978), Joseph Pilato played Officer at Police Dock (asking for cigarettes) before being Rhodes in the original Day of the Dead. In Dawn of the Dead (2004), Ving Rhames played Kenneth (a cop) and in Day of the Dead (2008), he played Rhodes.
The budget for George A. Romero’s original script was estimated at $7 million, but he would only be given the money if he could film an R-rated film. He was told that if he went ahead and shot an unrated film with no limits on gore, the budget would be split in half to $3.5 million.
Some of the headlines from the newspaper that says “The Dead Walk” appear to be: “Vice President Declares State of Emergency,” “Whereabouts of President Unknown,” “Food Supply Dwindles” and “Man Bites Man.”
Pat Logan, who played Uncle Rege in Night of the Living Dead (1990) appears as a Bald Mustachioed Zombie shot by Steel in the mines.
The “Day Of The Dead” love ballad song, “The World Inside Your Eyes” which appeared at the end credits of the movie was sung by Sputzy Sparacino (who was the lead singer and guitarist of the R&B/Dance/Cover band Modern Man at that time) and Gospel singer Delilah.
Real pig intestines were used during the gore scenes.
Sputzy Sparacino and his band Modern Man appear to be uncredited as the musicians of the movie soundtrack.
The last time that George A. Romero and Richard P. Rubinstein worked together as a director/producer team. Romero wrote the scripts for Creepshow 2 (1987) and Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990) which Rubinstein produced.
Dr. Logan figures that the ratio of the undead to the human survivors is 400,000:1. When the film was made, in 1985, the population of the United States in our universe stood at about 240 million. If Dr. Logan is right, and the US population of this universe stood at roughly the same, and this film took place in 1985, there are 600 living human beings left in the USA. However, since the history of the universe in the “of the Dead” movies had radically diverged from real world history even before the ghouls emerged (notice the Venus probe in the first Night of the Living Dead (1968) movie), the timeline of the “Dead” movies remains unclear (the Stephen King novel ‘Salem’s Lot appears in this film, even though in the real world it came out in 1975; note that the first film in this series came out in 1968; Diary of the Dead (2007), set simultaneously with the events of Night of the Living Dead, features technology not available in 1968 in our world), and we do not know how long after the ghouls emerged that this film takes place, one cannot easily presume that this film takes place in 1985 or that the US population would have remained the same. This is one of many continuity series (eg. Superman, Austin Powers, etc.) affected by “timeslip” wherein more time has passed in the real world between entries which take place in less time, yet each is set in the time it was made. (This often happens in superhero comic books where the same characters experience the Iran-Contra Affair of the 1980s and the 9/11/01 massacres, but only “one year” has passed in the characters’ “lives”.) It is one of the suspension-of-disbelief conventions that viewers simply have to accept.
The music and songs for the movie soundtrack were composed by three great talented musicians. Including John Harrison (who played Bass for the late great, legendary Blues/Rock Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist Roy Buchanan), Jim Blazer (who was the original co-keyboardist of Modern Man. And who has now been popular for playing Piano, Hammond B3 Keyboards, and Organ for Spencer Davis Group since 1990), and the Crooner-Guitarist Sputzy Sparacino (the former Lead Singer and Guitarist of Pittsburgh R&B/Dance/Cover band Gigolo, who then was playing with Modern Man at that time). Talmadge Pearsall (who was the co-lead singer and keyboardist of Modern Man) only helped compose the song “The World Inside Your Eyes” (“Day Of The Dead” Ballad) with the three main Musicians/Music Composers of the movie.
The second important “Day Of The Dead” Love ballad song, “If Tomorrow Comes” performed by Modern Man and sung by balladeers Sputzy Sparacino and Delilah again, never appeared in the movie soundtrack. It could be heard through some parts of the movie soundtrack only as an instrumental piece. But you can hear the original pop version of the song with the vocals of Sputzy Sparacino and Delilah singing it on the movie soundtrack album itself. You can also find and hear “If Tomorrow Comes” on Sputzy’s solo artist albums “Not Just Any Love Song” (released in June 1, 1994) and “Too Much Too Soon” (released in August 17, 1994).
The Zombies’ moaning, groaning, growling, roaring, and feasting sounds happened to be played by the voice of the talented actor Mark Dodson, who played the voice of Salacious Crumb, Jabba The Hutt’s Sidekick and Court Jester in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983). They were not all done by sound effects.
During the end credits of the movie to the Love Ballad song “The World Inside Your Eyes”, Sputzy Sparacino’s first lead vocal part of the lyrics singing “Only you, only me. Here alone, all alone. It’s our destiny. Plans were made. Now they’ve changed. Know what’s right, know what’s wrong. Life just rearranged. All we can do is to try and understand. I’ve given all I can. My future’s in your hands. Come take my heart, my soul, my love, my life! Hold me tight, babe. Take me to the world inside your eyes. Take me to the world inside your eyes.” never appeared on the end credits at the beginning of the song. It was instrumental for a minute until we heard Sputzy’s band mates in Modern Man as the Chorus voices whispered singing “Eyes, Eyes, Eyes” and then co-lead Singer Delilah’s vocal part of the song lyrics “Is it you? Is it me? Holding on for so long, trying desperately. Is it right or is it fair? Wanting more, so much more, and it’s never there. I am with you when I feel like I’m alone. It’s easy to pretend this world could never end. Come take my heart, my soul, my love, my life. Hold me tight, babe. Take me to the world inside your eyes. Take me to the world inside your eyes!” with the bandies of Modern Man singing their chorus parts “Tonight” could be heard near the very end of the song as the credits finally ended. But you can hear Sputzy’s first lead vocal parts of the song on the soundtrack album itself. Then you can finally hear what the original recording sounds like.
The alarm sound heard is the same one from The Thing (1982).
Akram Midani: The former Dean of Fine Arts in Carnegie Mellon appears as a Fisherman Zombie pursuing Steel through the Mines. (You can see his wife Watfa Midani right next to him as another Zombie.)
Terry Adams, Al Anderson, Joey Spampinato, Tom Ardolino, NRBQ: as Zombies in the mine.
Taso N. Stavrakis: In 2 roles: Appears as a Cave Zombie who gets bashed on the head with wood by Sarah. Referred to as Knock-On-Wood Zombie. He also appears as a Biker Zombie as the Zombie battle begins.
Ed Lammi: A Zombie with a cast arm entering the room after Steel commits suicide.
Annie Loeffler: Female Cave Zombie (shot by John).
Howard Berger: Spinaround Cave Zombie (shot by John).
Everett Burrell: A Surgeon Zombie in the Cave.
John Vulich: The last Zombie shot in the cave before our heroes enter the Silo.
George A. Romero: As a zombie pushing a cart in the foreground during the final zombie feast, seen from the waist down and identified by his trademark plaid scarf wrapped around his waist.
Joseph Pilato (Rhodes) line “Choke on them” as he’s being ripped apart by zombies was ad-libbed by the actor.
The blood and entrails used in the disemboweling of Capt. Rhodes were real. Pig intestines and blood were procured form a nearby slaughterhouse and used to make the scene. During filming the refrigerator housing intestines and blood was unplugged by custodial staff, and the entrails started to spoil causing most of those involved to become physically sick.
George A. Romero had originally planned for all the zombies to perish in a massive explosion when they stumbled across explosive chemicals in the laboratory. Meanwhile, one of the crew members who had died during the attack was to have stayed dead and not come back as a zombie, thereby giving hope to the survivors.
The only movie in George A. Romero’s “Dead” series where a zombie has a line of dialogue. Bub says, “Hello Aunt Alicia.” Some viewers attribute another line to him, but this is disputed. When Sarah enters Logan’s lab, she is startled when Bub emerges from the shadows behind her. After this, he moans something that some fans believe is, “I’m sorry.”
The Zombies who attack and feast on Captain Rhodes are played by Hermie Granati, David Granati, Joey Granati, and Rick Granati of the Pittsburgh rock band, The Granati Brothers (otherwise known as G-Force).
Paul Gagne, Robert Martin, Mark Steensland, and Donald Farmer appear as Rickles’ Zombie attackers in the mine.
If you enjoy the Horror stuff I do for SomeWhatNerdy then make sure you click on the links below:
Raz’s Midnight Macabre Facebook page (HERE)
Raz’s Midnight Macabre Blog page (HERE)
