Saturday, May 3, 2014

DAY OF THE DEAD (1985)

ZZZZZZZzzzzzz....hurrrghhh...zzzzz...huh?  Oh sorry, I didn't see you waiting there.  I've been trying to review DAY OF THE DEAD for the last few hours, but I keep falling asleep.  The film opens excitedly enough with a helicopter flying over a deserted town (as long as you ignore that moving car off to the left).  The occupants of the helicopter are some military folks looking for survivors after a zombie outbreak.  They don't see anybody from the sky, so they land and start yelling into their bullhorn.  After a few moments, zombies sloooowy start shuffling their way towards the helicopter.  The military people fly off.  See...I told you it was exciting!  Next, they return to their underground base where they bitch and argue with each other until at the 58-minute mark, when somebody finally gets killed by a zombie.

Over the years, I've revisited DAY OF THE DEAD a number times in hopes that I'll enjoy it, but I never do.  The first half is very slow and then, when the violence finally, happens...it's so by-the-numbers that it's still boring.  Bad acting, no likable characters, low budget, slow pace, tons of boring dialogue, Bub the world's most annoying zombie, unsatisfying beginning, middle and ending.  DAY OF THE DEAD had a lot of potential, but in the end it's just a boring snoozefest.  Skip it.

If you need me I'll be in my room checking my blood pressure while watching DAWN OF THE DEAD.

Part 1 - Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Part 2 - Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Part 4 - Land of the Dead (2005)
Part 5 - Diary of the Dead (2007)
Part 6 - Survival of the Dead (2009)
Remake - Dawn of the Dead (2004)