Day of the Dead
Short description
Day of the Dead is set in a world where the dead have risen and vastly outnumber the living. A small group of survivors, made up of scientists and soldiers, has taken refuge in an underground military facility in Florida. While the scientists study the zombies in the hope of understanding the phenomenon and possibly controlling the creatures, the soldiers grow impatient and push for a more aggressive approach. Tensions between the two factions escalate as the situation outside the bunker worsens, and the living prove to be just as dangerous to one another as the undead.
George A. Romero wrote and directed the film, the seventh of the fourteen features he directed in chronological order, following Creepshow in 1982 and preceding Monkey Shines in 1988. Richard P. Rubinstein produced. The cast includes Lori Cardille as Sarah, Terry Alexander as John, Joseph Pilato as Rhodes, Jarlath Conroy as McDermott, Anthony Dileo Jr. as Miguel, and Richard Liberty as Logan, with 47 credited performers in total.
Made for a budget of about 4 million dollars, the film took in roughly 5 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.1 from around 79,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 7 from about 1,448 votes. A critics' rating of 6.3 from 103 reviews places it somewhat below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The book that Dr. Logan gives to Bob is Stephen King’s 'Salem's Lot'.
- The original screenplay, which Romero couldn’t secure funding for (the projected budget was $7,000,000), featured a citadel of people surrounded by electric fences, and a small group of 'intelligent' zombies. Twenty years later, this screenplay became the basis for 'Land of the Dead' (2005).
- The opening scenes of the film (the abandoned city) were shot in Fort Myers and on Sanibel Island (Florida).
- The laboratory and other underground facilities were actually filmed underground – in the Wampum Mine, located near Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania).
- During the scene where Sarah and Miguel argue, Lori Cardille asked Anthony Dileo to give her a real slap to make it look as realistic as possible.
- This is the only Romero film to feature a 'talking' zombie (Zombie Bob utters a short line).
- Despite the fact that 'Day of the Dead' grossed far less than its predecessors, Romero stated that it was his best film.
- In the scene where Captain Rhodes is torn in two, real pig intestines were used. After filming this episode, they were forgotten in the refrigerator over the weekend, so on Monday the actors and crew were forced to change the filming location due to the strong smell of decaying and rotting entrails.
- During the final battle with the zombies, the director himself can be seen in the role of a zombie pushing a cart. Although George A. Romero's face is not visible, he can be identified by his famous scarf wrapped around his waist.
- All extras portraying zombies in the film's finale received a baseball cap with the inscription “I played a zombie in Day of the Dead,” a copy of the newspaper from the beginning of the film (with the headline “The Dead Walk!”), and one dollar as a gift.
- According to Lori Cardille, during the first take of the dream sequence where hands suddenly appear from the wall and reach for her, the prop wall collapsed, and the actors hidden behind it fell on top of her. The wall had to be rebuilt and made stronger.
- The underground scenes were filmed in an old mine in Pennsylvania, repurposed as storage for important documentation. The mine consistently maintained a temperature of 10 degrees Celsius, but the high humidity was very damaging to the filming equipment. The shooting process was regularly disrupted by problems with mechanics and electrical wiring. Getting to the set and delivering equipment there was also not easy. Actors and the film crew often even spent the night in the mine to save time.
- Director George A. Romero ordered a significant portion of the muzzle flashes during shooting to be added to the footage during post-production.
- According to George A. Romero, he so wanted to make the film as brutal and bloody as possible that he even agreed to a slight budget cut for the sake of it.
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