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When you hear
of little travesties pulled by the studios,
like say remaking George Romero’s
“Dawn of the Dead”, by a hack
writer like James Gunn (“Scooby Don’t”
and the upcoming sequel), it just makes
the hackles rise on the back of my neck.
If Gunn wants to make a zombie flick, why
can’t he have the originality to write
one of his own? Does he really have to ride
the coattails of the greatness that is George
Romero?
[ DW: Or re-making a cult classic like
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"
into a generic teeny-bopper horror flick.
Nazi bastards! ]
On the bright side, we have the wonderful
folks at Anchor Bay Entertainment who have
a greater respect for George Romero than
the big studios. Hitting store shelves this
week is a terror-ific DVD of the third installment
of his zombie trilogy, “Day of the Dead.” And as you might expect from
Anchor Bay, this isn’t just your run-of-the-mill
DVD release. Oh no. It’s a 2-disc
extravaganza of blood, guts, and zombie
parts.
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Packaged neatly in a trifold case, there is a
die-cut image of everyone’s favorite music
loving zombie, ‘Bub’ on the front
that keeps the case closed. Open that up and the
case unfolds to reveal the sets discs, and a little
booklet written by Anchor Bay guru Michael Felsher.
This little book is a treat in itself as it is
fashioned to look like a mini-legal ruled pad,
complete with doodles and bloodstains. In it you’ll
find a bit of a review by critic Roger Ebert that
was written in 1985, as well as several pages
of Felsher’s own thoughts and experiences
with the film.
The first disc, of course has the film itself
along with a commentary by Romero, makeup artist
Tom Savini, production designer Cletus Anderson,
and actress Lori Cardille. For the most part,
this commentary is great. It’s very conversational,
and everyone seems comfortable talking about how
they did this, and how they did that. Occasionally
one of the commentators will go off about something
that doesn’t relate to the movie, but these
are few and far between. Oddly enough there is
another commentary by director Roger Avary (“Rules
of Attraction”). Of course, if you know
anything about “Day of the Dead” you’ll
know that roger Avary has nothing to do with it
directly. What he is however a big fan of the
film, and he gets to tell us just how big of a
fan. It’s an interesting commentary, which
pretty much just had me nodding my head in agreement,
and wishing I had gotten to record my own commentary.
The second disc is the one Romero fans will drool
over, as it offers not one, but two 30+ minute
documentaries. The first is all about the making
of the film, complete with interviews of everyone
on the planet (well, at least those involved with
the movie) and a ton of behind the scenes footage.
The other offers a look at a lot of the makeup
effects done by Savini for “Day of the Dead”,
who at the time was the undisputed king of gore
makeup. I’ve had some experience in special
effects makeup, and I remember Savini being the
God of makeup effects to me for quite a while,
so if you ever felt that way, this is the footage
for you.
This disc also offers up a lot of the standard
extras that “Day of the Dead” fans
will devour. Things like TV spots, trailers and
several different galleries of pictures will keep
you busy for a while. If you get a chance, you
should check out the DVD-Rom feature with the
original screenplay. It’s interesting to
compare what Romero wanted to do in the film,
as opposed to what budgetary constraints allowed.
“Day of the Dead” has often been
maligned as being the worst of Romero’s
Trilogy, but I think more than anything this comment
comes from people who just didn’t get it.
Each of the films in the series had a different
feel, which I thought was great since I didn’t
wasn’t to see the same movie three times.
The original “Night of the Living Dead”
had that great ‘documentary’ feel
to it. It was the beginning of the zombie plague,
and for an older low budget feature it still holds
up as far as its ability to give us the creeps,
even by today’s standards.
The follow-up “Day of the Dead” had
a bigger budget and excessively disgusting gore
(Yay!). It was also a realistic progression of
how people were dealing with the ever-worsening
numbers of zombies. Having the main actors hole
up in a shopping mall was sheer genius on the
part of Romero. It brought the zombies into an
area that was all too familiar to anybody who
saw the film. Of course, for me it was even more
so because I always felt that any mall I went
to was full of zombies even before I saw the film.
(Take a look around next time you go… you’ll
see what I mean).
Finally, the third film turned the story into
one of claustrophobia. The zombies are now outnumbering
the living (which is an odd parallel to how the
living seem to hunt their food into extinction,
what will the zombies eat when we’re all
gone?). The main characters are trapped in an
underground installation working on the last possible
hope for the living, which is to control the zombies.
It’s an insane idea being worked on by insane
people. “Day of the Dead” is every
bit as good as it’s predecessors, and in
many ways more introspective than some are willing
to give it credit for. (And besides, the gore
factor increases once more, so no complaints from
me.)
My one hope is that some studio, somewhere will
give Romero the opportunity to direct his final
proposed film in the zombie saga. He would rather
not end it as a trilogy, and has one last great
script in him that closes everything. The title
is “Dead Reckoning” and from what
I’ve heard and read it would be one sweet
zombie film if it ever got made. (Note to the
studio backing the “Dawn of the Dead”
remake. Shift those funds in another direction.
Give Romero a chance to make the movie we’d
rather see.)
Bottom line, the Anchor Bay DVD release of “Day of the Dead” belongs in the DVD collection
of every horror film fan out there. And by the
way, there are plans for a Special Edition DVD
for the real “Dawn of the Dead” in
Anchor Bay’s future… sign me up.
Directed by: George Romero
Starring: Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joe
Pilato, Richard Liberty
Extras: Commentary by director George A. Romero,
Special Make-up Effects Artist Tom Savini, Production
Designer Cletus Anderson, and Actress Lori Cardille,
Theatrical trailer(s), The Many Days of Day Of
The Dead - An all-new 39 minute documentary featuring
interviews with the cast and crew, Day Of The
Dead: Behind The Scenes - 31 minutes of production
footage from Special Make-up Artist Tom Savini,
Audio Interview with Actor Richard Liberty, Wampum
Mine Promotional Video, TV Spots, Production Stills,
Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Poster and Advertising
Art, Gallery of Memorabilia, Zombie Make-up Photo
Gallery, Continuity Stills Gallery, George Romero
Bio
Specifications: Widescreen (1.85:1) Enhanced for
16x9 Televisions, Dolby Digital Surround
Studio: Anchor Bay
Release Date: 8/19/2003
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website
We'll give Day of The Dead an A.
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