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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - July 3rd

"DAY OF THE DEAD" limited release in 1985

In this final installment in George A. Romero's original Dead trilogy, Day of the Dead begins with the entire world now having been overrun with the cannibalistic zombies and a small group of military officers and scientists live in an underground bunker, struggling to find a cure to the "living dead" pandemic.

Watch the Day of the Dead trailer below!

Returning from an unsuccessful mission to find additional survivors, Dr Sarah Bowman (Lori Cardille), William "Bill" McDermott (Jarlath Conroy), and helicopter pilot John (Terry Alexander) return to Fort Myers, an underground bunker located deep in the Florida Everglades. With dwindling supplies, loss of communication with other survivors, and the slow progress of the scientists hoping to find a way to reverse the re-animation process, tensions within Fort Myers are close to breaking point - especially between the unstable base commander Captain Henry Rhodes (Joseph Pilato) and the lead scientist, Dr. Matthew "Frankenstein" Logan (Richard Liberty). Logan believes that the zombies can be eventually domesticated and keeps a supply of "test subjects" in a corral under the base. His proudest achievement so far has been "Bub" (Sherman Howard), a docile zombie who remembers some parts of his past life and engages in rudimentary human behavior. None of this however impresses Rhodes, and once he discovers Logan has been feeding the zombies human flesh as a reward for docility and positive behavior, Rhodes orders all tests stopped and places the remaining scientist's under his direct command - resulting in Rhodes murdering Logan. An enraged "Bub" escapes the corral and leads the ravenous zombie horde in an attack on the bunker, with the remaining survivors having to fight their way through them to get to the surface!

Top:   Joseph Pilato as Capt. Rhodes;   Above:   Dr. Matthew 

"Frankenstein" Logan, played by Richard Liberty.

Dr. Logan: We don't have enough ammunition to shoot them all in the head. The time to have done that would have been in the beginning. No, we let them overrun us. We are in the minority now, something like 400,000 to one by my calculation.

Romero had originally intended the film to be "the Gone with the Wind of zombie films", with a budget of an estimated at $7 million. However the producers would only give Romero the money if he could make it an R-rated film and was told that if he went ahead and shot an unrated film with no limits on gore, the budget would be split in half. With these resulting budget constraints, Romero was forced to rewrite the script a total of five times before a suitable concept was agreed on. First to be cast was Joseph Pilato as Rhodes, having worked with Romero twice before on Dawn of the Dead and Knightriders. It has been rumored by fans for years in the connection between Pilato's character as being the same - believing that Rhodes started out as a cop (in Dawn) then later joined the army and became Captain (for Day). Since no passage of time is given in the Dead films it is very possible!; although never officially confirmed.

The underground bunker of Fort Myer was actually a 2,500,000 square foot former limestone mine near Pittsburgh that was being used for a underground storage facility. The constant 50 degree humidity in the mine caused several of special effects leader Tom Savini's props to fail during the filming, as well as other mechanical and electrical failures. In addition to acting as a "sound stage", cast and crew also slept overnight in the mine to save time travelling to and from location every day. Most of the zombie extras were Pittsburgh residents who were paid for their services with; 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. The remaining above-ground scenes were filmed at several locations around Florida, where Romero was living at the time.

Top:   Base helicopter pilot John (Terry Alexander); Above:

Dr. Sarah Bowman (Lori Cardille) and William "Bill" 

McDermott (Jarlath Conroy)  

[Steel is taunting the zombies in the corral]
Pvt. Rickles: [laughing] That's it, Steel! Whip it out!
Pvt. Steel: Fuckin' A! Biggest piece of meat in the cave! I don't wanna frighten the lady, though, not with her boyfriend around.
Sarah: You're incapable of exciting me, Steel, except as an anthropologic curiosity.
Pvt. Steel: Oh, what the hell does that mean, Rickles?
Pvt. Rickles: It means you're a caveman, asshole!

Special effects legend Tom Savini also returned to supply the never-ending blood and gore effects. For the disemboweling scene of Capt. Rhodes, real pig intestines, entrails and blood was procured from a nearby slaughterhouse. During filming, the refrigerator housing the intestines and blood was unplugged by custodial staff and the entrails started to spoil causing most of those involved to become physically sick! Another future legend of special effects had his first break with Day, makeup artist Greg Nicotero (TV's The Walking Dead among many, many others). In fact, during a holiday break in filming, 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!

Top:   "Bub", the first domesticated zombie;   Above:   Rhodes

meets a pretty gruesome end - and a great line for his death scene!

Captain Rhodes: [as the zombies are disemboweling him and eating his entrails] Choke on 'em!

Day of the Dead was given a limited release on July 3, before a wider release two weeks later to mixed reviews. New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin "Yes, there are enough spilled guts and severed limbs to satisfy the bloodthirstiest fan. But these moments tend to be clustered together, and a lot of the film is devoted to windy argument." Allmovie reviewer Keith Phipps stated that: "The last, to date at least, of George Romero's living dead films is in many respects the least interesting, although it's not for a lack of ambition." Although it was the lowest grossing film in the Dead trilogy, Romero claims this is his favorite film out of the series and has gained a significant cult status over the following years.

Above:   Horror maestro George A. Romero on set of Day of

the Dead

A half prequel, half sequel Day of the Dead 2: Contagium (2005) was produced by Taurus Entertainment Company, and, although an official sequel as Taurus owns the film rights to Day, no one from the first film had any involvement. Following the success of the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead, a loose remake of Day of the Dead was released straight-to-video in 2008. Interestingly, Ving Rhames starred in both remakes - as a cop Kenneth Hall in Dawn, and Capt. Rhodes in Day; almost the exact same coincidence of roles Joseph Pilato played!

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   82%