In 1968, independent Pittsburgh filmmaker George Romero created a low-budget, cult classic, zombie horror film called ”Night of the Living Dead.” It was horrific in a revolutionary way, of sorts–it was so gross it was almost funny–and it typified the times in which Romero worked.
Then, in 1979, Romero took his same drooling zombies and let them walk wild through a suburban shopping mall, and the result was inspired comedy and horror, because you couldn`t tell who was more dead–the zombies or the shoppers.
”Day of the Dead,” Romero`s latest, has no such inspiration. It`s bankrupt in terms of imagination. All he does is place his zombies in the basement of a missile silo and have a few crazed military types scream at the zombies and at each other. End of movie.
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Romero`s ”non-zombie” films (”Martin,” ”Knightriders”) have not succeeded at the box-office, so it`s not surprising he tried to score with another walking-dead picture. But he didn`t make any extra effort to place his curiously sad creatures in either any special environment or alongside any fresh characters. The current parody ”Return of the Dead,” which Romero did not create, is a much better film simply because it does have an attitude toward its creatures: It prefers its creatures to its humans.
Romero should have made that picture.
Rating for ”Day of the Dead” (which carries an unusual ”no one under 17 admitted” warning, probably for publicity effect): one star.