Netflix pick for 3/10/14 – ‘Day of the Dead’

There was a time not too long ago when zombies were most certainly not the cultural force they are now in this present day. There were no “zombie walks,” no hugely successful zombie-based television shows or comic books, nothing to indicate that popular culture would one day be inundated with zombie-related materials. Hell, back in 1985, zombies were strictly the province of comic book wielding, put-upon geeks and nerds, and there was one undisputed king of the undead, and that man was George Romero, and he had just released the capper to his undead trilogy (a trilogy which he would end up adding to in the 2000’s zombie boom), and like many trilogies, while the third installment is not as good as the two that came before it, it, “Day of the Dead” has plenty going for it to make it a Netflix Instant Pick of the Week.

For example, the special effects alone, done practically well before the age of digital effects, are worth the price of admission. Zombie attacks are gruesome and vicious, science experiments involving zombies look realistic and kind of disturbing, and it all just looks great. And while “Night of the Living Dead” was about what happens to people when there such a disaster first strikes, and “Dawn of the Dead” is about society and civilization collapses around everyone when the disaster worsens and takes hold, “Day of the Dead” is about what happens after the disaster has hit and taken its toll and the few survivors are left to band together to try to save each other. But of course this is a Romero zombie movie, so most of the story is bleak and depressing, which means that within the story, even the small group of survivors who need each other to live spend most of the movie arguing with each other, their civility breaking down as it becomes “every man for himself.”

Now yes, some of the acting (okay, most of the acting) is not what would be considered top notch, but considering the miniscule budget and resources Romero had at the time, he did a pretty remarkable job with what he had.

So enjoy “Day of the Dead” on the Netflix Instant and enjoy the one and only Bub the Zombie, possibly the greatest singular zombie ever in the history of zombiedom.