George Romero's Living Dead Trilogy: Day of the Dead (1985)

Welcome to the final part of my Living Dead Trilogy retrospective.  If you missed Part 1 and Part 2, check 'em out.....

Dawn of the Dead was such a success the distributor, United Film Distribution Company, signed Romero to a three-picture deal, provided that one of those three films would be a sequel to Dawn.  Romero, fearing that if said sequel wasn't a hit he'd lose the chance to direct the two non-zombie films, opted to save it for last.  His next two movies were Knightriders, a Renaissance faire drama which flopped due to poor distribution, and Creepshow, a horror anthology which was a modest hit but by no means a smash.  As a result, UFDC hedged their bets with the Dawn sequel, only willing to adhere to the original $7 million budget if Romero released it as an R-rated film.  Up to this point George had planned for Day of the Dead to be a massive, sweeping zombie epic, "the Gone With the Wind of zombie films," but refused to compromise the intended violence and gore for an R rating.  Thus the budget was slashed in half and Romero was forced to completely overhaul the project.  The resulting film was initially seen as an underwhelming, depressing letdown after the thrill-ride of Dawn, and made most of its money overseas and on home video.  Amazingly though, Day of the Dead has developed an enthusiastic cult following in the thirty-odd years since, in many ways becoming just as influential as its two predecessors.

Day of the Dead takes place a considerable time after Dawn, when the human race is all but wiped out, and only a few pockets of civilization remain, mostly underground.  The story centers around a small military/scientific contingent occupying an abandoned mine, hoping to find some sort of solution to the zombie infestation.  Living conditions are nearly unsustainable and the scientific team is at the mercy of a crazed Captain, who is uninterested in studying the zombies and simply wants to destroy them.  What follows is a power struggle and clash of ideas between the two factions that actually contains more thematic human drama than any other film in the series.

This guy's a whackaloon.

One of the main plot threads concerns the lead scientist, Dr. Logan (a compellingly demented Richard Liberty), who has begun experimenting on zombie specimens, hoping to "tame" them.  His most promising subject is a ghoul called "Bub," who seems to understand/remember how to work basic tools and appears almost civilized.  This subplot exploits a fascinating story element: that the zombies are no longer the bad guys.  Zombies simply act according to their instinctual nature and the only evil left in the world is that which is perpetrated by the survivors.

George Romero's Living Dead Trilogy: Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Welcome to Part 2 of our retrospective on George Romero's Living Dead trilogy.  Check out Part 1 HERE...

With Night of the Living Dead, George Romero and his collaborators stumbled onto an unexpected cult hit, and while it sadly didn't make any of them rich (Due to an unfortunate copyright snafu the film fell into public domain where it remains to this day), they now had careers as filmmakers.  George directed four feature films after NOTLD with little box office success before returning to the genre that put him on the map.

Romero got the idea while visiting the Monroeville Mall, owned by a friend of his.  The facility had a secluded suite of rooms, fully stocked with food and water, which his friend claimed could sustain a person for months in the event of a nuclear attack.  "Hmm, what about a zombie attack?" George replied.  From this simple premise sprang the narrative seedling for his next project, which would go down as the Citizen Kane of zombie films, Dawn of the Dead.

I gotta see this place

Romero's second foray into the zombie genre picks up some time after the events of NOTLD, when the entire country is now swarming with the risen dead, private residences have been declared illegal, the emergency networks have taken over all broadcasting, and society as a whole is just about to completely break down.  Four survivors, two from a Pittsburgh TV station and two from a local SWAT force, escape in a traffic 'copter and set up shop at the Monroeville Mall.  As the outside world crumbles, our protagonists find themselves in a shopper's paradise, the entire plaza at their disposal.

As with NOTLD, Romero peppered Dawn with underlying social commentary befitting the era of its release, in this case 1970s American obsession with consumerism and the futility in trying to find happiness in material goods.  And while not as purely terrifying as its predecessor, Dawn of the Dead was a rollicking, action-horror film with moments of humor and a ton of over-the-top gore.  Where Night was filmed in expressionist black & white, Dawn depicted these grisly events in bright, garish colors, using the mall's ample lighting to save time and money during the down n' dirty shoot (The vast majority of the scenes were filmed overnight while the mall was closed, thus time and availability were limited).

WWE Fastlane 2023 Preview & Predictions

Time for another WWE B-PPV that's sure to gouge another Collision overnight rating, WWE Fastlane!

As of now only five matches have been announced, but I'm sure they'll either add more matches or throw in so much video package and backstage filler the show will reach the three-hour mark.  Anyway they brought back John Cena for this show and put Cody Rhodes on it to try and load it up a bit since Payback was met with much apathy.  I don't see this lineup being much better than that one though.  Side note: the name Fastlane doesn't make sense except as a show on the Road to WrestleMania.  That's where the title originally came from.  Now it's just nonsensical.  And it's not like anyone has nostalgic feelings about the name.  Just change it.

John Cena & LA Knight vs. Jimmy Uso & Solo Sikoa

I'm guessing LA Knight's been moved into a feud with the Bloodline guys to set up a match with Roman at the Royal Rumble or something, maybe even at Survivor Series.  But I wouldn't get your hopes up, Knight isn't gonna be the guy to beat Roman.  Like ever.  I get that he's popular and has a fun persona but he simply isn't main event material, he's paint-by-numbers in the ring.  Anyway, Cena's involvement ought to make for a somewhat hot crowd, although they're risking diminishing returns by featuring him so much.  I don't see the babyfaces losing.

Pick: Cena & Knight

Latino World Order vs. Bobby Lashley & Street Profits

Why in the name of hell did WWE resurrect a failed undercard stable from WCW?  Surely you could've called Rey and friends something original that doesn't have jobbers-to-the-stars connotations?  Also am I behind on current events or does this match feel totally out of the blue and thrown together?  And has Lashley been injured or has Creative just not had anything for him do to lately?  This seems like a run-of-the-mill RAW match and will probably be at about that level.  Lashley ain't losing to the LWO.

Pick: Team Lashley

George Romero's Living Dead Trilogy: Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Since it's Halloween season and this film is 55 years old now, I thought I'd go back and rewatch the legendary Living Dead trilogy, wherein the humble, gentlemanly indie filmmaker George Romero created one of the most disturbing film series of all time.  An aspiring, self-taught director with a background in commercial work, Romero and his associates decided in 1967 to make a feature film, choosing the horror genre for its marketability on a small budget, and a whole new subgenre was born. 

The result of course was Night of the Living Dead, a bloodcurdling guerrilla-style picture about seven survivors holed up in an old farmhouse during a zombie outbreak.  At a time when audiences were conditioned to expect cheeseball horror and sci-fi movies that were playfully scary but ultimately toothless, Night of the Living Dead was truly a shock to the system.  Here was a stark, brutal nightmare of a film depicting in gory detail people and zombies being shot, bludgeoned, stabbed, and eating human entrails, where none of the heroes make it out alive.  The overall tone is so bleak and upsetting I can't imagine how 1968 audiences took it.  NOTLD became a major hit on the midnight movie circuit, eventually grossing over $30 million worldwide on a $114,000 budget.

Romero also unintentionally pulled off a coup by casting an African-American as the film's lead.  Duane Jones, an experienced theater actor, gave the best audition for a role originally written as a white character, thus lending the narrative a poignant layer of political subtext.  The film's tragic finale, where Ben is mistaken for a zombie and shot, before being dragged out of the house and burned by the redneck law enforcement posse, now paralleled the racial tensions and unrest of the Civil Rights era.  The choice to depict the aftermath in grainy still photos echoes violent newspaper clippings of the time, making it that much more upsetting.

Romero's use of light and shadow is superb

Other cast standouts include 23-year-old Judith O'Dea as the hysterically frightened Barbra and producers (and real-life married couple) Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman as the antagonistic Harry Cooper and his anxious wife Helen.  Given the non-professional status of most of the actors, the performances are by and large quite effective.

AEW WrestleDream Review: The Rated-R Superstar is All Elite!

Another month, another homerun PPV from AEW.  Say what you want about this company - yes they're struggling to move tickets, yes their roster is so big some talents are undeservedly overlooked, yes their storytelling can be uneven and disorganized at times (This is true of all wrestling companies) - but no one can touch AEW when it comes to putting on great PPV events.  No one.  

WrestleDream was a ten-match show with so much variety, where every match achieved what it set out to achieve.  Like simple, old-school, story-driven wrestling?  Check out MJF vs. The Righteous.  Like hard-hitting strong style?  Eddie vs. Shibata.  Like a crazy spot-filled sprint?  Look at the 4-way tag.  Like big, dramatic main event-type matches?  Hangman vs. Swerve.  Like technical wrestling?  Danielson vs. ZSJ.  Trios matches?  Gotcha covered.  Great tag team wrestling?  FTR-Aussie Open.  Violent grudge matches?  Christian vs. Darby.  Oh, and surprise debuts with gamechanging potential?  That's there too.  This is why I love AEW - they actually have something for everyone.  The flow of this show felt a lot like a big NJPW PPV, with lean, shorter matches to start things off, and the longer matches saved for the end.  It felt shorter than PPVs where they shuffle the long and short matches.

The biggest news was of course the debut of the former Edge, Adam Copeland.  After 25 years of being either an active WWE wrestler or a retired WWE Legend, The Rated-R Superstar (Yup, WWE forgot to trademark that one) is All Elite, and at the media scrum afterward (plus a series of tweets) he made it clear he feels free for the first time in many years.  Obviously not content with how he was being used in WWE the last couple years, Copeland now has dozens of fresh opponents to work with, as well as some old favorites.  At 50 years old it would really be something to see him reinvigorate his career the same way Christian Cage has.  His first promo on Wednesday, free of WWE's scripting restrictions, should be something.  After having to fire CM Punk and losing Jade Cargill, this felt like a much-needed win to generate some positive buzz.