A small group of military officers and scientists dwell in an underground bunker as the world above is overrun by zombies.

It didn’t take ten years this time, just seven, but Romero once again well and truly delivered.

I’ll openly admit that I can be quite biased when it comes to this film as it’s my favourite entry in the original “Dead trilogy”, though I know it’s definitely not the same for a-lot of fans out there and I feel it gets a-lot of unfair criticism and I’m still not sure why.

Though I’m not the only one who thinks this is the best of the “Dead Trilogy”, The man himself, George A. Romero claims this is his favourite film out of the original “Dead trilogy” as-well. If only he’d have been given his full budget, I wonder what could’ve been.

I feel that this film has the darkest tone of them all, it shows the true dark nature of humanity in all it’s insane glory. Romero’s content really does work well and creates some truly complex characters with each character having a pivotal role in the plot.

The film also had a dream team in the effects department with Tom Savini and Greg Nicotero. Mix that with Romero’s directing and writing, its claustraphobic setting and its tense atmosphere and it’s easy to see why this film turned out so good.

As I stated, this is my favourite of the original “Dead trilogy” and just writing about it makes me want to go and watch it again, which I’m going to do now and I suggest you do too.

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Miscellaneous facts about the film:

All the extras who portrayed zombies in the climax received for their services 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.

Some of the headlines from the newspaper that says “The Dead Walk”: “Vice President Declares State of Emergency,” “Whereabouts of President Unknown,” “Food Supply Dwindles” and “Man Bites Man.”

The lowest grossing film in George A. Romero’s “Dead” trilogy.

According to Lori Cardille, the first attempt to shoot the beginning dream scene where the zombie arms suddenly spring out of the wall and attack her resulted in the faux wall and many of the actors behind it toppling over on her. The wall ended up needing to be completely rebuilt, this time much more stable.

The underground facility was not on a soundstage. It was shot in the Wampum mine, a former limestone mine near Pittsburgh, that was being used for a underground storage facility. The 2,500,000 square foot mine is now operated as the Gateway Commerce Center and referred to as a “subsurface storage facility”.

Most of the zombie extras in this film were Pittsburgh residents who volunteered to help in the film.

The alarm sound heard is the same one from The Thing (1982).

The original script, for which George A. Romero couldn’t get budget, involved the scientists living above ground in a fortress protected by electrified fences and the military living safely underground. It also involved a small army of trained zombies, and the conclusion to the trilogy more brutal than the released version. This later became the basis of Land of the Dead (2005)

The budget for George A. Romero’s original script was estimated at $7 million, but he would only be given the money if he could film an R-rated film. He was told that if he went ahead and shot an unrated film with no limits on gore, the budget would be split in half to $3.5 million.

George Romero stated that he wanted gore content as brutal as that to appear on-screen so badly that he accepted getting the film’s budget slashed for the sake of keeping the film coming out as he envisioned it.

Underground scenes were filmed in a former mine shaft located near Wampum, Pennsylvania, converted into a long-term storage facility for important documents. Though the mine maintained a constant temperature of about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, its high humidity played havoc with the crew’s equipment and props. Mechanical and electrical failures were a constant problem throughout filming, and caused several of Tom Savini’s props to fail during the filming. Despite these failures, Savini was nominated and won the 1985 Saturn Award for best makeup effects. The remote location also complicated the transportation of crew members and equipment. Cast and crew would often sleep in the mine overnight to avoid the time-consuming travel to and from the shooting location.

Right after Logan tells the zombie that it needs to sit in the dark and think about what it did, and punishes it by turning off the light, a little bit of the “The Gonk” music from Dawn of the Dead (1978) can be heard in the transition of scenes.

During a vacation break in filming, makeup artist Greg 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.

First attempts to shoot the scene where Sarah performs surgery on Miguel’s arm failed when it simply bounced off the rubber, so Tom Savini remade it in wax and it worked perfectly.

Real pig intestines were used during the gore scenes.

Although never confirmed, it has been rumoured by fans that the character Joe Pilato played in Dawn of the Dead (1978) is in fact Rhodes as a cop. Fans believe that Rhodes started out as a cop then later joined the army and became Captain. Since no passage of time is given in the ‘Dead’ films it is very possible that years lapsed between ‘Dawn’ and ‘Day’, and that the Rhodes character could have went from being a cop to an army captain.

In the cafeteria scene, William McDermott (Jarlath Conroy) says that “All of the shopping malls are closed.” This is a clear reference to the film’s predecessor Dawn of the Dead (1978), which is set in a shopping mall.

Pat Logan, who played Uncle Rege in Night of the Living Dead (1990) appears as a Bald Mustachioed Zombie shot by Steel in the mines.

A total of five scripts were written as George A. Romero wrestled with the film’s concepts and the budgetary constraints. The first draft was over 200 pages, which he later condensed to 122 pages. This is the true original script, and to date copies of it have not come to light. This version was likely rejected because UFDC felt it was too expensive for them to produce even with an R rating. Romero subsequently scaled down the scope of this script into a 165-page draft (often erroneously referred to as the original version), then condensed it again to a 104-page draft labeled the ‘second version, second draft’ in an unsuccessful final attempt to get the story within budget parameters. When this failed, he drastically altered the original story concept and ultimately produced a shooting draft that numbered only 88 pages.

Tony Todd auditioned for the role of John. He would later play the lead role in Night of the Living Dead (1990), a colour remake of the first movie in the ‘Dead series’, Night of the Living Dead (1968).

During Miguel’s sedation, Lori Cardille told Anthony Dileo Jr. to actually slap her to make it look more authentic.

The book Dr. Logan gives to Bub is Stephen King’s “Salem’s Lot.” George A. Romero and King have been friends for many years.

Both actors playing Cpt. Rhodes in the two versions of Day of the Dead also appeared in both versions of Dawn of the Dead as police officers. In Dawn of the Dead (1978), Joseph Pilato played Officer at Police Dock before being Rhodes in the original Day of the Dead. In Dawn of the Dead (2004), Ving Rhames played Kenneth (a cop) and in Day of the Dead (2008), he played Rhodes.

The first scene (abandoned city) of the movie was filmed in Fort Myers and Sanibel Island, Florida. The theatre shown in the opening is the Edison. Thomas A. Edison used to summer in Ft. Myers and his house there is a tourist attraction.

There was a large problem with the scenes with guns firing, as the blanks used would almost never be caught on film, due to the camera’s shutter. This made director George A. Romero animate almost all of the gun’s muzzle flashes in post production. Actress Lori Cardille also described using the Uzi during filming as having such a large recoil kick that it physically forced her back.

Joseph Pilato was cast as Rhodes, the film’s antagonist. As stated by Pilato “He pretty much just gave it to me. I don’t know if he auditioned other people, but it was very quick. I came in and it was like, “You got it!.”

Among the direct references to Dawn of the Dead (1978): McDermott jokingly mentions that all the shopping malls have been closed; a bit of the score from the ending of Dawn of the Dead can be heard when the scientists go over to do some tests on Bub; John is repeatedly called ‘flyboy’ by the soldiers.

One of the make-up technicians criticized his manager’s choice to play Michael Jackson: Thriller (1983) on set. If you look closely, there is a zombie dressed like Michael Jackson because of this.

The large columned building in the opening scene, filmed in Fort Myers, is now an art museum, and used to host an annual Zombie fest, known as Zombiecon.

Bub is the third zombie in the series seen carrying a gun; The first was the zombie who took Roger DiMarco’s assault rifle, and the second was the undead Stephen Andrews in Dawn of the Dead (1978).

Sarah, John, McDermott, Miguel, Dr. Logan, Bub, and Captain Rhodes were the only characters from George A. Romero’s original script that made it to the final version.

The Zombies’ moaning, groaning, growling, roaring, and feasting sounds happened to be played by the voice of the talented actor Mark Dodson, who played the voice of Salacious Crumb, Jabba The Hutt’s Sidekick and Court Jester in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983). They were not all done by sound effects.

In an interview Joseph Pilato was asked if George A. Romero “had him in mind”, Pilato stated that one of the reasons why he got the role was because of the budget being scaled down from 7 to 3.5 million.

Much like Big Daddy in Land of the Dead (2005), Bub is never seen attacking a living human for food, and thus only kills the main human antagonist as an act of revenge. Bub did, however, consume the butchered flesh and organs of the recently deceased Pvt. Johnson and Pvt. Miller given to him by Dr. Logan, implying he has not entirely lost his taste for human flesh.

All above-ground scenes were filmed at several locations around Florida, where George A. Romero was living at the time.

All the military men have beards and appear to have already given up shaving for some time, with the exception of Captain Rhodes, who still shaves and preserves his military look. Although this could be attributed to the character’s military discipline, it could also be interpreted as a sign that he refuses to face the reality of their situation (as mentioned twice by Dr. Logan); all signs indicate that they are probably the only people left, yet he still cares about looking like a proper officer.

Gaylen Ross (“Francine” from Dawn of the Dead (1978)) is credited as “NYC Casting” in the end credits.

George A. Romero held a great appreciation for the talent community in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and utilized the same casting agency that he had used for Dawn of the Dead (1978). He specifically requested that all extras previously contracted for Dawn of the Dead be called back for casting in Day of the Dead, which is why many of the zombies that appear in this film may look familiar. This is also how Joseph Pilato, who appeared only briefly in the previous film, got his part in the main cast.

During the opening dream sequence when zombie arms attack Sarah through the wall, one of them was Lori Cardille’s husband.

George A. Romero originally intended the film to be “the Gone with the Wind (1939) of zombie films”.

Greg Nicotero who was both a makeup artist and actor in this movie, went on to perform multiple functions for The Walking Dead (2010) and its companion television shows.

Pvt. Steele performs the Sign of the Cross with his MGC replica M1911A1 pistol before committing suicide. The replica pistol was used for safety purposes and that the ‘back of head exploding’ was a squib effect and no blanks were used.

The last time that George A. Romero and Richard P. Rubinstein worked together as a director/producer team. Romero wrote the scripts for Creepshow 2 (1987) and Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990) which Rubinstein produced.

After Steele shoots the locked door to evade the cave horde a Ballerina Zombie can be seen stumbling with one foot flat and the other up on her toes.

Bub is the first zombie in the series seen aiming and firing a gun.

After Dr. Logan reprimands the test subject zombie for reacting violently to human contact, the music that plays is a sampled clip from “The Gonk”, one of the most iconic tracks from Romero’s previous film Dawn of the Dead.

During Sarah’s dream at the beginning of the film, the calendar is showing that it is at the end of October; especially, Halloween aka All Hallow’s Eve. At the end of the film, Sarah is marking a new calendar which has the first few days of November crossed off. November 1 is observed as All Saint’s Day by the Catholic church while November 2 is considered All Soul’s Day. This period of time between October 31 and November 2 is known as “Day of the Dead”.

All of the historical buildings featured in the opening sequence, filmed in Fort Myers Florida; still stand and exist preserved there today.

It is hinted at that by the time of this film, the phenomenon that caused the zombie plague has dissipated or disappeared. This is evidenced by the fact that when Logan and Fisher were shot and killed, they did not reanimate.

The “Day Of The Dead” love ballad song, “The World Inside Your Eyes” which appeared at the end credits of the movie was sung by Sputzy Sparacino (who was the lead singer and guitarist of the R&B/Dance/Cover band Modern Man at that time) and Gospel singer Delilah.

Although the year is not indicated, the calendar at the beginning of the movie shows October starting on a Tuesday. The year this movie was released, 1985 has October 1st landing on a Tuesday. The next previous year was 1974, four years prior to the previous movie, Day of the Dead (1985).

The two revolvers that Rhodes uses are Smith and Wesson Model 629, in crossdraw shoulder holsters, Additional .44 ammunition kept in a bandolier across his chest, it can be seen that the barrels of the revolvers have received the Mag-Na-Port recoil-reducing porting.

Sputzy Sparacino and his band Modern Man appear to be uncredited as the musicians of the movie soundtrack.

The helicopter was a Bell 206B JetRanger III.

Captain Rhodes and his men are from the 99th Army Reserve Command (ARCOM), as denoted by their checkered shoulder patch. It’s the same patch as the 99th Infantry Division of World War II, however the two shared no lineage. In 1975, the 99th moved to a new headquarters in Oakdale, Pennsylvania.

The second important “Day Of The Dead” Love ballad song, “If Tomorrow Comes” performed by Modern Man and sung by balladeers Sputzy Sparacino and Delilah again, never appeared in the movie soundtrack. It could be heard through some parts of the movie soundtrack only as an instrumental piece. But you can hear the original pop version of the song with the vocals of Sputzy Sparacino and Delilah singing it on the movie soundtrack album itself. You can also find and hear “If Tomorrow Comes” on Sputzy’s solo artist albums “Not Just Any Love Song” (released in June 1, 1994) and “Too Much Too Soon” (released in August 17, 1994).

The opening sequence was filmed in Fort Myers, Florida. This was also a location for the film Just Cause with Sean Connery and Blair Underwood. The film Gone Fishin’, with Danny Glover and Joe Pesci was also filmed here.

Even if this movie still is Indexed and confiscated in Germany, Arte (A French but also in Germany available TV channel) showed the full uncut movie on the 27.1.2022 at 0:20. It wasn’t the only time, because they showed the Movie already 2007 but in a heavily cut version

Gasparilla Island is named for Gasparilla Day, a “holiday” celebrated in Tampa, FL and named for the fictitious pirate “Jose Gaspar.”

The music and songs for the movie soundtrack were composed by three great talented musicians. Including John Harrison (who played Bass for the late great, legendary Blues/Rock Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist Roy Buchanan), Jim Blazer (who was the original co-keyboardist of Modern Man. And who has now been popular for playing Piano, Hammond B3 Keyboards, and Organ for Spencer Davis since 1990), and the Crooner-Guitarist Sputzy Sparacino (the former Lead Singer and Guitarist of Pittsburgh R&B/Dance/Cover band Gigolo, who then was playing with Modern Man at that time). Talmadge Pearsall (who was the co-lead singer and keyboardist of Modern Man) only helped compose the song “The World Inside Your Eyes” (“Day Of The Dead” Ballad) with the three main Musicians/Music Composers of the movie.

Doctor Logan makes a few comments about his father claiming he’d never get rich through pure research. John also mentions that the Doctor can usually talk his way out of trouble with Rhodes’s bad temper. The former comes up when we hear Logan ranting to his long absent mother, a sign he’s gone off the deep end. The second part comes to a head when Logan’s luck runs out and Rhodes stops listening to him.

Joseph Pilato (Rhodes) line “Choke on them” was ad-libbed by the actor.

The blood and entrails used in the disemboweling scene were real. Pig intestines and blood were procured from a nearby slaughterhouse and used to make the scene. During filming the refrigerator housing intestines and blood was unplugged by custodial staff, and the entrails started to spoil causing most of those involved to become physically sick.

The only movie in George A. Romero’s “Dead” series where a zombie has a line of dialogue. Bub says, “Hello Aunt Alicia.” Some viewers attribute another line to him, but this is disputed. When Sarah enters Logan’s lab, she is startled when Bub emerges from the shadows behind her. After this, he moans something that some fans believe is, “I’m sorry.”

George A. Romero had originally planned for all the zombies to perish in a massive explosion when they stumbled across explosive chemicals in the laboratory. Meanwhile, one of the crew members who had died during the attack was to have stayed dead and not come back as a zombie, thereby giving hope to the survivors.

In the blu-ray edition interviews, Joe Pilato (referring to his gruesome death scene, involving pig intestines that were rotten due to the refrigerator being unplugged) says that “He can still smell them, to this day.”

In the last work of Romero, the book “The Living Dead” it is revealed the three survivors from “Day of the Dead” did not survive and became zombies on the Island.

If one looks closely as Rhodes is torn in half, they’ll see that a large section of his innards is a blood-covered rubber chicken.

The Zombies who attack and feast on Captain Rhodes are played by Hermie Granati, David Granati, Joey Granati, and Rick Granati of the Pittsburgh rock band, The Granati Brothers (otherwise known as G-Force).

The handgun that Bub uses in the movie poster and to shoot Captain Rhodes with near the end is a Colt Gold Cup National Match (Mark 4 Series 70).

Paul Gagne, Robert Martin, Mark Steensland, and Donald Farmer appear as Rickles’ Zombie attackers in the mine.

Akram Midani, the former Dean of Fine Arts in Carnegie Mellon appears as a Fisherman Zombie pursuing Steel through the Mines. (You can see his wife Watfa Midani right next to him as another Zombie.)

Taso N. Stavrakis plays 2 roles: Appears as a Cave Zombie who gets bashed on the head with wood by Sarah. Referred to as Knock-On-Wood Zombie. He also appears as a Biker Zombie as the Zombie battle begins.

George A. Romero appears as a zombie pushing a cart in the foreground during the final zombie feast, seen from the waist down and identified by his trademark plaid scarf wrapped around his waist.

The first film in Romero’s “Dead” series to have a clown zombie, as also seen in Land of the Dead (2005) and Diary of the Dead (2007).