History YMMV / DayOfTheDead1985

* RetroactiveRecognition: Captain Rhodes is played by Joe Pilato, the future dub voice of [[Anime/DigimonAdventure WarGreymon]].

* RetroactiveRecognition: Captain Rhodes is played by Joe Pilato, the future dub voice of [[Anime/DigimonAdventure MetalGreymon]].

* OlderThanTheyThink: ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978'', the previous installment, was the first to feature a thinking zombie in the form of the Hare Krishna zombie as he’s seen heading towards the door Stephen went out of instead of following him like his other fellow zombies. In addition, when Stephen becomes a zombie, he is smart enough to lead the other living dead to the hideout where Peter and Fran are.

* SoBleakItsBoring: The characters from the previous two films had their flaws, but some of them were still nice. In this third movie, we have the military, who are horrible people who only know how to answer everything on the basis of violence. And then we have the scientists, who are debatably less then noble for making irrational decisions that don’t help anybody, and whose boss is a madman who is teaching zombies to be docile and smarter, and feeds them with bits and pieces of their dead friends. Not surprisingly, many viewers hope that the zombies will kill them all.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Captain Rhodes is played by Joe Pilato, the future dub voice of [[Anime/DigimonAdventure Metalgreymon]].

* SpecialEffectsFailure: Sometimes, when a zombie would get shot, we would never see the bullet hole even though the blood blowing out the back of their heads makes it clear that they ''did'' get shot. This was mainly due to the grainy footage on the original VHS copies. The "lighter and brighter" Blu-Rays now make it clear that there were entrance wounds (such as when Miller is shot).

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: The characters from the previous two films had their flaws, but some of them were still nice. In this third movie, we have the military, who are horrible people who only know how to answer everything on the basis of violence. And then we have the scientists, who are debatably less then noble for making irrational decisions that don’t help anybody, and whose boss is a madman who is teaching zombies to be docile and smarter, and feeds them with bits and pieces of their dead friends. Not surprisingly, many viewers hope that the zombies will kill them all.

* SpecialEffectsFailure: Sometimes, when a zombie would get shot, we would never see the bullet hole even though the blood blowing out the back of their heads makes it clear that they ''did'' get shot.
** This was mainly due to the grainy footage on the original VHS copies. The "lighter and brighter" Blu-Rays now make it clear that there were entrance wounds (such as when Miller is shot).

* RetroactiveRecognition: Captain Rhodes is played by Joe Pilato, the future dub voice of [[Anime/DigimonAdventure Wargreymon]].

*** Also to add to that, if you take ''Land'' as canon, eventually the dead will work out they can walk under water, so an island isn't exactly safe either.

* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Miguel. We don't know how long he and Sarah were together, or what he was like before the zombie apocalypse and during its early stages, but from the moment you see him he is a wreck, and his first proper speaking line towards her is him deriding her for having more mental strength than him. While you do feel sorry for him, especially as he's picked on by the other soldiers, he is almost constantly abusive towards the one person who actually wants to help him. Then he gets the base overrun in what is clearly a TakingYouWithMe suicide whichever way you look at it; it's not like he didn't have some form of access to guns.

** Bub.

** Others are rooting for Bub and the zombies to go after Rhodes.

* ContestedSequel: By far the most polarizing film in Romero’s original "Living Dead trilogy", though it isn’t helped that it’s a part 3 coming after [[ToughActToFollow two universally acclaimed films]]. It has its detractors who hate it for being too dark and cynical, as well as having both less interesting and detestable characters making it hard to root for anybody. However, it’s also got its fans who love it ''because'' it’s a bleaker Film then before, and for having some of Romero’s best commentary and Savini’s best effects. All this, however, has lessened over the years after the more divisive nature of ''[[Film/LandOfTheDead Land]]'', ''[[Film/DiaryOfTheDead Diary]]'' and ''[[Film/SurvivalOfTheDead Survival]]''.

* ContestedSequel: By far the most polarizing film in Romero’s original "Living Dead trilogy", though it isn’t helped that it’s a part 3 coming after [[ToughActToFollow two universally acclaimed films]]. It has its detractors who hate it for being too dark and cynical, as well as having both less interesting and detestable characters making it hard to root for anybody. However, it’s also got its fans who love it ''because'' it’s a bleaker Film then before, and for having some of Romero’s best commentary and Savini’s best effects. All this, however, has lessened over the years after the more divisive nature of ''[[Film/LandOfTheDead Land, Diary and Survival]]''.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: The characters from the previous two films had their flaws, but some of them were still nice. In this third movie, we have the military, who are horrible people, racist, sociopaths and misogynists who only know how to answer everything on the basis of violence. And then we have the scientists, who are definitely not very interesting, and whose boss is a madman who is teaching zombies to be docile and smarter, and feeds them with bits and pieces of their dead friends. Not surprisingly, many viewers hope that the zombies will kill them all.

* VindicatedByHistory: Reception for this film was somewhat mixed, but as time's gone on people have begun to view it in a more positive way. It helps that Romero's later zombie films are more universally disliked.

* {{Sequelitis}}: The original film, while perhaps not considered an all-time classic, is certainly regarded as one of the better zombie films out there. By contrast, ''Day of the Dead 2: Contagium'', which has almost [[InNameOnly NOTHING to do with the original]], is widely felt to be absolute crap, and the remake arguably even '''worse'''.

*** Except the scientists are the only ones trying to do something useful. We don't get to see much of what Sarah is doing, but Dr. Logan flat out states (a bit chidingly, of course) that she's trying to find a way to reverse/stop the process. Certainly a worthwhile goal. Copter pilot John's suggestion to take off and "Find us an island someplace and spend what time we got left soakin' up some sunshine!" in moronic at best. Okay John, you've found your island. Better hope no one else found it. Oh, and how about that tropical weather? Hurricanes and the like are a real possibility. Infections can run wild in a hot, humid setting, so you'd better hope you don't get injured because you've left your medical bay behind. Where's your food, John? Where is your clean, drinkable water? Where are all the supplies that your fortified base was stocked with? Dr. Logan's question remains: "Where will you go?" Because guess what? There is absolutely NOWHERE that you can go where the Zombies AREN'T.
*** Also to add to that, if you take ''Land'' as canon, eventually the dead will work out they can walk under water, so an island isn't exactly safe.
** The difference, as far as the movie depicts, is that the soldiers are quickly reverting to basic animal survival, while the scientists and the pilot are trying to retain as much of the civilized society as they can. Rhodes is an ineffectual bully who can only excert authority through threats but has no kind of plan or vision of his own. The scientists are at least trying to do something constructive and not succumb to infighting.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: The characters from the previous two films had their flaws, but some of them were still nice. In this third movie, we have the military, who are horrible people, racist, sociopaths and misogynists who only know how to answer everything on the basis of violence. And then we have the scientists, who are definitely not very interesting, and whose boss is a madman who is teaching zombies to be dociles and smarter, and feeds them with bits and pieces of their dead friends. Not surprisingly, many viewers hope that the zombies will kill them all.

** [[spoiler:That last one being the kicker. Up to then, the movie allowed the viewer to attribute his actions merely to caring about his men and to sheer outrage at the fate Logan reserved them -- camaraderie is SeriousBusiness among military. His abandoning Steele and Torrez to the zombies lets us know it was all bullshit.]]
* NauseaFuel: Virtually every scene involving the zombies, though Rickles getting his face ripped apart and [[spoiler:Rhodes]] getting ripped in half stand out in particular.

** Others are rooting for Bub and the Zombies to go after Rhodes.

** Moreover, it becomes clear that Rhodes has pretty much the exact same opinions as John about how utterly pointless the scientist's work has become and his desire to leave it all behind and escape in the helicopter are exactly what the heroes do in the end.
*** Lets also not forget that as cute as the ''teaching Bub to shave and salute'' scene was; actively teaching zombies how to use guns when guns are the only things that are keeping the humans alive? He was absolutely right to call them out here.

* UglyCute: Lookswise Bub is your usual Zombie, but his childlike attitude and apparently gentler nature (he ''is'' a zombie after all), endears you to him, that and his genuine sadness over discovering [[spoiler: Dr. Logans' corpse.]]

** Miguel. He's under constant pressure from the army, the fact that he sees nothing but Zombies all over, does not want to sleep, gets bit, has the infected arm cut off with no anesthetic and to top it off losing his mind from the beginning to the end of the movie.

* {{Anvilicious}}: ''Night'' and ''Dawn'' both had statements to make, but this film is where Romero stopped letting his audience figure out the message for themselves and started getting far more blatantly obvious with it, a trend that has stayed with every subsequent film in the series.

*** For that matter, when Rhodes discovers that Logan has been using the corpses of his fallen subordinates as positive reinforcements and yells at him ''"THOSE ARE MY MEN IN THERE!"'', does that indicate that he ultimately cared for his men at least at some level? Or was he simply angry that Logan had been defying his authority by doing what he did, considering that earlier Rhodes had threatened to kill Steel if he didn't shoot Sarah, in addition to him later leaving his men to die when the facility is being overrun?

** The PosthumousCharacter Major Cooper was considered to be an unpleasant guy by Fisher. That might have just been normal military rigidity, but the fact that Sarah didn't seem surprised to find out that he'd died while she was gone could mean that Cooper had some kind of illness, in which case it must have been stressful knowing that the scientists were failing to make progress while he was trapped there, dying, and still having to reign in hotheads like Rhodes and Steele. And if he had any inkling as to what sort of would-be tyrant Rhodes was, that might caused him yet more stress...

** The PosthumousCharacter Major Cooper was considered to be an unpleasant guy by Fisher. That might have just been normal military rigidity, but the fact that Sarah didn't seem surprised to find out that he'd died while she was gone could mean that Cooper had some kind of illness, in which case it must have been stressful knowing that the scientists were failing to make progress while he was trapped there, dying, and still having to reign in hotheads like Rhodes and Steele.