YMMV / Day of the Dead (1985)

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Captain Rhodes: a monster? Or a man at the end of his patience doing the best he can with what little he has to try to put order into a society that has degenerated into chaos?
    • For that matter, when Rhodes discovers that Logan has been using the corpses of his fallen subordinates as positive reinforcements and yells "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?
  • Despite being portrayed as the good guys in the movie, are the scientists and helicopter pilots really any nobler than the army guys, when they also act out of selfishness and make irrational decisions?
  • Was Miguel's suicide via luring zombies to the base a Heroic Sacrifice to save Sarah and the pilots, or just him deciding to kill himself while also killing everyone else in the process?
  • The Posthumous Character 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, knowing that he'd wind up in charge if something were to happen to him, that might have caused him yet more stress...
• Awesome Music:
  • The electronic score by John Harrison is very cold and clinical and very good at conveying the isolation and paranoia the main characters feel. Especially the main theme.
  • The brief reprise of "The Gonk", rendered in organ form.
• Catharsis Factor: Seeing Bub killing Rhodes as a revenge for shooting Dr. Logan, who helped him to regain some of his human senses, is very satisfying to watch, completing with him being eaten alive by zombies.
• Contested Sequel: 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 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 than 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 Land, Diary and Survival.
• Designated Hero: Sarah, despite spending half the film being as abrasive as Rhodes. To wit:
  • She treats people questioning or criticising her research with disdain, despite the lack of any real progress or any realistic prospect for such, and can't see that by the time the film takes place, it is completely pointless.
  • She seems to have zero appreciation for the soldiers who risk their lives for her work and the multiple soldiers who died in the line of it. When questioned on this, she gives a Non-Answer about the military not cooperating, when a more diplomatic answer would have likely gone a long way.
  • She blatantly undermines Rhodes' authority as the commander in charge of the base, and makes decisions regarding his men, such as sedating Miguel, without consulting him in any way. While she is correct regarding Miguel's state of mind, she doesn't seem to give it any consideration that maybe Rhodes can't spare anyone because of all the losses they've taken helping her with her pointless research. Or that maybe Miguel would be in a far better frame of mind without having to be overworked, or seeing multiple comrades die in the line of Sarah's research.
  • For that matter, while she's right about Miguel's state of mind, and he is a ticking time bomb, she goes about addressing it in some of the worst ways possible. She forcibly drugs him against his will, repeatedly humiliates him in front of the other soldiers, and is naive enough to think that trying to appeal to a bunch of racist clowns for sympathy is a good idea. Miguel was wrong for slapping her, that's obvious, but if he tried to stab her with a needle after she didn't consent he'd be seen as the worst monster in the film. Miguel obviously is on the edge of a breakdown but he's still trying to be helpful and not be seen as The Load.
• Designated Villain: Rhodes, at least before his Villainous Breakdown following Logan's betrayal. While there's no denying that he's a Jerkass, one can't help sympathize with his situation. He's the leader what could be what little remains of the US military struggling to keep what remains of humanity alive, reluctantly doing the dangerous job of catching live zombies for a Mad Scientist and losing men in the process, all the while struggling not to crack under the sheer bleakness of their living conditions. Even his opinion that it's pointless to try and cure or domesticate zombies in an attempt to rebuild society is an opinion shared by the much more likable John, albeit with a lot more salt and shouting.
  • Rhodes also makes some good points that are not addressed but are treated as wrong because he's the designated villain. And it should be pointed out that he was, reluctantly, cooperating, and he does have every right to ask the question on what his men risking their lives is achieving — and when the science team claim they are not far away from progress he does grant them more time. While this does not excuse his actions, it should also be pointed out that his worst moment pre-breakdown was incited by Sarah undermining him in front of his men by repeatedly ignoring a request to sit down and answer his questions and indulging his request for the meeting. His breakdown? Discovering the remains of his men are being fed to zombies in experiments... and he doesn't ever seem to have discovered this isn't the worst thing Logan was doing.
  • He moves beyond designated villain territory for sure when he kills Ted Fisher merely to intimidate John. His threatening to kill Steel if he doesn't shoot Sarah is pretty villainous too, because she did have a point, the meeting was going nowhere.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Unbalanced and disheveled yet well-spoken and (somewhat) compassionate Mad Scientist Dr. Logan and his domesticated zombie Bub are sixth and seventh in the credits, but pretty much everyone views them as providing the best parts of the movie by far.
  • Private Johnson has little dialogue or prominence but gets some respect for being the least antagonistic of the soldiers besides the far more prominent Miguel.
  • Billy's comic relief also makes him a standout, especially in the finale when his flask runs out.
  • Several of the characters from the original script who didn't make it into the final movie (including Handicapped Badass Spider, Wide-Eyed Idealist zombie behavioral training assistant Julie, Large Ham Wasteland Warlord Governor Dickerson/Gasparilla, and Diesel The Big Guy and Combat Medic) enjoy decent reputations among the Romero fanbase.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: The original script (which many fans hold out hope may one day be at least partially used for a remake) has an Epic Movie feel and more scientists, soldiers, civilians, and trained zombies (and more morally grey characters in the first three groups) and a prison break plot reads that like it could have been significantly better than the final version, even to people who actually liked the finished film. However, studio executives felt it would have cost too much to make and told Romero to either cut down on the budget by eliminating scenes, characters, and set pieces, or cut down on the gore from unrated to R-rated levels so they could release the film for more moviegoers and recoup a bigger budget, leading to the version that got filmed when Romero chose the former.
• Fanfic Fuel: What happened to the fourth scientist at the base (Rhodes tells the scientists, "You've lost one man, I've lost five" in an early scene), and what was his area of expertise?
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In the unused script for the film, the Big Bad of a Zombie Apocalypse story had the job title of "Governor."
• Memetic Mutation: Rhodes' legendary death scene — wherein he's torn apart by a zombie horde while he screams "CHOKE ON 'EM! CHOKE ON 'EM!" — is by far the most iconic, quoted, and parodied part of the entire movie.
• Moral Event Horizon: Rhodes crosses it near the end of the film when he kills Dr. Logan and Dr. Fisher, locks up Sarah and William in the zombie-infested caverns, and leaves what's left of his group to die when the zombies begin overrunning the compound.
  • 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 Serious Business among military. His abandoning Steele, Rickles and Torrez to the zombies lets us know it was all bullshit.
  • Fisher's death too is completely uncalled for, and he only kills him to intimidate John.
• Nausea Fuel: Virtually every scene involving the zombies, though Torrez getting his head ripped off, Rickles getting his face ripped apart and Rhodes getting ripped in half stand out in particular.
• Older Than They Think: Dawn of the Dead (1978), the previous installment, was the first to feature a thinking zombie (an honor many fans think Bub holds in this movie) 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.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Captain Rhodes is played by Joe Pilato, the future dub voice of MetalGreymon.
  • Bub's actor was likewise the future voice of Blight.
• Rooting for the Empire:
  • A good proportion of viewers/fans find themselves rooting for Rhodes and co. towards the end.
  • Others are rooting for Bub and the zombies to go after Rhodes. Which it finally happened near the end.
• Sampled Up: Many people only know the "Hello? Is there anybody there?" line from its use in Gorillaz song M1A1, as well as the opening music from the film which was also used in said song.
• 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 NOTHING to do with the original, is widely felt to be absolute crap, and the two remakes are arguably even worse.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • A weird example; the grainy footage on the original VHS copies had an unfortunate side effect of obscuring bullet holes in certain scenes, making it look like the characters were never shot at all. The "lighter and brighter" Blu-Rays now make it clear that there were entrance wounds (such as when Miller is shot).
  • Considering the scene in question, you could be forgiven for missing it but when Rickles is having his head torn open, his eye is conspicously lacking in veins.
• Strawman Has a Point:
  • People try to make a case for the original Rhodes. Just look at this discussion.
  • Moreover, it becomes clear that Rhodes has pretty much the exact same opinions as John about how utterly pointless the scientists' 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.
    • Let's 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.
    • Technically Logan didn't teach Bub how to use a gun. He just set it down in front of him to see what he'd do with it. It's just coincidence that Bub had prior firearms knowledge, and didn't have a liking for Rhodes.
  • Miguel is a ticking time bomb, that much is obvious, but he did not consent to being drugged by Sarah. On top of that Rhodes refused to let her dope up any of his men without consent, no matter how rude he was about it. Forcibly putting a needle in Miguel's neck against his will is illegal.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: It would have been nice to have at least a couple of scenes devoted to the mechanics, potential applications, and chances of success of Fisher and Sarah's attempts to Find the Cure! for the zombie apocalypse (which could have been neatly contrasted with Logan's work), but their experiments are mostly, if not entirely, offscreen and are only briefly discussed.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: 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 racist 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.
• Tough Act to Follow: This film's reception was mixed, in contrast to the first two films, which are nearly universally acclaimed, genre-defining works. Interestingly, this would later apply to Romero's 2000s Dead trilogy, of which only the first film is not critically reviled, and which is agreed to not hold up against the more solid trilogy of Night, Dawn and this film.
• Ugly Cute: 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 Dr. Logan's corpse.
• Vanilla Protagonist: While Sarah gets some respect for being an Action Girl and the Only Sane Woman, because she is the Only Sane Woman, she can come across as less distinctive and memorable than her two fellow scientists, the Jerkass soldiers, and the Stepford Smiler pilots.
• Vindicated by History: Reception for this film was somewhat mixed to mostly negative, often seen as the weak link in Romero’s zombie series criticized for its much darker tone and characters that are hard to like or sympathize, especially not helped when compared to Night and Dawn which were lauded as cinematic masterpieces. But as time's gone on people have begun to view it in a more positive way, with many praising the dynamic and conflict between the characters, its claustrophobic atmosphere and outstanding special effects. Nowadays it’s seen as a masterpiece in its own right, some even saying it’s the best of Romero’s Living Dead movies. It helps that Romero's later zombie films are more universally disliked.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Nearly everything, from the makeup on the zombies to the scenes of Rhodes and his men being torn apart by said zombies. Tom Savini considers this movie his masterpiece and it's not hard to see why.
• The Woobie:
  • Bub. He is the first zombie to think and later on can use basic tools and a gun and finally emotes. For that last one, when he finds Logan's corpse, he becomes stricken with grief and becomes out for blood. And not in a usual zombie way either.
  • Miguel. He's under constant pressure from the army, the fact that he sees nothing but zombies all over, does not want to be drugged, 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. It's easy to forget but he's also trying to be helpful—the accident that got Miller killed was faulty equipment he had no control over breaking at the worst moment.

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