When there's no more room in hell ...

[druss]

Just checking this version is fine to watch as don't want to accidentally watch a version where there is some nonsense added.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYKmM2OimaY

All good?

[Polymorphia]

There are scenes in the 2h 17 min version omitted from that which I like (if I'm right, Pilato's cameo is omitted), but I think that's Romero's preferred version

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

While I do think (correctly) that Day of the Dead is by faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar the better film, I do sometimes wonder why they thought it was a good idea to give Bono a gun.


What did they think was going to happen?

[phantom_power]

I find Day of the Dead just too grim and depressing to watch. I think it is a combination of the setting, the nihilistic view of humanity and the general tone just spins me into a depression

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

But then there's Bub.

[bgmnts]

I find Day of the Dead just too grim and depressing to watch. I think it is a combination of the setting, the nihilistic view of humanity and the general tone just spins me into a depression

Weirdly, it has the happiest ending of all the films.

[phantom_power]

Weirdly, it has the happiest ending of all the films.

Isn't it basically the same ending as Dawn?

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

It broke up with Lee and snogged Tim?

[bgmnts]

Isn't it basically the same ending as Dawn?

Well, the three nice people get to live safe on a tropical island fishing.

Dawn's ending seems a bit more bleak as they ride off in a helicopter with barely any fuel.

[Mister Six]

And in the original she just sticks her head into the rotor blades, doesn't she?

[The Mollusk]

It broke up with Lee and snogged Tim?

Can we please have ten pages of discussion about whether Bub would have REALLY told Captain Rhodes to fuck off?

[Polymorphia]

Bub probably would have done if he could speak properly

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

"Chruuuuh. Wuh duuuun yeeuuuuugh ffffuuuuugh ooouuuufffff?"

[phantom_power]

I just watched that super extended version and there were a lot of interesting scenes I don't remember seeing before. I was also reading the IMDB trivia page and it mentions that Romero thinks Stephen's zombie walk is the best in the series and I have to agree. It is fucking brilliant. The way he drags his foot must have been awkward as billy-oh

[magval]

He's the worst actor in the film right up until he dies, then he's the best, and I mean that sincerely even if sounds like a fucking Tweet or something.

[Zetetic]

The creeping dread never goes away, and in spite of this, it's basic human arrogance which is their undoing. The underlying vibe of the whole film is pretty horrible to watch unfold, and the scope of the situation in how the characters realise "it's everywhere" is portrayed really well.

I think this is one of the things that I like quite a lot about it and feels quite unusual. It feels like it plays around with dread and manages to do so without ever being very scary at any point. Where there is tension, it always feels kind of ... subsumed, which makes it less ... gripping perhaps, but something more it's own.

[magval]

Probably much worse to be scared a little all the time than be scared a lot for thirty seconds only occasionally.

To live in a world where fear means you can never have a good night's sleep, where walking outdoors is dangerous. Ugh. Didn't mean to do that. That's us! Now!

[druss]

Just watched it. Was really excited after being unexpectedly thrilled and terrified by NOTLD. Very disappointed to say that it still didn't really do it for me. I enjoyed it but I wasn't blown away in the same way as after watching NOTLD. I'd watch it again if someone put it on but I'm not in a rush to watch it again myself. It was a bit too goofy and I felt it could be a bit shorter. Enjoyed the final climax but it could have come half an hour earlier. It seems the goofiness is part of the charm from reading other posts in this thread so maybe it's just not for me. If I want a goofy zombie horror comedy then I'll watch Shaun of the Dead.

Going to watch Day to complete the trilogy but my expectations are a bit more tempered for it now.

Just reading my post back and it sounds like I thought it was crap, I definitely didn't, just a bit of an anti climax after NOTLD.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

See my recent comments about Fury Road. It's just not worth giving things another chance.

[Bazooka]

If I want a goofy zombie horror comedy then I'll watch Shaun of the Dead.

"wasn't bowled over by Alien, I'd rather watch Paul. "

[The Mollusk]

[druss]

"wasn't bowled over by Alien, I'd rather watch Paul. "

Missing the point entirely, I didn't say SOTD was a better film, I said it was the film I'd choose if I wanted a comedy, off the back of earlier comments in the thread saying DOTD was funny.

After sleeping on it I think I liked it more than my initial reaction last night. I guess I just wanted the same experience of being blown away by how fantastic a film was that I had with NOTLD.

Dawn was fine though, I'll watch it again at some point.

[druss]

For the record I've not seen Paul but I imagine it's probably a better comedy than Alien.

[Bazooka]

For the record I've not seen Paul but I imagine it's probably a better comedy than Alien.

It was a joke, not missing the point. Insert film and then insert Pegg Frost film, wasn't very clear.

[thugler]

Bizarre to call it a comedy. It's a comic book style movie with humour in it, but it's hardly a laugh riot. There is plenty of action and drama as well.

[druss]

It was a joke, not missing the point. Insert film and then insert Pegg Frost film, wasn't very clear.

I don't think a comedy forum is the sort of place to be cracking jokes, mate.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Big Dawn fan here.

All the stuff in support of Day is irrelevant because the setting of the film is much less fertile territory for plotting and tension and as a result, plot developments end up falling back on 'character must now do something unbelievably stupid' schlock which ruins most horror, but even then because character development isn't properly established. What peril there is feels overly contrived.

By contrast Dawn is - largely - about humans making choices we all would make but finding those choices woefully inadequate, finding they are limited and weak. That's terrifying. That's at the root of a certain kind of horror, knowing that all best efforts are futile. The Alien series completely abandons this, probably because they didn't even realise that was part of why the first two films work. That also falls back on 'malign human bullies cause discord and useful idiot does something unbelievably stupid' contrivance, over and over again.

Dawn has a visceral beginning that grabs you by the scruff of the neck and it becomes about pure survival very quickly. The setting creates tension all the way through because they are so clearly not safe. Forget about the 'satire', that's a layer of polish and its fine, the key to the film is its tension. That's why some superficial stuff doesn't matter. It could be oompah loompahs with pink blood, it doesn't matter if they are ripping your guts out. I don't see what's not horrifying about a mass of humanoid things shambling around eating people. So what if they are a pallid green colour and slightly funny? Day of the Dead itself mocks the innately comic elements of its own creation.

The mall is sturdy enough to feel secure but also so huge there's an agoraphobic quality. You can never fully relax, there are just moments of diversion and respite. It also lulls them, there is a sedative quality. They still don't feel safe but they start getting lazy and sluggish.

Pretty much the whole time you know exactly how it will end but tension remains because the struggle is noble, the characters are shown to deserve to live, for all their faults, it isn't so much subject to deus ex machina plotting, and it is so well done you root for the characters right until their demise as though even the final people might, somehow, have a chance. This taps into our most primal code as humans. That's pretty cool.

I would also state the direction is more interesting and naturalistic. It is like a roving news report rather than Day which is more proto-Verhoeven type, these films reverting back to feeling Hollywood Studio.

[druss]

Finished off the trilogy tonight with Day of the Dead. Really enjoyed it, maybe I needed to watch Dawn without any expectations as I was gripped from start to finish with both Night and Day but got a bit bored with Dawn. The effects were in a different league for Day, maybe it's just I can't get past the effects of Dawn.

I imagine I'll watch them all again at some point, maybe next October. Hoping Dawn will click next time.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Just watched Dawn tonight for the first time in yonks.

My partner had never seen it. Still great. She thought it was great too.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

You deserve each other.