I'm hot off the heels of having seen (most of) the straight-to-video monstrosity that is DAY OF THE DEAD 2008, which may well be the first zombie film in some 20 years to evoke in style, tone, and pacing the relentlessly absurd Italian actioners (Mattei/Fragasso's ZOMBI 3 and Lenzi's INCUBO SULLA CITTA CONTAMINATA particularly) that preceded it. Much less a remake than a late arriving cash in on the problematic but generally successful DAWN OF THE DEAD reboot from 2003, this latest in a long line of completely disposable video store filler has, none-the-less, given me reason to revisit the much-maligned Romero vehicle that was its inspiration.

Civilization is wearing more than a little thin in 1985's DAY OF THE DEAD, with only pockets of humanity surviving in isolation from the masses of the undead. Of those who remain, only one group is detailed - a motley assortment of military men and civilian researchers who have locked themselves away in an underground storage facility (a la NIGHT OF THE COMET) in a last ditch effort to end the zombie epidemic, now well beyond control, and salvage what they can of human society. But with supplies and tempers running shorter every day, the group seems increasingly doomed from within.

The group is separated into three distinct factions, the hopeful if misguided researchers led by Dr. Logan (an exceptional Richard Liberty) and Sarah (Lori Cardille), their overbearing military escorts commanded by Rhodes (Joe Pilato), and the utterly indifferent Billy, a radio technician and alcoholic, and John, a helicopter pilot. While Sarah delves into the problem of the undead in hopes that it is a reversible physiological condition, Dr. Logan (dubbed Frankenstein for much of the film) has loftier goals - he plans to domesticate the zombie hordes and remove them from their unpleasant carnivorous tendencies. His star pupil, a lucky test subject named Bub, is showing remarkable progress towards that very end and seems, at least, to retain a spark of his former civility.

Distinctly lacking in that is Captain Rhodes, relishing his newfound power after the death of his commanding officer. He and researchers seem to be constantly clashing over one thing or another, be it their lack of progress or insistence on keeping live (or is that dead?) test subjects in the compound. It's all in good fun until Rhodes reveals his true colors, threatening to have Sarah executed for the mild offense of pointing out the uselessness of prolonging a group meeting. Things get no better as Dr. Logan begins to appear more and more unstable and the source of his pet Bub's reward snacks ("Civility must be rewarded!") becomes gruesomely clear . . .

Timing may have seemed right for a new Romero zombie film when the mid-1980's came around. The cold war was reaching its final climax and President Reagan was proposing new missile defense technology with his Strategic Defense Initiative. With military conservatism at an all time high and a third world war seeming uneasily more likely, Romero set out to create his final undead opus. Originally envisioned as something of an epic, the director's insistence on the film being unrated led to an acute lack of funding and the downsizing of the project into a more compact version. It's theatrical release in 1985 came nary a month before Dan O'Bannon's horror-comedy THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, and DAY's dark vision of tattered humanity lost out to a more light-hearted spoofing of the genre.

It's nice to see, then, that DAY OF THE DEAD has seen something of a revival since the advent and popularization of home video - it was a staple of most video rental stores throughout the late 80's and early 90's and, more recently, was one of the early films to see release in Blu-Ray format. Long considered the lowliest of Romero's zombie oeuvre, critical opinions are slowly beginning to shift towards more positive spectrums as the years go by, and with good reason.

Less a straight horror film (there are a few spooks along the way and several graphic set pieces) than a social commentary, along the lines of 1978's DAWN OF THE DEAD, DAY reveals with the most clarity that the real threat to man's survival in the midst of zombiegeddon is man, itself. The predominant goal of the film seems to be to show what happens to society when the foundations on which it is built simply cease to exist - if the purpose of the law and, on a baser level, morality is to benefit society as a whole, then how is man to react when there is no longer a society to benefit?

Finding an interesting, if utterly flawed, solution is Dr. Logan, who tricks his zombie pupils into the lowest form of civility with negative re-enforcement (he turns the lights off on one zombie who has taken to overturning a table) and treats. When those treats turn out to be human flesh, freshly butchered from dead army men stored in a freezer, Dr. Logan comes under the understandable ire of Captain Rhodes.

Captain Rhodes proves one of the more interesting characters of the film, from a critical perspective. His behavior is erratic at best - at one moment he's vehemently defending the safety and well-being of his troops while another he's threatening them with annihilation should they fail to abide by his rules. He is the human equivalent of Logan's test subject Bub - a man who has lost all civility and whom the good doctor is attempting to recondition for living in an ideal society. Logan's attempted conditioning of Rhodes works in much the same way as it does with the living dead. He shows up late to meetings and ignores Rhodes' initial advances, forcing him to interact with Logan on the doctor's own terms, before using treats (placation via vague hints at progress in his research) to gain the desired results - in this case additional time for research.

In the end, both Rhode's and Bub's baser instincts win out, with the former killing Logan and the latter killing Rhodes. Both are childish acts of revenge that serve to show just how unfavorably the remnants of human kind compare to the hordes of undead waiting just outside.

On another level, DAY OF THE DEAD is about coming to terms with reality, however cruel it may be, and learning to live with and, possibly, in spite of it. That is where the rest of the main characters come into play. Researcher Sarah allows herself to become obsessed with finding the impossible - a cure to an event that is simply beyond man's understanding. Her personal relationships crash and burn and her pill popping becomes more routine, all as her endless hours of blood tests and slide searching proves more and more futile. Enter John and Billy, the two outsiders of the group who have the clearest idea of what the most important part of life, even in the face of such distressing events, is - living.

For those less critically minded, rest assured that DAY OF THE DEAD still packs enough of a gore quotient to make most so-called gut munchers squirm - entrail slopping, throat ripping, finger munching, and eyeball gouging are all on the menu before the relatively brief 100 minute running time is up. The phantasmagoric set pieces that accent the climax should prove more than enough reason for most horror fanatics to seek DAY out, and the eerie opening scenes of Florida city streets crawling with the screeching zombie hordes are some of the more impressive moments in horror history.

More-than-competent direction from Romero and exceptional (and appropriately over-the-top) performances from one of his most talented casts to date help lift DAY above much of the tripe that masquerades as filmed entertainment these days. Sure, the John Harrison score may not have aged as well as may have been hoped (the ode to the muzak heard in DAWN OF THE DEAD still strikes me as an unforgivable groaner to this day) and the stripped down location may bely the project's budgetary constraints. DAY OF THE DEAD still has enough going for it to receive a high recommendation from this reviewer - see it and, if you already have, see it again.