20 Greatest Horror Movies Of The 80s
3. Day Of The Dead
George A. Romero first introduced his flesh eating zombies in 1968's Night Of The Living Dead, set during the opening days of the outbreak. He revisited them ten years later, this time injecting a hefty dose of satire with Dawn Of The Dead, then concluded the trilogy with 1985's Day Of The Dead.
Day Of The Dead is Romero's most nihilistic vision of the zombie apocalypse, set in the final days where the last remaining humans live in a military bunker, outnumbered by the dead to a ratio of 400,000 to 1. A small group of scientists requires a steady stream of undead specimens, creating growing tensions with the miltary units tasked with acquiring the dead. Far from banding together to fight a common cause, their increased bickering is a thoroughly pessimistic perspective on humanity.
Day Of The Dead's ultra-bleak tone put off a lot of critics when it was released, but time has been more favourable and horror fans today acknowledge this as a masterpiece on par with the previous films. It's far and away the goriest entry in the trilogy, too (no other zombie movie delivers brutal kills on this scale), and is also Romero's personal favourite. And who can argue with Romero?