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Day Of The Dead DIRECTED BY GEORGE A. ROMERO RELEASED: 1985 Why's it so good? That rare beast: an Eighties film that's bleaker than its '70s predecessor. But, by the 1980s, George Romero was pissed off. And it shows in a movie that, a couple of notable exceptions aside, stands back, wipes its hand off the whole sorry affair and says, 'Sorry, the world is fucked'. By Day, the zombies outnumber people 400,000 to 1, and most of the humans left are paranoid, raging, ASBO-courting assholes. This was the first film where Romero started to side with the zombie, the first movie where you can sense palpable anger coming through.

How does it stack up to the original? It may be the best of the three. This is beautifully-controlled, suspenseful, coruscating stuff, with top-notch gore, some of the most memorable images of Romero's career (even if the wall of arms was ripped off from Polanski's Repulsion) and, in the evolving zombie Bub (an astonishing performance by Howard Sherman), arguably his most sympathetic lead. Glaring error: With the greatest respect of George, going on to make Land of the Dead was probably the biggest error here. GAP BETWEEN SEQUEL AND ORIGINAL: 178 MONTHS 50 49 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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