Day of the Dead was an unexpectedly rare find for 4K. Dawn of the Dead was well preserved and the original Night of the Living Dead was put out by Criterion Collection, even if it is in public domain. But apparently materials for George Romero’s third zombie film were harder to find. It took three tries, but Scream Factory did it, completing the first four of Romero’s six Dead films in 4K.
Perhaps after the epic Dawn, audiences were surprised Day was decidedly smaller in scope. It would expand again with Land but it makes sense that survivors would dwindle and fracture, then combust internally. Romero was always more interested in the humans than the zombies anyway. And this is the one where he humanizes Bud (Howard Sherman).
There is one good zombie street scene, including a box office and an alligator in the bank. That’s vivid under the opening credits sequence.
Most of the film is in the underground bunker. Tom Savini’s gore is in vivid color, and the tunnels provide those 4K deep shadows. When they turn the lights off on Bud is in pitch black darkness.
In addition to restoring the film, Scream Factory did thorough interviews with cast and filmmakers on Zoom. Each have different stories of the production to tell. Ernest Dickerson on the alligator wrangling and dailies with a local dimmed projector are highlights. Tina Romero’s childhood recollections are also sweet and personal.
I was also fascinated by the detailing of Duplitech’s efforts to locate the negative of the film because I would like to do more work finding archival materials for film and media. The confusion over the original and remake is palpable with storage vaults who don’t know or care about the difference. But they found it and we can all enjoy it now.