Zombie 2

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Movie
German title Zombie 2 - The final chapter
Original title Day of the Dead
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1985
length 102 minutes
Age rating FSK unchecked, indexed and confiscated nationwide
Rod
Director George A. Romero
script George A. Romero
production Richard P. Rubinstein
music John Harrison
camera Michael Gornick
cut Pasquale Buba
occupation

Zombie 2 (original title: Day of the Dead , lit. day of the dead ) is an American splatter film by George A. Romero from 1985 and the third part of the so-called "Living Dead" series of the director. The film opened in German cinemas on August 20, 1987.

action

The end of mankind seems to have dawned. Only the undead can be found in the cities . Scientists and the military are holed up in an underground bunker in Florida . The scientists Sarah, Dr. Logan and Ted are hired by the government to examine the living dead and find a way out of the disaster . The military, led by Captain Rhodes, are supposed to protect the scientists and, if necessary, provide them with fresh "test material". The pilot John and the radio operator Bill keep a helicopter for survivors out.

The mood in the cramped bunker is characterized by mistrust. The military want to see results as soon as possible and threaten to end the mission otherwise. Scientists are demanding better working conditions and time. The pilot and the radio operator would like to leave everything behind and flee to a lonely island, a wish they do not fulfill - out of a sense of responsibility, military obedience or personal involvement.

Dr. Logan, known by everyone as Frankenstein , advocates a controversial theory: The zombies can be tamed and raised to forget the hunger for human flesh . He has also had promising results. A zombie he called Bub as that was his father's nickname remembers his previous life and actually learns to suppress his instincts .

When the Captain Dr. Logan, however, caught giving Bub fresh human flesh as a reward for his learning successes, when a shootout breaks out in which Rhodes Dr. Logan shoots. The meat came from the corpses of Rhodes' men, which Dr. Logan had kept a secret because it would have put his behavioral successes in an even more dubious light.

The situation escalates when Sarah's friend, Miguel, who has been severely traumatized by the events, is bitten by one while catching the zombies as test subjects. Sarah tries to stop the infection with an amputation and convince Captain Rhodes that the operation was a success. The military's distrust of scientists is increasing.

Eventually, Captain Rhodes wants to force John to fly him and his men out by helicopter. To exert pressure and show who's in charge here , he throws Sarah and Bill to the zombies to eat. Miguel drags himself to the bunker entrance, opens it and lets the undead enter the facility. The trapped military are eaten alive.

Sarah, John and Bill manage to get outside through a side exit and to get to the helicopter, which they do not know whether it is full of fuel or not. Zombie hands reach for Sarah. The final scene suggests that they managed to escape to a paradise island. However, since Sarah continues a calendar that has already played a role in all of her (night) dreams, one can just as easily assume that this last sequence is just a pipe dream.

Social criticism

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Day of the Dead turned out to be relatively dark compared to its predecessor Dawn of the Dead (German: Zombie , 1978) with its satirical tips against the consumer society . Romero largely eschewed comical elements, but intensified socially pessimistic aspects. The main theme of the film is how the social mini-cosmos in the bunker destroys itself through mistrust and working against one another. This pessimistic view of society was already expressed in the first part of the series, Night of the Living Dead , but found a temporary climax here. In Land of the Dead (2005) Romero took up this theme again.

Reviews

Critics rated the film largely negative when it was released in 1985, and it was not a commercial success. Main criticisms were the overacting of the actor and the fact that the film the viewer no role model offer. The make-up effects by Tom Savini were primarily praised . In the 80s and 90s, the film in the shadow of the style-defining successes was Night of the Living Dead ( Night of the Living Dead ) and Dawn of the Dead fall into oblivion.

Depiction of violence and censorship

Romero refused to do without too explicit depictions of violence - undesirable by investors - in order to achieve an R rating for the film. Therefore, he only got half of the originally planned budget of 7 million US dollars and had to simplify the script significantly. The older, more complex script version is available on the Internet.

Because of its explicit depictions of violence, the film has been heavily censored since its release and was only released heavily cut in Germany in cinemas and on video. Despite these cuts, the video version was confiscated. Various uncensored versions followed later on the relevant underground labels as well as freely available, even heavier cut versions with a release from the age of 16, while the film was re-released in the USA in 2003 in an uncut and remastered version.

Awards

Lori Cardille was awarded the Caixa de Catalunya for Best Actress at the 1985 Catalonian International Film Festival in Sitges , Spain .

Make-up artist Tom Savini received the 1986 Saturn Award in the Best Make-Up category from the American Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films .

Remakes

The remake Day of the Dead with Ving Rhames and Mena Suvari has been made in Bulgaria since July 2006, directed by Steve Miner . The film should be released in the spring of 2007, but the release date was after the acquisition of the production company First Look Pictures by Nu Image withdrawn - even in Germany, where the film about the 3L Filmverleih should appear. It then appeared exclusively as a video premiere - first in the USA in April 2008.

In 2018, another remake of the material was released with Day of the Dead: Bloodline .

literature

  • Frank Koenig: Dawn of the Dead - Anatomy of an Apocalypse. MPW, 2002, ISBN 3-931608-49-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information on schnittberichte.com
  2. ↑ The original script on homepageofthedead.com (English)
  3. ↑ Release dates for Day of the Dead , accessed July 31, 2008.