First season
SyFy has released the series based on the classic by George A. Romero, inventor of the zombie as a film icon, as we know it today. Maintains the series B spirit of the source material, which can throw off the current viewer
The success of ‘The Night of the Living Dead’ (‘The Night of the Living Dead’, 1968) led to suggestive sequels: ‘Zombi’ (‘Dawn of the Dead’, 1979) and ‘The Day of the Dead’ (‘ Day of the Dead ‘, 1985). Both productions completed a highly commented cult trilogy, and a subgenre, that of zombie movies, turned into a phenomenon that does not stop. Romero’s film has been imitated in productions of all kinds to this day, with the overwhelming success of ‘The Walking Dead’ and countless pastiches that regularly assault platform menus. SyFy, the channel specialized in the fantasy and horror genre, has launched this month, joining a trend that does not seem to have an end, a series based on ‘Day of the Dead’, squeezing the fanaticism for the walking corpses devouring to the maximum. brains. The interesting thing is that they sign up for the gore bang of yesteryear and maintain a grateful B-series spirit that will please fans of these slimy productions. Audiences accustomed to the most modern vintage may not be able to connect with a shameless festival of thick jokes and guts on the floor.
A frame from the series.
In ‘The Day of the Dead’, a total reference title, the ineffable Romero, master of contemporary horror, raised even more the bar of liters of blood per frame with respect to the previous films of his bloody trilogy about the undead. Make-up and prosthetics effects expert Tom Savini thoroughly employed a wide arsenal of meat pyrotechnics, offering images unsuitable for weak stomachs. The film took up the theme of the study of human behavior, with a group of soldiers and scientists who survive in an underground fortress as a model. The criticism focused, once again, on the irrationality of the human being, the true apocalyptic danger. Outside the refuge there are hardly any vestiges of civilization, the walking dead populate the planet looking for brains to eat. Meanwhile, inside, deranged soldiers seem not to have it. Attempts to control zombies fail – with a wacky scientist trying to tame them, forcing them to be like us, when the real solution is to learn not to behave like them – as does the creation of a new society. The established order devours itself and we are unable to resolve the conflict. Authority and alienation produce lifeless minds lurking. They are us and we are them.
A sly show
‘Day of the Dead, the series, has ten installments in its first season, the first two episodes being a good sample of unprejudiced series B cinema. They maintain the essence of their sticky and critical origin, opting for a grateful sly humor that vindicates the splatter at a good pace. Eye-catching make-up and an endearing set of cartoonish, clumsy and giddy characters like the creatures that return from beyond, make this modest-budget premiere an antidote to take into account against the excess of genre productions that are taken too seriously themselves. Good gags follow one another with multiple spotlights and an old-fashioned sense of evasion. The action is divided into the survival stories of several protagonists who, in their escape from the zombie threat, end up coming together. The soundtrack is also reminiscent of old cult classics, especially Made in Carpenter. It is inevitable to accept the telefilm aesthetic to enjoy the show. The vintage headboard already warns where the shots are going … and the livers. It is a pure and gore amusement, for fans of well understood cinephagia and the audiovisual of humble and rogue evasion. The other side of ‘The Walking Dead’. Streaming meat, now that video stores are sadly closing.
All ten installments of the first season of ‘Day of the Dead’ are available on SyFy.
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