{"id":36037,"date":"2021-10-17T04:41:19","date_gmt":"2021-10-17T08:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=36037"},"modified":"2021-10-17T04:41:19","modified_gmt":"2021-10-17T08:41:19","slug":"day-of-the-dead-continues-the-trampling-of-romeros-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2021\/10\/17\/day-of-the-dead-continues-the-trampling-of-romeros-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Syfy’s \u201cDay of the Dead\u201d Continues The Trampling of Romero\u2019s Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When the trailer for \u201cDay of the Dead\u201d arrived, it looked interesting but stumped me. The trailer for the Syfy series was a fast paced dark comedy with zombies, goofy one liners, and a bunch of action. It felt more like \u201cReturn of Z Nation\u201d rather than a throwback to Romero. This could have been given any generic title like \u201cZombie Warz\u201d or \u201cCountry Zombie Jammie Jam\u201d and never really miss a beat. There\u2019s no reason at all to call this \u201cDay of the Dead\u201d and pretend it\u2019s honoring Romero\u2019s original movie, and it\u2019s sad Syfy has resorted to this.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all brand recognition. It\u2019s an easy sell, an easy pitch, and has a built in audience.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Set in Mawinhaken, Pennsylvania, an ordinary day takes a terrifying turn when the dead begin to rise. Townspeople Mayor Bowman is up for reelection, Jai is hours away from his wedding, Luke has a party to attend, Lauren is going to lead a funeral, McDermott has a mystery to solve, and Cam has a lawn to mow. Now they must band together to fight off the flesh eating horde, and figure out why the dead are walking the Earth. The only thing \u201cDay of the Dead\u201d has in common is its namesake, the rest is really just made up on the fly, and it takes off running at a breakneck speed.<\/p>\n

The original 1985 George A. Romero movie was a masterpiece. It was a horror movie about PTSD and a commentary on the military industrial complex, as much as it was a post apocalyptic movie about how man had lost the battle against the walking dead. Mankind went from battling from their homes, being pushed in to shopping centers, and then forced to hide in underground bunkers. By the end of the \u201cDay of the Dead,\u201d humanity admitted defeat, and there was very little hope in the final scene. \u201cDay of the Dead\u201d the TV series offers none of this and takes the material about as seriously as past garbage George Romero \u201cremakes\u201d and \u201cadaptations.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a mere hint here and there of social commentary, as the writers dabble in condemning fracking, and desecrating ancient land owned by Indigenous tribes. But all of that is fleeting and exchanged for a ton of black comedy and gross out gags. If you\u2019re tuning in to see some blood and guts, the first episode has it in spades. There\u2019s severed limbs, bitten arms, a ton of zombie carnage, and hell, even an abrupt visual callback to Dr. Tongue. There\u2019s also a ton of hit or miss comedy involving a getaway on a lawn mower, and a fight with a zombie being heard by confused funeral mourners in the next room. \u201cDay of the Dead\u201d fills the appetite of audiences that just want shambling monsters eating locals and yokels with gory results.<\/p>\n

But if you\u2019re tuning in to \u201cDay of the Dead\u201d hoping for a worthwhile tribute to George A. Romero and or his 1985 masterpiece, then you will definitely come up empty handed. After \u201cBlack Summer\u201d and \u201cThe Walking Dead\u201d I don\u2019t hold out hope for \u201cDay of the Dead\u201d transforming in to anything other than more goofy video game gore, violence, and dark comedy.<\/p>\n

At least we still have the movie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Airing Fridays on Syfy. Check Local Listings.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the trailer for \u201cDay of the Dead\u201d arrived, it looked interesting but stumped me. The trailer for the Syfy series was a fast paced dark comedy with zombies, goofy one liners, and a bunch of action. It felt more like \u201cReturn of Z Nation\u201d rather than a throwback to Romero. This could have been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,17],"tags":[58,64,219,477,906,1008,1012,1219,1221],"class_list":["post-36037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halloween-horror-month","category-tv-tomb","tag-action","tag-adaptation","tag-comedy","tag-horror","tag-science-fiction","tag-supernatural","tag-survival","tag-zombie-apocalypse","tag-zombies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36037"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36039,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36037\/revisions\/36039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}