This is a decent film in it's own right & stands up well against the other Romero films too. It's quite good start to the film with the fake scare before the opening credits have even rolled & a group of civilians with 1 soldier looking for survivors in what seems to be a ghost town but is full of the living dead. With the return back to the compound you see the civilians are in the minority in an underground military bunker where research is being done on the undead by a crazed scientist called Logan. There is definitely a big divide between the military & the civilians & quite a lot of animosity and frayed nerves of those living on the edge.
Despite it's age this film still looks good, the effects stand up to close scrutiny. The script & acting aren't fantastic, the people playing the soldiers all over-act like crazy playing their characters to the extreme. The scares are still good but not much more. Captain Rhodes is insane with power & his men (what's left of them) aren't all that much saner than he is. As much as they want to leave the lead scientists question is very valid. Where would they go? The actual location itself is great. It certainly does look like an underground bunker. It was a mine, and is a storage facility now. The location supports the feeling of living in too close quarters with people getting cabin fever & just wanting out, no matter where.
The attempts to civilise or domesticate the zombies by Logan is quite an interesting idea, as is the reaction of the military who would much sooner kill them all. Private Steel is pretty much pushed over the edge after seeing 1 of his men killed & having to kill another who was infected (even though he was begged by the man to kill him rather than become a zombie). The stand-off after this & the idea you can prevent someone becoming a zombie by cutting off the effected limb are quite cool scenes. Sarah (the lead female scientist) is pretty much on the edge of hysteria herself there at the thought of having to possibly kill someone she cares about (Private Salazar, the 1 soldier who seems sane but on the brink of exhaustion).
After finding out Dr Logan had not only been experimenting on the bodies of his men but also feeding them to Bub (the tame zombie), Captain Rhodes goes totally crazy & kills Dr Logan & his assistant Ted Fisher. He takes everyone prisoner & insists the civilian helicopter pilot John flies just the soldiers to safety. Even though I've seen this film several times I still can't work out how Bub manages to undo his chains so easily. Salazar takes the lift to the surface. The scares where Sarah and William find the rock-slide are possibly the best in the entire film.
John manages to jump Rhodes & escape. I assume Salazar opens the gates to let the zombies in as he feels he is almost certainly going to become one anyway. There's a great goof that the American Football Zombie comes down on the elevator (he's the one who falls off) but ALSO comes through the corral entrance in a completely different part of the compound. I guess the director didn't think we'd be looking at the zombies that carefully.
Bubs emotional outburst at finding Dr Logan dead was a completely new idea back then, that a zombie could care for someone. The special effects for the deaths of the remaining soldiers are really gory & still look pretty darn amazing to be honest. Steel is the only one not killed by the zombies (shooting himself in the head) and his death effect is very convincing too. The scare when Sarah gets in the helicopter is very good (I'll be honest, pretty much all the scares apart from the very 1st which I remembered wasn't real managed to make me jump) and the weakest thing about this movie is the lack of an ending, Sarah, John & William on a sandy beach somewhere just isn't enough for me. It still stands the test of time & is far superior to its modern "remake". Highly worth a watch if your a horror fan.
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