MOVIE REVIEW : ‘DAY OF DEAD’ GORES ITSELF IN THE FOOT

With “Day of the Dead” (citywide), George Romero completes his horror trilogy that began with “Night of the Living Dead” (1968) and continued with “Dawn of the Dead” (1979).

Let’s hope he’s not tempted to go for a quartet, for at this point sheer gruesomeness overwhelms his ideas and even his dynamic visuals. He would, in fact, have been better off not having tried for a third installment.

When we took leave of those flesh-eating ghouls (which the first time around trapped a group of people in a western Pennsylvania farmhouse), they were threatening a few determined survivors holed up in a vast shopping mall in suburban Harrisburg. Now they’ve taken over the country, if not the world, and yet another band of people have taken refuge in an underground missile silo in Florida.

This group comprises two scientists (Lori Cardille, Richard Liberty) and several soldiers under the command of a brutal, hot-tempered Army captain (Josep Pilato). Liberty, who at times seems to be losing his sanity, is experimenting with ways of modifying the behavior of the ghouls. The question is which will run out first: supplies, or Pilato’s patience.

Once again, Romero tries for the apocalyptic vision of “Dawn of the Dead,” in which that shopping mall was such an effective metaphor for a burned-out consumer society. This time Romero suggests that perhaps the curse of the living dead is God’s warning against a nuclear holocaust; if so, it’s an instance of a cure as bad as the disease.

In the end, it doesn’t much matter what Romero has on his mind, for his film dissolves into such an orgy of entrails (courtesy of makeup wizard Tom Savini) that all else is blotted out, even some vital performances, especially by Cardille and Liberty. It’s hard to think of a film more awash in blood and guts.

Romero has been quoted as regarding “Day of the Dead” (Times-rated: Mature because of extreme violence) scarier than “Dawn of the Dead.” Not so: The gore here is of such quantity that it merely numbs, always the most dangerous response to violence. As for truly scary movies, you won’t find one more frightening than the original “Night of the Living Dead,” a classic of its kind.