And now, as the winter draws closer and the year is nearing the end, we take one last look at the Horror Countdown for this year 2019. How has the world fared since 1978's Dawn of the Dead?
Turns out pretty bad. We get a sense when a helicopter lands in a major city somewhere in Florida. The buildings are falling apart, alligators roam the street, and a wrecked armored car sits still with thousands of dollar bills sitting out in the open.
Pvt. Salazar (Anthony Deileo, Jr.) and Dr. Sarah Bowman (Lori Cardille) exit the copter and call out on a megaphone. All they attract are a large crowd of zombies. Heading back to base, we get a sense of the chaos.
It seems the previous base commander has passed away and Captain Rhodes (Joseph Pilato) is now running things. While the old boss may have been a jerk, Rhodes is in a category all his own. For example, he no longer sees the point in coddling Bowman and her fellow scientists. Dr. Fisher (John Amplas) is nice enough and mostly hangs around, but Dr. Logan (Richard Liberty) isn't nearly as tolerated. When you're called "Dr. Frankenstein" in a film like this, that's not a good sign.
The other two fellows of note are John (Terry Alexander), pilot of the aforementioned copter, and McDermont (Jarlath Conroy)-radio man. They're not military but they're tolerated due to their skills. The rest are soldiers but by now any decent trooper is either dead or was assigned someplace else. Now all they have are either burn-outs, druggies, or barely hinged nuts like Rhodes.
Rhodes makes it clear that he's running things his way and if anyone steps out of line they are going to find themselves tried and executed. Now, he insists, what exactly have these eggheads being doing on his time?
Bowman and Fisher are able to bluff and not make waves. Logan, on the other hand, boasts that he is in the process of something remarkable. It's top secret but it is sure to be ready any day now. Rhodes isn't happy but he lets Logan go back to work.
When Sarah sees him, we find a couple of things: Major Cooper, the previous base commander, is still alive. Sort of; his body is still twitching but Logan finds him more useful in this state. Also we met Bub (Howard Sherman), Logan's prize pupil and zombie. Bub is different than others. Rather than attack, he seems to recall things, like books, music, shaving, the military...and guns...
The base is a powder keg set to go off at any moment. Salazar is clearly cracking up, Rhodes is a wrong gesture away from shooting everything, and Logan, well...let's just say when Rhodes figures out what Logan has been using as treats for his lab zombies he's not going to take it very well.
Wonderful, simply wonderful. Easily the best film Romero ever made at this point. The tension and terror are in the zombies, of course, but again its the people that we should be worried about.
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