Best Romero "Dead" film

[ktanner3]

For all Romero zombie fans,which of his five movies do you consider his "best?"

I haven't seen "Land" or "Diary" yet, so I'm limited to the first three. Of those I still think Night of the Living Dead is the best. It was by far the most scary and still eery 40 years later. Dawn of the Dead would be my second favorite, and Day of the Dead just plain sucked.

 

[TrekkieGirl]

Definitely Night of the Living Dead with Dawn as a second, I haven't seen Diary either actually, it didn't seem that great to me...anyone seen it?

 

[Ethros]

I would say it's easily Dawn of the Dead

I'd probably rank them thus:
1. Dawn of the Dead
2. Day of the Dead
3. Night of the Living Dead
4. Land of the Dead
5. Diarrhoea of the Dead

Actually 2 & 3 are negotiable, I just like the hammy acting in Day, notably from Rhodes
"You want me to salute that pile of walking pus? Salute my ass!"

Land of the Dead is ok, but just seems way too short IMO.

Diary of the Dead was just pretty boring I thought, just a very by the numbers typical zombie film. Full of dull cypher characters with some very dodgy acting

 

[Servo]

Dawn of the Dead is definitely my favourite of the bunch. I'd probably rank them...

1. Dawn of the Dead
2. Night of the Living Dead
3. Day of the Dead
4. Land of the Dead
5. Diary of the Dead

 

[Shaytan]

For all Romero zombie fans,which of his five movies do you consider his "best?"

Zombi (I haven't seen the Dawn Of the Dead version and anyway I like Argento and Goblin's music) then The Night of the Living Dead.

Not a Romero film but the remake of Dawn of the Dead is good too.

 

[JNG]

It's "Dawn" in the #1 slot...everything just works in that one. But "Day" runs an extremely close second for me: "I'm running this monkey farm, Frankenstein!!!" Oh, how I love it.

#3 would be the original, which still holds up extremely well. Next would be Land, a film I liked a lot but probably would have been better without studio tinkering or John Leguizamo.

I haven't seen Diary yet and am a bit bummed out by the fact it doesn't seem to be knocking anyone's socks off creatively or financially. I'm near one of the largest cities in the US and it isn't playing anywhere near me...what's the deal?

 

[Twilight]

Dawn!

 

[The Evil Dead]

Dawn of the Dead is one of my favorite films of all time, so it easily takes this contest.

Diary of the Dead is the absolute worst of the series. Land of the Dead is mediocre and bland, but Diary of the Dead is just generally bad.

 

[ktanner3]

I'm kind of surprised so far by the show of support for Days. I just didn't get what was so good about it. Most of the characters in that film were un-sympathetic. The portrayel of the military was so far off the mark it was ridiculous, and the only good part of the film for me was when we FINALLY got to see some Zombie action in the end. I was so bored with this movie that I couldn't believe this was the same genius that brought us "Night" and "Dawn". But to each his own.

 

[Harvey]

I'd say Dawn of the Dead, although Night is also a horror classic in my view.

And, even though they often recieve crushing reviews, I like both Day and Land.

I haven't seen Diary of the Dead yet. It looks great, despite the poor reviews.

 

[Servo]

The portrayel of the military was so far off the mark it was ridiculous...

What the hell are you talking about?

 

[Harvey]

The portrayel of the military was so far off the mark it was ridiculous...

What the hell are you talking about?

Probably upset about the portrayal of the military in the entire series.

In Night, you have what amount to racist hill-billy militias that go around shooting anything that moves, regardless of it being a zombie or not.

In Dawn, we get the same. We also get incompetent national guard members raiding the projects and blasting away at civilians who are not zombies.

In Day, we get corrupt military officials like Captain Rhodes who sacrifice the common good for their own crazed, selfish objectives.

My memory of Land is a bit vague.

In Diary, although I haven't seen it, there apparently is a scene where National Guardsmen take advantage of some civilians by looting and such, which of course is Romero's commentary on the Iraq War.

At least, that's what I'm guessing. I don't actually have any qualms with the way Romero presents the military, but my own views are of course biased and in line with Romero's.

 

[Mike Farley]

Those were cops raiding the projects in DAWN not the National Guard.

DAWN and DAY tie for my number one spot followed by NIGHT, DIARY, and then LAND.

But I like 'em all, even the brainless (but fun) DAWN remake, and Tom Savini's Night remake.

 

[Servo]

The portrayel of the military was so far off the mark it was ridiculous...

What the hell are you talking about?

Probably upset about the portrayal of the military in the entire series.

In Night, you have what amount to racist hill-billy militias that go around shooting anything that moves, regardless of it being a zombie or not.

In Dawn, we get the same. We also get incompetent national guard members raiding the projects and blasting away at civilians who are not zombies.

In Day, we get corrupt military officials like Captain Rhodes who sacrifice the common good for their own crazed, selfish objectives.

My memory of Land is a bit vague.

In Diary, although I haven't seen it, there apparently is a scene where National Guardsmen take advantage of some civilians by looting and such, which of course is Romero's commentary on the Iraq War.

At least, that's what I'm guessing. I don't actually have any qualms with the way Romero presents the military, but my own views are of course biased and in line with Romero's.

Not only that, but regardless of whatever social commentaries Romero throws in, they're just movies, and not supposed to be accurate portrayals of the military in general, let alone accurate portrayals of a small group of military men, driven over the edge by claustrophobic conditions, lack of relief, watching their buddies die and turn into zombies, which no doubt caused severe disassociation from Humanity, with sociopathic and psychopathic tendencies...etc.

I'd like to know exactly how many zombie apocalypses ktanner3 has lived through, so that he could come here and tell us that Romero's portrayal of a small group of isolated military men in those conditions is "way off the mark".

 

[kalysto]

Dawn of the Dead, absolutely no contest for me!

 

[Dane_Whitman]

1. Dawn of the Dead
2. Night of the Living Dead
3. Day of the Dead
4. Land of the Dead

Haven't seen Diary of the Dead yet, so I can't comment on that one.

 

[Jayson]

It's hard to choose between Dawn and Night for me. TO me they both are in my top 10 favorite movies list. I think I would proably choose Dawn because the acting is better plus it offers more scope. I also like how society hasn't fallen apart yet but you can see how it's basically in it's death throws. In fact I like the evoultion you see in society in the Romero movies

Night=Society is normal. The zombies at this point can be seen as a crisis but not something I suspect people though would topple the government or anything.
Dawn=Society is basically on the verge of collapse. It is still somewhat intact but you can tell the zombies are basically going to win.
Day-Society is gone. It's a kind of a transition period. Countires and governments are proably gone completely though there are still army bases like the one in this movie that is basically still going through motions of pretending the old system is still in place.
Land=Whole new society built out of the ashes of the old one.

Jason

 

[nx1701g]

Typically when these polls happen normally its Dawn that wins with Night directly following. When you poll the remakes or compare the remake and the original Dawn 2004 usually wins.

 

[CommodoreKong]

I haven't seen Diary yet, but of his first 4 Dawn is my favorite, followed closely by the first film.

 

[PK95]

I would say Night of the Living Dead is my favorite followed by Dawn. I just saw Diary of the Dead this weekend and enjoyed it very much and it may be my third favorite....I guess I will see how it holds up over time.