Day of the Dead is an acceptable addition to Romero's zombie trilogy, if not an acceptable conclusion. 
          I honestly believe that if this had been the middle film, bridging the gap between Night's low-key claustrophobia and Dawn's extreme violence and scale then it would have worked better. Not a bad film on it's own merits, it feels flat as the final part of a greater whole, where Dawn had one of the most magnificent ends I've ever seen. Who could forget Ken Foree in the 1978 edition ending a film with the nonchalant "Alright...", leaving the viewer confronted with the spectacle of consumer zombies marching to music? Satirical and undeniably brilliant. Day by comparison grounds to a halt and seems to run out of steam rather than end with Romero's trademark abruptness. 
          The film is also guilty of the gore that the second had alluded to; here a zombie's eyes look left and right after his head has been severed from the mouth up, while a soldier is still conscious after having his legs torn from his body and his entrails ripped out. (Yelling "Choke on 'em!", no less) Similarly, when another soldier commits suicide by placing a handgun in his mouth we are shown his brains blowing out behind him. It is this late-80s commercial aspect that daunts, as this is the only film in the series that concludes with "soundtrack album available", a reminder that the film is chock-full with over loud dated incidentals and an end-titles song. 
          The first film in the series, Night of the Living Dead, didn't work at first for me as it's somewhat stilted technique and – Duane Jones and Karl Hardiman excepted – amateurish acting led me to believe it was an exercise in high camp. Watched a second time I realized it was played straight, just not played very well. Looked at as a template, it shows the degeneration of the zombies and sheds light on the myth that Day is a humorless installment. Night has the nasty zombies (though they're never referred to by that word in any of the films); the ones who use weapons, the zombies who stab through the heart with a trowel. Dawn, by far the greatest of the series, has the consumer zombies who stagger like ten pins, waiting to be knocked down. Day, conversely, has "Bub". Bub is a docile zombie who listens to Beethoven and salutes soldiers, a friend to the amusing Dr. Logan. Logan begins to give an actual psychological profile of the creatures, and medical study of their nature. He also sites the monsters as outnumbering humans by roughly "400,000 to one". Perhaps what the film lacks most of all is a cinematic vision. There's a nice wide shot in the opening moments on an island inhabited entirely by the zombies. This at least captures some of the aspect of Dawn, which really did convince on a minimal budget and with adroit editing that the entire world was under zombie regime. But after the island prologue we enter the claustrophobic, squat laboratory and it all becomes closed in. Claustrophobia is fine when you're under siege, but the threat is almost wholly absent here. In fact, the only time the cast are really in any danger from the undead (apart from the finale) is in Sarah's (Lori Cardille's) dream sequences. A film lacks tension if the only danger your characters are in is falling asleep and dreaming about it. Unless of course that film is Nightmare on Elm Street.
          Though perhaps the real dangers come from within. We are "treated" to one-dimensional soldiers who govern the underground research center, most notably Joseph Pilato, absolutely lousy as Captain Rose. Better is G. Howard Klar as Steele, who shows some humanity under the macho rhetoric. The picture also sees the latest, and least successful, in a line of black leads, with Terry Alexander as the West Indian John. This is commendable, though can also smack of tokenism, especially when John joins an Irish lead to form the two lazy characters that never want to work. The Irish character (Catchphrase: "Jesus, Mary and Joseph") is also a heavy drinker, while John wants to "soak up some sun on a beach"; though in fairness they are the two most likable characters. 
          An interesting theory is the notion that all three films could run concurrently. In Dawn we see a roadblock of rednecks like those in the first, and here there's a reference to all the shopping malls being closed. I often wondered what a fourth film in the series would be called, as the good titles seemed to be used up. Tea Time of the Dead, maybe? Between Half Past One and Five O'clock of the Dead? Yet it transpires that George A. Romero has mentioned in interviews that he'd consider a fourth, especially as "Day" wasn't quite the ending he'd envisaged due to budget cuts. Fan rumors currently suggest "Dusk" or "Twilight" as the likely options. Let's hope it materializes, a Dead saga for the new millennium.