Day of the Dead (1985) is a horror film by director George A. Romero, and the third of four movies. It is preceded by Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, and succeeded by Land of the Dead. Steve Miner is directing a remake which is set to be out in 2007, and Romero himself is also in the midst of completing a fifth film in the series, Diary of the Dead, which is due to be released in 2007.

Although 1978's Dawn of the Dead is considered by the majority of his fans as the best of the series, Romero himself cites Day of the Dead as his personal favorite of all his zombie films (he mentions this in the documentary entitled "The Many Days of the Dead" on the Region 1 Divimax Special Edition DVD release of Day of the Dead from Anchor Bay Entertainment).

Day of the Dead deals with the zombie assault on a military establishment, satirizing the military mindset in the process. The film received the least enthusiastic critical review of the four films. Romero's original vision for the film was ambitious, but he accepted a prohibitively small budget in exchange for the production company to release the film without a rating. If he had chosen to go for an R rating, rather than being unrated, he would have had seven million dollars to work with. Instead, however, was given a mere three and a half million. The resulting film was smaller than the original but introduces the possibility that the undead are more capable of adaptation than was originally believed. The original script was considerably more complex and ambitious, involving the training of zombies to fight other zombies. Most of the lost themes were carried over to 2005's Land of the Dead.

The film has been widely criticized for various reasons. Many fans of the second film, Dawn of the Dead, were disappointed in this third offering, as its plot is considerably less sweeping in nature. Fans of the film point out, however, that the iconic human characters purposely contrast with the precocious zombie lead, "Bub", underscoring that zombies and humans are not so different. An outrageous selection of zombies are presented, and the special effects are worlds ahead of what was presented in the previous installment. Although the film is set somewhere in Florida (perhaps in Fort Myers or Sanibel Island, where the initial scenes were filmed), it was primarily filmed in Pittsburgh just like the earlier installments and undead extras include the dean of Carnegie Mellon University and his wife.

The overall tone of the movie is grim, unrelenting and dour, a change from the comedic satire of Dawn. The survivors in the film fear that they are the last humans on the face of the earth, though in Land of the Dead, it is evident that this is not the case. Perhaps more prevalent than in the other films in the series, Day plays on the theme that humanity is a greater danger to itself than any outside threat. The living characters in the film are made up of three distinctive sects who have their own ideas regarding their predicament: soldiers who want to destroy the zombies, scientists who want to study them for a resolution, and civilians who want nothing more than to live out their last days without care. This causes friction and a lapse in cooperation as characters struggle with one another rather than work together to survive the world that has changed beyond their control. The violence and gore also reach a level of intensity that the two previous movies did not. Being killed by a zombie in this film is presented as a horrific and brutally drawn out ordeal.

Despite its lacklustre critical reception, the film is noted for its special effects work, notably Tom Savini's make-up and special effects work; and it was honored in 1985 with a Saturn Award for Best Make-Up.