In George Romero’s Day of the Dead, the zombie tamed and studied by Dr. “Frankenstein” Logan is Bub. Logan gives the zombie that nickname while attempting to demonstrate that the undead can retain memory, learn routines, and respond to conditioning.
Bub is held in an underground Florida military bunker alongside other captured zombies. Unlike the shambling creatures around him, he follows simple instructions, handles objects, salutes, and reacts to familiar cues. Logan rewards him with food and uses repeated training to explore whether some trace of his former human identity remains.
“Dr. Frankenstein” is not the character’s formal name. He is Matthew Logan, a scientist whose experiments echo Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and its creator-monster relationship. Bub’s behavior becomes central to the film’s larger argument: the living may be more cruel and irrational than the dead. The 1985 film, written and directed by George A. Romero, is the third entry in Romero’s original Dead trilogy, following Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead.