ironhorse_iv Review of Dawn of the Dead

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

When there's no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the earth and I'll watch it. Movie was fun to watch.

[7/10 · 6 May 2015]

When there's no room in hell, the dead will walk the malls. This movie gives new meaning to the phrase, 'Shop until you drop'. Directed by George A. Romero, Dawn of the Dead also known as Zombi tells the story of a group of human survivors that barricade themselves inside a suburban shopping mall from a zombie outbreak. It's the second film made in Romero's Living Dead series, but contains no characters or settings from the original 1968's Night of the Living Dead. Instead, it shows new characters in a larger scale, post-apocalyptic society, ten years later the first attack. The movie follows the same tropes of the first movie, but it kinda introduce some new ones. This is probably the first movie to coin, the modern meaning of Zombie. It also, never mention the word, again, like most zombies films. George A. Romero indeed reinvention the myth of zombie, from magically curse-undead beings to flesh-eating living viruses. It's really surprising, how many modern zombies movies and TV-shows still follow the same old format that George A. Romero launch in his first two zombies movies. At the time, the make-up, action and gore effects were pretty alright, but this movie hasn't aged, well. The slow zombie was just downright too sluggish to be taken as a serious threat and the make-up work is questionable, at times. They look more like drunk blue smurfs, due to the lighting turning the grey make up, blue. Throughout the film, the zombies are handled almost effortlessly; the only danger to humans come when the living acts stupid or careless. There is barely any tense moments. The movie doesn't feel like a straight up horror film. It acts more like a silly satire action comedy. It's somewhat, works. The movie become more fun to watch, but it's also draws criticize, for being a bit corny and over the top. The scene where the bikers threw pies in their faces, kinda kill it for me. Being a fan of the first film, I found this movie to be, less of a thrill. I was hoping for more, scarier faster uglier scar, rage zombies. I'm glad, that rage zombies proved so popular that they wound up in sequels of George Romero's later Dead films, because these zombies are a joke. Another issue of the film is how the undead imitated once-human behavior, all of which annoyed most Dead purists. Despite that, the movie does have some memorable zombies. Since the movie has a small amounts of zombie extras, they became very noticeable, such as the Hare Krishna Zombie, the Nun Zombie, and so on. My favorites is the zombie who grabbed an assault rifle, and the Nurse zombie. Still, it's a bit jarring, to find them, both inside and outside the mall, at the same time. One thing, that I love, about this film is the characters. Scott H. Reiniger as Roger, reminds me a young Jack Nicholson with his high energy and charisma. It really sucks, that he wasn't in the film, longer. At first, I didn't like the character of Francine (Gaylen Ross). She was very useless, b*tchy and annoying, but by the end of the film, she kinda grew on me, and became somewhat likable. Much of this female development, could be credited by actress Gaylen Ross, who refused to play a weak character. I just wish, the writers use, the pregnant angle more, than a throw-away mention. Traffic helicopter reporter Stephen a.k.a. Flyboy (David Emge) was alright in his role. I just wish, he stood out, more, than awful shooter and a secondary character. By far, Peter (Ken Foree) is the number 1 badass in this film. I glad to see an African-American actor in a main role. It was very rare in these days. I like, how the movie gives all of them, some character depth. We really see them, grow as realistic survivors. Monroeville Mall was a great location to shot. All filming inside the mall took place at night after the mall had closed, with filming often continuing until dawn. The movie has this somewhat preachy social commentary about mindless consumer culture that speaks truth to me, but also speaks annoying, due to the fact, that it's not well-delivered. The movie is a little too straight forward with its anti-consumerism message. I wish, they smarten hint at it, rather than put it all out there. We get it, materialism offers no raison d'être for human survival. Dawn has this decidedly bleak, almost nihilistic worldview when it comes to capitalism, but I find the film a bit, contradicting, due to the fact, that this movie was made for entertaining value, rather than a realistic-survival manual. Romero did not want to cut the violence and gore from the film, but he was adamant against an X rating, due to its stigma of hard-core pornography. In the end, Romero was able to persuade his distributors to release the film with no rating, but cuts did had to be made. This movie has three different cuts versions: Extended cut, Dario Argento's European cut and the theatrical cut. Extended Cut brings all the delete scenes back into the film, making this version of the film feels a little darker. Argento's version is the shortest, but the movie pacing is a lot better. All of them, have Goblin's awesome score; but some of them, have more than others. Without spoiling it, the movie tragic ending was also change, to be more uplifting. This movie is followed by 1985's Day of the Dead, and loosely remade in 2004 with James Gunn & Zack Snyder with a scarier tone. Overall: Despite its faults, this movie is indeed entertaining. You got to get this man! You got this by the ass!