Skip to main content

Dawn of the Dead (1978) - George Romero

In Dawn of the Dead, a direct sequel to Night of the Living Dead, we get a better look at what humanity is going through during the Zombie Apocalypse. George Romero had the audience looking through a microscope with Night of... while with this feature we get a telescope. The Zombie Apocalypse is now showcased in full scale. This is the reason for the success of this movie. It gives you so much more. The whole reason people see zombie movies is to be spoon fed destruction and this movie has a whole hell of a lot of destruction.

Four people take refuge in an abandoned mall while the world falls apart around them. The United States has apparently enacted Martial Law and roving hordes of rednecks and psycho bikers are migrating about cleaning out the zombies and looting all they can. The four people, Flyboy, Peter, Roger, and Francine make the mall their home. Everything's great. That is until boredom and stupidity step in. Flyboy makes some of the most palm to face decisions of the whole movie.

The acting is not the greatest. Some scenes really don't make any scenes at all. I'm looking at you Blood Pressure scene. Ken Foree and Scott Reiniger have a great buddy-cop thing going on and they are the most interesting characters. I like, early in the film, when the two veteran warriors have to school Flyboy on just how stupid he is. Sorry, I didn't like that character. Although, later in the film he has some pretty redeeming scenes. The music in this movie was done by our friends Goblin under the direction of Dario Argento and actually this time the music was pretty spot on. Not like in Deep Red.

I really liked this movie, mostly for the wide scale aspect. The mall is such a great place to hide out too. Especially when you're faced with the best zombies. Slow moving ones. Tom Savini goes nuts in this movie with the gore. He really has a grand time with it. So many scenes with outrageous and original gory killings. In many ways this movie is the ultimate zombie film. It's like a zombie opera, I should say. Quite an amazing and fantastic piece of film from the zombie Godfather George Romero. I highly recommend this movie to anyone that actually want;s to take the time to sit down and watch a quality picture like this. .


"Every dead body that is not exterminated becomes one of them. It gets up and kills! The people it kills get up and kill!"

  • In addition to the lead biker Blades, Tom Savini plays the zombie who breaks window of the truck and is shot by Roger with a revolver. This scene leaves a bloody smear on the windshield, the effect was created by Savini throwing himself on the non-moving truck and spitting a mouthful of blood on the windshield. 
  • The skating rink shown in the film was part of the Monroeville Mall. It has since been replaced by a food court.  
  • Extras who appeared in this film were reportedly given $20 in cash, a box lunch, and a Dawn of the Dead T-shirt. 
Labels:

Comments

WatchingTheDead said…
One of my favourite horror films and responsible for my own blog. Nice write up, check out my review here: http://watchingthedead.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/dawn-of-dead-1978-review.html
October 19, 2013 at 11:20 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ju-On (2000) - Takashi Shimizu

Watching Japanese horror is similar to watching British comedy. If you enjoy dry whit then you probably enjoy the boys of Monty Python in drag. That's the joke, they're dressed like women. Get it? Well, that's British humor. But if you're like most Americans you probably prefer Adam Sandler farting his way across a football field and hooking up with chicks that are way out of his league. Americans usually prefer this more in your face, crass brand of humor. My point is funny in England is different from funny in the US. The same goes for J-Horror. What the Japanese consider scary is very different from what Americans consider scary and it shows in this horror film. Japanese horror is generally slow (a little too slow sometimes), suspenseful and creepy. Ju-On is a creepy effing film. The movie has almost no soundtrack. It is incredibly suspenseful and the pay-offs are pretty awesome, but I think that it was done better in the American version (cultural t...
Post a Comment
Not scared yet? »

Sleepy Hollow (1999) - Tim Burton

Tim Burton's take on the old Sleepy Hollow tale is really interesting. He adds his own flair of course. He delves very deeply into the original story by Washington Irving. The casting is usual for Burton. Johnny Depp of course in your lead. Helena Bonham Carter, thrown in for some flavor. The score is done by Danny Elfman. It's literally just the Ichabod Crane story run through the Tim Burton machine. But in a good way. Sleepy Hollow has a problem with a guy, running around, taking people's heads. Like, a lot of people. The town sends word for assistance and the nervous  Constable Ichabod Crane reports. He starts to unravel clues that take him down an incredibly strange path. With the Horseman still murdering patrons, Crane tries finding who's next before they lose their head.  I've always been a big fan of the Disney cartoon,  The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad . This movie is a far cry from Bing Crosby and quaint animations....
Post a Comment
Not scared yet? »

Le Manoir du Diable (1896) - George Melies

According to Wikipedia in August of 2011, Le Manoir du diable by Georges Melies is the first horror movie. Well, actually its a short film (about three minuets or so) but film was really hard to come by in that time so this counts as a film to me. The plot of the film is basic, you have your hero being tormented by demonic things in a crazy castle room... However, that plot isn't what brought the crowds. The thing that drove the popularity of these films was the fact that you were seeing motion on screen. I suggest going and seeing Hugo. That film is spectacular. It answered so many questions that I had. It really sets the scene and the tone. The film has strong christian overtones and actually ends with Christianity prevailing over the "tides of darkness". I provided a link at the bottom of this review for anyone that would like to see this pioneer in Horror Film. The movie uses very, very early "movie magic" that is an abundance of smoke and m...
Post a Comment
Not scared yet? »