DAWN of the DEAD Retrospective
“When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.” I mean…that just sums everything up right there, doesn’t it? Probably the best tagline for a movie ever, George Romero’s 1978 zombie epic Dawn of the Dead is one of the more influential horror movies of the modern era that helped solidify what Night of the Living Dead established in 1968. It also helped re-establish the concept of the zombie in the eyes of moviegoers worldwide, ironically, much like the idea of a zombie apocalypse itself.
Dawn holds the same power as movies like Frankenstein, Psycho, Halloween, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre; everyone remembers the first time they saw those movies and how it influenced them in some form or fashion. I remember the first time I saw Dawn of the Dead very vividly.
It was early spring 2004, I was beginning to seek out more modern horror movies from the ‘70s to the ‘90s. I had already seen all of the Friday the 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street movies via the local video rental store. My grandmother took me to Sam Goodey (think pre-F.Y.E), so I could spend my allowance money; I was browsing the horror DVDs when one of the retail workers came up and asked if I needed any assistance.
I told him that I was looking for a new horror movie to watch and listed off the movies I had seen up to that point. He asked me what I thought about zombies, and I told him I hadn’t seen any zombie movies yet. He went to the D section of the alphabetized DVDs and pulled out what would become my favorite zombie movie of all time and handed it to me.
“This is arguably the best zombie movie of all time, have you heard of Night of the Living Dead? It’s actually a sequel to it, but it doesn’t require seeing the first one since there are no characters left from the original.” He said going off on a speech about why this movie was so awesome, truth to be told, I wasn’t a massive fan of the idea of zombies. I was the kind of person who enjoyed the monsters and not the people, so the concept of a zombie seemed dull to me, but he was talking so much and was so passionate I felt obligated to buy it. I figured I could just save the receipt and return it another day, oh how quickly that thought process changed.
I got home and opened the DVD, though I wasn’t overly excited about watching a zombie movie; however, the cover really intrigued me. The image of a zombie head emerging on a horizon like a morning sun with the words, “George Romero’s DAWN of the DEAD,” beneath the art gave me a feeling that this might be at least something to enjoy. I popped the DVD into the player and pressed start, entirely unprepared for the experience that awaited me.
The movie drops into total madness as the crew of a television station struggles to stay on the air. Trying to relay updated information to a mass-hysterical public during what we can assume is the peak of the zombie apocalypse when looking at Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead as a whole. There is a SWAT team trying to raid a low-income building that’s housing the living dead, and the madness quickly turns into blood-splattered chaos.
This entire opening segment absolutely left me stunned. I distinctly remember pausing after the SWAT scene was over and getting refreshments to tide me over for the next 127 minutes, this was precisely what I was looking for in a horror movie, after getting my snacks I got comfortable and resumed the movie.
The tension that the film establishes at the beginning keeps building, taking the viewer on a very enthralling journey as the characters have a close encounter with some zombies at a gas station to refuel their helicopter. After that, we arrive at the iconic shopping mall where the rest of the story takes place. The idea of the shopping mall as a fortress during the zombie apocalypse is genius, but of course, that’s easier said than done.
Now we have to accompany our characters through the process of eradicating the shopping mall of the undead horde. This whole process is done so remarkably well that it never translates as dull to the viewer, we’re wholly invested in everything the characters do to ensure their survival. After the zombies are cleared of the mall, we finally have our time to breathe and relax, but of course, that time is very short-lived.
We watch in horror as a group of renegades on motorcycles break into the mall and unravel the security that our main characters took so long to establish and maintain. They put up a hell of a fight against the bikers, but both groups are eventually overrun by the flesh-eating monsters, and everyone must retreat.
At the end, when two of our main characters are left flying off into the sunrise, there is no resolution to the zombie apocalypse that has engulfed the world. The is no cure, no going back to normal, and yet we feel a small sense of optimism before the credits roll over the zombies taking control over the mall once again and feasting on the new corpses as a song called The Gonk plays. Ending on a very humorously dark note.
I had to sit still in my chair for a brief moment as I processed what I just watched. This was more than a horror movie, I couldn’t put my finger on it at the time, but I knew this was something much more. I sat back and re-watched the film with the audio commentary, watched the trailers and television spots, I had to find out everything I could about this movie.
Of course, I had to see Night of the Living Dead and Day of the Dead after that. Not long after, the world saw the release of Land of the Dead, an alright sequel to Day of the Dead by George Romero as well as Shaun of the Dead, a comedic tribute to the Romero movies, directed by Edgar Wright and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. There was even a remake of Dawn of the Dead released with Zack Snyder directing, 2004-2006 was a massive year for zombie movies.
Take a look, if you haven’t, and see why the George Romero Dead series became the gold standard for zombie movies and culture for the next 40 plus years. The best thing about them is they do not require being watched in order of release. However, it does help in terms of understanding the progression of the zombie apocalypse and the fall of human civilization. Watch it now!
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