Dawn of the Dead
March 30, 2008
By: 
rollerkaty
Category: 1978, Dawn of the Dead, Horror
I’m a sucker for a good zombie movie. So when a friend loaned us a copy of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978) we popped some popcorn, opened a bottle of wine, and settled in for an evening of guns, gore, and zombie goodness. The movie begins where George Romero’s 1968 Night of the Living Dead leaves off, the morning after an attack by zombies (albeit inexplicably ten years later).
Our story begins in the WGON studios, where television journalists are trying to make sense of the plague of flesh-eating zombies that seems to have taken over the entire country. Francis and Stephen, two studio employees, decide to flee the city in the station’s helicopter. They are joined in their escape by Roger and Peter, who have been battling the undead in the city’s urban areas.
En route to the wilderness, our heroes stop on the rooftop of a shopping mall to refuel and to take stock. They discover a cache of food in an emergency shelter near the top of the building, and ultimately decide to stay in the mall and live off of the limitless supplies in the stores below. Unfortunately, the mall is overrun with zombies.
Ah, the mall. The scenes in the mall are definitely the highlight of the movie. The parallel between the mindless greed of consumers (for material goods) and the mindless greed of zombies (for human flesh) is not a subtle one. And it is pretty funny to see the undead lurching about the mall, as if they were just going about business as usual, while fountains happily gurgle and cheerful elevator music continues to play in the background.
And so, our hapless heroes devise a plan to block the entrances to the building and embark on a zombie hunting spree. Once cleared of zombies, the mall becomes their personal sanctuary. So they eat, drink, and make merry (well, as merry as one can be in a world that has been overrun by flesh-eating ghouls).
Like any good horror movie, however, this respite is only a temporary one. But I am not going to ruin the ending for you. You’ll just have to watch the movie for yourself to discover what happens when zombies attack the shopping mall.
| 2.5 |
March 30th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
I too only just got around to this film recently. I was a big fan of the original 1968 Night of the Living Dead, I loved the 28 Days Later movies, and I had always heard that Dawn of the Dead was the best one but never got around to it until about a month ago. The parallel of human society breaking down while the zombies instinctually flocked to familiar places and routines was brilliant. I have not yet seen the recent remake, but I heard that the commentary on consumerism is quite toned down and the zombies are faster in it.
March 31st, 2008 at 1:19 am
I also am a big fan of both 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later. Shawn of the Dead is another one of my favorites. I have not yet seen the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead but it is on my list of movies to check out. So many zombie movies, so little time!
March 31st, 2008 at 2:23 am
Oh, you definitely need to check out the remake! It is *truly* creepy! I watched it for the first time a few months ago and, I tell you, it’s one of those movies that you think about for weeks afterward. They deal with a lot of difficult questions and harsh realities. One of the really unique things about the zombies in the remake is that they don’t shamble. Those guys can *run*! And they don’t get tired. Ugh.
Yay zombies!
VG
March 31st, 2008 at 3:38 am
I love, love, love Zombie Movies. Dawn of the Dead made my top 10 list - but not in the #1 spot. We spend a lot of time talking about what would happen in a Zombie outbreak. One thing I hope for, is that if there ever is an outbreak we get the slow Zombies, not the fast ones!
March 31st, 2008 at 11:35 pm
I have been remiss in seeing the remake, but apparently George Romero loves it.
“Land of the Dead” is another of Romero’s zombie films, totally gory and cathartic and probably my favorite; it has the social commentary (like all his films) but it isn’t laid on quite as thick as in “Dawn…”.
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:37 am
Hmmm brains…
Zombie movies rule. I only have the remake of this one
And I hate remakes.
April 6th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
I am a zombie fan and have not seen this yet! Thanks for igniting my fire. Going to Netflix now.