One of the most often engaged in conversations among cinephiles and genre film fans is discussing sequels one considers better than the original. With the horror film genre being rampant with sequels this is a quite fun conversation to engage in with fellow horror movie enthusiasts. And if there's one film you can set your watch by being mentioned it's none other than George Romero's classic DAWN OF THE DEAD. Considered among critics to be a superior film to the original (that's debatable in my opinion), Dawn helped usher a new era in horror, and his name was Tom Savini.
Night of the Living Dead was a revelation among horror films and cinema as a whole. It's plot was simple yet undeniably thrilling. The black and white guerilla cinematography married with graphic violence and modern horror sensibilities lend the film greater impact, frightening atmosphere, a place the film far ahead of its time. Night of the Living Dead was a very low budget film with a small cast set against the claustrophobic backdrop of a lone farmhouse closed off from the rest of the world.
Dawn of the Dead is the opposite of Night of the Living Dead in just about every way. It was filmed in color. Expansive, showcasing the effects of the zombie outbreak the world over and taking place over the course of several months. It is one of the great horror epics of our time.
THE PLOT
As the world is being overrun with the living dead, a group of four people take to the skies in a news chopper. Eventually they come upon an abandoned mall containing healthy supplies of everything they might need and more. But the mall is crawling with zombies. After considerable effort the four of them manage to clear the mall of reanimated corpses and reinforce the building so no other zombies can enter. For a time the four of them are living a veritable paradise within the mall. When a large group nomadic survivors spy the mall they make a move to loot the place. Will the four who worked so hard to make the mall their sanctuary just give it up to these violent nomads or will they defend what they believe to be theirs?
WHAT I LIKED
A Completely New Experience. Exploring the world of a zombie apocalypse is something we were denied in Night of the Living Dead but were allowed to do in Dawn of the Dead. And in color too! Like I briefly mentioned above, Dawn takes all the ideas of Night and expands upon them. Instead of being locked in a farm house for one night in this world we are shown the widespread effects across the country as well as allusions to what's happening with the rest of the world. And we get to spend months in this world and actually see the evolution (or devolution in some cases) of humanity and witness day to day life in a zombie apocalypse. We are even treated to a little satire and humor, most of which was absent from the predecessor. Where Night was a low budget compact film, Dawn was a comparatively big budget epic.
Tom Savini's Effects Crew. I often mention the horror renaissance of the 1980's and how the advent of realistic gore and make-up effects was one of the primary reasons for the horror film boom of the time. That's me talking about this guy, Tom Savini. His first two credits on IMDB for special effects are both from 1978 and both Romero films, MARTIN and Dawn of the Dead. The gore effects in Night were certainly striking and realistic. But Tom Savini's effects were above and beyond expectations, so much so that Dawn had to be released unrated theatrically or suffer extensive cuts. The zombie kills in this film are pretty epic, from a helicopter decapitation to being stabbed with machetes, screwdrivers, and more. And the human kills are noteworthy too, like the disembowelment scene. This film showcased the gore like few others before it and helped open the floodgates for horror films in the 1980's.
Humans Are Worse Than Zombies. Zombie Apocalypses were still fairly new by 1978 and had scarcely been explored yet. With time and the zombie boom of the 2000's most folks are familiar with the societal breakdowns of such a world. Once zombies have been dealt with we learn that human beings are the next threat and by some standards an even greater threat than the zombies. Dawn of the Dead was among the earliest of films to broach this eventuality, an aspect of the sub-genre that has now become expected with audiences. Leave it to Romero to create these reanimated cannibal corpses and then create an even greater threat in the form of our fellow man. We largely owe this aspect of the zombie genre to Dawn of the Dead.
Consumerism = Zombieism. Zombies are really a metaphor for us? Whaaaaaaaat?! Social commentary is one of the hallmarks of Romero's zombie films and Dawn of the Dead is ripe with it. See what you want to see, one can't help but draw parallels to Romero's zombies and their insatiable appetites to human beings own consumerism appetites. We buy and we buy and we buy some more while the zombies eat and eat and eat some more. Then there's the programming consumerism has embedded within us. Nowadays we go about our day to day mindless routines, returning over and over again to the same places for the same fixes and needs. Consumerism is in effect eroding those survival instincts and skills gained through thousands of years of natural selection and turning us into veritable zombies ourselves. That's just one thought on the subject. These aspects of Romero's films appeal to certain viewers analytical nature and provide plenty of food for thought.
NITPICKS
Pacing. My only real nitpick about this film lies within the movement of the plot. This movie starts fast and frenzied but then slows to a crawl before ramping up for the climax. The film is over two hours long, which isn't actually that long at all. Compared to the average 90 minute horror movie runtimes though, two hours is long. And with a decent portion of dead space in the middle the movie feels even longer. Both Night of the Living Dead and Day of the Dead clock in at 96 minutes which feels perfect for both films. Now, this "dead space" as I put it is there for a reason. It's there to reflect insight into the relationships between human beings, the relationship between materialism and humanity, as well as simply displaying an extended period of life during the zombie apocalypse. Romero doesn't waste a single moment in this film and the slower pace of this section is intentional.
THE VERDICT
Dawn of the Dead is everything one could hope for in a sequel. It zooms out to show the widespread effects of the zombie uprising on a global scale. It's in color and follows the characters from the big city across the country to a shopping mall where we spend a few months with them and this world. We see what happens when two groups of survivors come into conflict and learn that your fellow man is a greater threat than the zombies. Romero loads the film with social commentary providing plenty of food for thought. And Tom Savini's incredible gore and make-up effects round out one of the greatest horror films ever.
Overall Ranking: 10 out of 10
Nude-O-Meter: 1 out of 10
For more Romero films and zombie movies check out the films below
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