Dawn of the Dead (1978)

June 17, 2005

Rated: R Runtime: 127 min Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The original Dawn of the Dead is not only the greatest zombie of all time, it is arguably the greatest horror movie of all time. And it gets better every time I see it.

Dawn of the Dead (1978)It’s a sequel of sorts to Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, but it involves different characters. In other words, you don’t need to see Night in order to fall in love with Dawn.

The movie starts with - surprise! - a major zombie infestation. Four characters escape the city by helicopter. They quickly realize that getting fuel for the helicopter is going to be a problem, so they search for a place where they can live safely until the world gets back to normal. They find the perfect place: a shopping mall.

This mall has everything (including plenty of zombies wandering around), but most importantly it has both a large department/grocery store and a gun store. That’s right, a gun store in a mall. How sweet is that?

Our heroes find an unused storage room that’s hidden from the zombies and set up house there. They eventually get the idea to block the entrances to the mall with large semi-trucks, and then go on a killing spree to remove the remaining zombies.

From there on out, it’s utopia for three of the four heroes. (One got a little careless around the zombies.) They’re living a zombie-free life; they have access to merchandise at all the stores; and, they’re basically living like royalty. But you know that’s not going to last, right?

Dawn of the Dead works on many different levels. The appeal to horror and action fans is obvious. And surprisingly, the drama works very well, even though we don’t know much about these characters. With the exception of two characters, none of them have meaningful relationships with one another before the zombie apocalypse happens. But while trying to survive, they forge a common bond and help one another out. There are times when I forgot I was watching a zombie movie because I was interested in what these characters were doing.

But more than anything, I love the movie’s wicked social satire on our consumerist culture, which is more relevant than ever in the 21st Century. When these characters first arrive at the mall, they go after the essentials: food, water, tools, ammo, some small electronics, and whiskey. These are all things they need to continue surviving.

Shortly after their arrival, one of the characters comments on the number of zombies congregated at the mall, saying that it’s “some kind of instinct. Memory, of what they used to do. This was an important place in their lives.”

Can you imagine living a life so empty that when you return from the dead looking for brains to eat, you’re instinctually drawn to the local mall?

But as soon as our intrepid survivors get the doors sealed off and empty the mall of zombies, what do they do? They go on an immediate “shopping” spree, even though everything is technically free. New clothes, new furniture, new jewelry… even a visit to the bank to empty the cash drawers. They continue to live in their hidden storage room, which is starting to look like a nice condo.

Near the end of the movie, a roving motorcycle gang shows up to plunder the mall, and instead of escaping to survive, our heroes decide to defend “their stuff”. Of course, in the aftermath of a zombie holocaust, none of that stuff matters any more. The front doors are opened, and the zombies once again enter the mall to aimlessly wander.

Unlike most horror movies, Dawn of the Dead actually has something to say about our society. The shot during the closing credits speaks volumes.

One other comment: I absolutely love the Goblin soundtrack to this movie. Some say it’s cheesy, but I say it’s brilliant. It’s one of my favorite things to listen to when I’m working on my computer.

I enjoyed the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead on its own merits as a zombie movie, but I didn’t enjoy it as a remake. Besides the walking dead, the shopping mall, the fiesty blonde chick and the bad-ass black man, it really wasn’t much of a remake.

If you haven’t seen the 1978 original Dawn of the Dead, get your butt down to the store (or click on over to Amazon) and buy a copy. Don’t rent it, don’t borrow it, just buy it. You won’t be disappointed.

Posted by Chris Terranova | Filed Under 5 Stars, Action, DVD, David Emge, Drama, Gaylen Ross, Horror, Ken Foree, R, Scott H. Reiniger, Tom Savini 

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