Dawn of the Dead (10 April 1979)
directed by George A. Romero
starring David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger, Gaylen Ross, Tom Savini
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Studio: Laurel Group Script: George A. Romero Music: Goblin Running time: 126 minutes Suggested retail price: $24.98 (US) Tags: ghouls; Horror; shopping mall; zombies Tactical strength: [4/10]
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With Dawn of the Dead, George Romero tries once again to use horror to make social commentary. The recently deceased come back to life and want nothing more than to eat the flesh of the living. Dawn makes no attempt to explain why the dead reanimate, and it makes no reference to the event ever happening before, so we must conclude that Dawn takes place in a different universe from Night of the Living Dead.
As soon as the zombies appear, the government declares martial law. The authorities determine that people cannot remain in their homes, so all citizens must move to government safe areas. Of course, getting people to leave their homes presents as much of a problem as getting rid of all the zombies. The four protagonists decide to make a run for zombie-free territory. Roger (Scott H. Reiniger) flys a TV station traffic helicopter. He invites a news anchor, Francine (Gaylen Ross) and a policeman, Stephen (Danid Emge), to join him to fly out of zombie-infested Philadelphia. Stephen brings along his fellow officer Peter (Ken Foree), and they all make their way across country looking for a good place to hide. The group decides to hide in a shopping mall. At first zombies fill the abandon mall, but by moving tractor-trailer rigs in front of the doors, they seal the mall and quickly kill the zombies left inside. Romero then devotes what feels like an hour of screen time to following the four around the mall in their uninhibited consumerism, during which, Peter dies from zombie bites received while maneuvering the trucks.
After what seems like forever, a biker gang notices the helicopter on the mall and figures out that someone has something they don't. So the gang breaks into the mall and for what seems like another hour, races around destroying the mall and the occasional zombie. Roger gets upset at someone stealing things from his mall, and starts to shoot the bikers, and for his crass possessiveness, he dies at the hands of a mob of zombies. The zombies eventually overpower all the bikers, and Peter and Francine fly away in the helicopter.
Romero could have easily left over 30 minutes of this film on the cutting room floor. Where Night of the Living Dead had some scary scenes, Dawn turns the zombies into an ineffective comic force. Sure, the humans need to avoid the zombies, but the zombies never pose a formidable threat. Blatantly, Dawn tells us that human desire for consumer goods has brought on this destruction. Night had subtle messages embedded in a horror story; Dawn has heavy-handed social commentary in a boring story.
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