Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead was quite rightly a classic before Dawn was released in 1978 and is the granddaddy of almost every subsequent zombie movie. Working with a bigger budget (although still small when compared to the Hollywood) Romero gave the world Dawn of The Dead and in doing so created arguably the greatest horror movie of all time. The scale of the movie was expanded over Night but it still presented an intimate struggle for survival against the flesh hungry hordes. The satirical undercurrent which ridiculed the creeping pervasion of consumerism gave the movie a more adult theme but there are moments of black humour and even slapstick in there too for the popcorn brigade.

The plot is a simple one; our four protagonists, Steven, Fran, Roger and Peter are brought together by fate and decide to escape the zombie madness engulfing the major cities of the U.S. In a stolen traffic reporting helicopter the four seek sanctuary in a giant shopping mall which has been overrun by the undead and try to create the semblance of a normal existence. In a service building above the shop floors the four create a living area with goods plundered from various stores throughout the mall and stock up on weapons and ammunition from a gun store.

All is well, until, during a mission to block the entrances to the Mall with delivery trucks, Roger is bitten by a zombie. There is no cure from the resulting infection and Peter states that he’s seen nobody bitten last more than three days. While Roger is still capable the three guys embark on a hunt to clear the mall of zombies, disposing of the bodies in the mall’s freezers before they rot.

Roger’s infection begins to transform him as the virus takes over his body and while bed ridden pleads with Peter to make sure he ends his life before he becomes one of the undead. At the moment of his turning we hear a gunshot and a look of horror on Steven and Fran’s faces as Peter spares his friend from his zombie fate.

The three remaining survivors lead a tense life from here on in with Peter in between Steven and Fran’s squabbling but the arrival of a biker gang on a looting spree of the mall leads to a life and death struggle. Not only is the mall overrun with Hell’s Angels but the mass of undead returns and our heroes desperately try to defend the mall from both of the intruders. Steven is injured after being shot and left for dead by bikers and is then attacked by zombies who turn him into one of walking dead. Steven’s memory remains and he leads a group of zombies to the upper reaches of the mall to where Fran is hiding and just as she is about to be munched on Peter returns to destroy him. After thoughts of ending it all Peter and Fran escape in the helicopter which she has learned to fly, heading off into the rising sun.

I can vividly remember thinking to myself way back as a twelve year old that this movie was the greatest movie I’d ever seen up to that point. It even made we wish for a real zombie apocalypse so I could embark on similar adventures! The pace of the film, the editing, the music (courtesy of the awesome Italian Prog Rock masters Goblin) and especially the splatter effects by the Sultan of Splatter Tom Savini all combined to make a horror film to beat everything that had gone before it. I’ve watched the film countless times in all of its various cuts, my favourite cut being the extended director’s cut although Dario Argento’s European cut is rather good too, but I never tire of watching it. Call me a nerd, but I’ve even travelled from the UK to a little town outside of Pittsburgh where the Monroeville Mall is situated just to take a wander around a imagine where my fave scenes were filmed!

In my opinion, Romero hasn’t bettered this movie in anything he’s created since and I’m sure I’m not the only one to believe that. It’s influence can be seen in so many horror films and even has the fantastic homage in Shaun of the Dead.

If you haven’t seen Dawn of The Dead then put it on your must see list and watch it soon. It has dated in terms of the fashion and haircuts but don’t let its age put you off, this is as good a horror film as you can expect even 35 years on.

Splatter Score

Gore 8/10

Shocks 5/10

Overall 10/10