Dawn of the Dead (1978)

[Colin Droidmilk]

The reason Dawn is ingenious for me is down to the mall setting. It's what makes it such a subversive movie: the grim joke is we're ALL friggin' zombies wandering in a stupor round a bleak consumer-wasteland...

 

[Wes R]

I wish Romero's new movies were this good. He's gone from social commentary to just rather generic.

 

[ralphee]

I only watched this the other night, its one my top ten list anyhoo, there hasnt been a Zombie flick to compare for me, its old, and cheesy sure, but as most have said, the mall setting makes it.
The remake, meh, forgettable for me, most of the cast annoy, and the bus scene, i just hate that bus escape scene.

"We got this man, we got this by the ass"

lee

 

[Vivek]

Dawn of the Dead is my favourite zombie film and it irks me that most of the modern audience who are now embracing zombies have only been exposed to them through The Walking Dead and nothing beyond it.

Romero's first three zombie films especially DOTD is essential viewing, along with The Last Man on Earth (though it didn't exactly have zombies it inspired Romero's Night of The Living Dead).

 

[Wes R]

Modern zombie movies tend to be nothing but slasher porn, it's all gore and no story. Sadly Romero's newer stuff borders on this when he could still be doing social commentary.

 

[Trenton]

I got a pic of the 4 main cast in a action pose, and they all signed it. While I felt odd having Tom sign a pic he wasn't in, he is a cool guy to say the least. However, Ken wasn't really that conversive at the con, it was sign, and move on.

Sad to hear you didn't have a great experience with Ken, probably was just a bad day.
I've had the pleasure of meeting him a handful of times and he laughed and chatted for about a half hour or more each time with me and my family.
Never got to meet the rest of the cast though. Dawn is such a great film but Day has always been my favorite and had great times meeting the whole cast from Day , Savini and Romero included.

Does anyone else play the music and mall announcements from Dawn in their head whenever you are at a mall shopping. Or is it just me.

 

[MooCriket]

Classic, and still one of the best. Whenever I see a blood pressure machine I think of this film to this day. Man, that biker scene was just awful in such a gross cool way.

http://thesixthstation.wordpress.co...-dawn-of-the-dead-the-blood-pressure-monitor/

 

[Werstrooper]

Such a great film, only one film that beats it though, that's Day of the Dead.

The issues tackled in Day are pretty intense, the social commentry is amazing and the dialogue scene with John gives me goosebumps everytime.

And then there's Rhodes, could you imagine being locked underground with that nutcase?

Also have a soft spot for Dr Frankinstien, love the scene when you meet his labrat zombies thats have been butchered!


Have any of you guys read the original script for Day of the Dead? it's pretty much follows the storyline of Land of the Dead but producers made Romero rewrite it. Still a good read though.

 

[chris3789]

In my humble opinion, the original Dawn Of The Dead is the Zombie movie. I remember when video rentals first started in the UK and there was no ratings on home video at that time, there were two Zombie movies which stood out. Dawn and Flesh-Eaters. Dawn Of The Dead won by a country mile and is the benchmark for Zombie-ism.
As far as I'm concerned, dead people shouldn't be able to run. Period. Stumbling rigour-ridden masses are what it's all about.
My wife is not a fan of the genre and I've explained that with Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolf-Man and all other 'Monters' from the movies, it all about the monster. With Zombie films it's all about the survival. Millions and millions of the undead, slow moving, almost unstoppable, social collapse is what it's all about. Not the sprinting scrampling mass that's going to be upon us next year with Brad Pitt's debacle of an adaptation of Max Brook's brilliant World War Z.
Read The Zombie Survival Guide and then watch the original and best Dawn Of The Dead. Although decades apart, they are perfect bedfellows.

 

[ob1al]

I agree. The original DAWN is by far the best Zombie film. I like DAY too, but it isn't quite as good in my opinion.

Another thing about the remake and it's 'reinvention' of Zombie lore - I might be wrong here, but in the original Romero Zombieverse, everyone had the disease already. If you were bitten, you just became a zombie faster. Same as 'The Walking Dead'.

In the remake, unless you are bitten you don't become a zombie.

Is that correct?

 

[darthgordon]

Nope. In Romero's movies, at least in Night, it was explained as the result from radiation from a probe sent to Venus, and returning to earth. The probe was destroyed before making it back, but the unknown radiation still fell back to the planet.

 

[Kerr Avon]

Another thing about the remake and it's 'reinvention' of Zombie lore - I might be wrong here, but in the original Romero Zombieverse, everyone had the disease already. If you were bitten, you just became a zombie faster. Same as 'The Walking Dead'.

In the remake, unless you are bitten you don't become a zombie.

Is that correct?

The first movie is ambiguous. They don't know what causes the zombies. The little girl in the basement dies, but it could have been due to blood loss, and then becomes a zombie. Or it could be that the bite wasn't itself fatal, but whatever causes the zombification caused her to die and become a zombie.

The remake of Night with Patricia Tallman is a little more straight forward. Ben is shot, has no bites, and dies and becomes a zombie later.

 

[Kerr Avon]

Nope. In Romero's movies, at least in Night, it was explained as the result from radiation from a probe sent to Venus, and returning to earth. The probe was destroyed before making it back, but the unknown radiation still fell back to the planet.

Nope. That was a theory by a talking head scientist on the TV, but they said they really didn't know what caused the zombies. No definitive proof either way.

 

[darthgordon]

I'm not sure if you like to argue with me or just prefer that zombies come without knowing the cause. Either way, believe what you want. It was purposely left up to interpretation.

 

[Kerr Avon]

Exactly, left up for interpretation, ambiguous. Not a definitive statement. I like zombie flicks of all type, but Romero always kept his ambiguous because it didn't matter what caused them. He wasn't creating a film where the cause could be stopped, or even matter, he was creating a film where people had to adapt to a change in the world they couldn't understand or prevent. Seeing what the response was to all of that was Romero's intent.

 

[ob1al]

I'm fairly sure I'm right about everyone becoming a zombie in Romero's films - not just those who are bitten.

If not, how come the dead come to life in the original 'Night'? They couldn't ALL have been bitten?

Also, I'm sure there is some dialogue to support that view. I'm darned if I can remember which film it's in though. Maybe 'Land'?

 

[ob1al]

Here you go:

Romero zombies - Zombie Wiki - Zombies, Undead, Survival Guide

In Romero's Dead series, any human being who dies after the onset of the zombie apocalypse can and will reanimate shortly after death, excluding those who died by massive brain trauma (such as a gunshot wound to the head) or had their brain incapacitated post-mortem. Being bitten by a zombie is not a prerequisite for returning to life, as any deceased human, regardless of exposure to a zombie, will return. No Romero film has definitively revealed the cause of reanimation, but several have featured characters speculating on possible causes, including radiation from a NASA probe, divine intervention, and viral infection. The length of time between death and reanimation seems to vary, but generally is only a few minutes.

If a character is bitten by a zombie, they will become violently ill and die within three days. The interim till death seems to be dependent on the location and degree of the bite (meaning that bites on or near major arteries or veins will spread the infection much faster than small bites or scratches). Multiple bite wounds will cause the infection to spread all the faster. Also, massive blood loss caused by one of these bites will speed the death of the victim.

In Day of the Dead a limb is amputated and cauterised in an attempt to stop the infection. The efficiency of this treatment is not revealed, as the character dies of other causes before the infection would have taken effect.

 

[Kerr Avon]

Well the first zombie was a guy stumbling through the cemetery, the 'they're coming to get you Barbara' one. He had no visible injuries. So it didn't seem to be just bites causing them.

 

[ob1al]

The cause is ambiguous, the effect is fairly clear. Everyone who dies becomes a zombie after the apocalypse strikes.

 

[Kerr Avon]

And while that's likely the case, the two kids who were in the truck that cause fire were certainly not completely destroyed, but they didn't come out as crispy crunchy zombies either. So there were some inconsistencies too.