Dawn of the Dead
Dir: George A. Romero.
Starring Gaylen Ross, Ken Foree, David Emge & Scott H. Reiniger. 1978
George A. Romero returned to the familiar shambling grounds
of his groundbreaking Night of the Living
Dead (1968) with a more openly satirical, day-glo splatter fest. The hype
when Dawn of the Dead was released was
astounding. A full-page ad in Rolling
Stone magazine promised: “There is no
explicit sex in this picture. However, there are scenes of violence which may
be considered shocking.” And at the time, boy, were they! Unfortunately,
the under-age me saw the cut Canadian version at my local theatre. Images in
the first issue of Fangoria, however,
let me know what I was missing. Seen uncut, Tom Savini’s effects give guts to
the film’s plot, which, by now, is the stuff of legend: Zombie plague survivors
take sanctuary in an abandoned shopping mall where the dead return out of
mindless habit. Obviously, Romero was giving us the last word in consumerism,
but he had even more on his politically-oriented mind. Romero frequently anchors his films with strong female and African-American characters, as evidenced in this, the ultimate zombie flick.
