Original: Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Director: George A. Romero
Writer: George A. Romero
Genre: Drama/Horror/Thriller

Story

The long awaited sequel to Night of the Living Dead starts after the events of the first film. In Dawn of the Dead, everyone is already in mass panic and the zombies are slowly taking over as they claim more and more victims. A small group of people decide to go away in a helicopter to see if they can find any place that is not already overrun by zombies. When they find a mall they decide to check it out and see if they can get some supplies and food. They soon realize they could stay at the mall for a long time and since they only have so much fuel for the helicopter it doesn’t seem like a bad idea. Now they have to reclaim the mall from the zombies and try to wait it out.


Everything Else

Dawn of the Dead seems like much more of a comedy than Night of the Living Dead did, but it still has the flesh eating zombies and complete mayhem. The zombies return in greater number and with more gore in Dawn of the Dead. With the color film though, the makeup of the zombies does not seem as frightening as in Night. In fact, the makeup looks quite funny. The gore is taken up a level with more flesh eating and head explosions, which is always a good thing in a zombie flick.


The story is similar to the first film in a way; people seek shelter somewhere and try to wait it out or get more gas to get somewhere safe. The only difference is that there is a helicopter instead of a truck and a mall instead of a house. The zombies are still slow moving and as stupid as can be which is why it is even funnier when people get killed. Now the characters are supposed to know what is going on so they don’t have the excuse of surprise. They only have the problem of being careless. As long as they are careful the zombies can’t really get them.


The acting in Dawn is more involved than in Night, but still nothing to be excited about. The character development leaves a lot to be desired. Let’s face it though, the point is not to have a believable story or great acting; it is to have as much gore and crazy zombie mayhem as possible while being set in an interesting environment. Dawn of the Dead delivers on these two essential components to a great zombie film.

The Real Deal

I liked the original Dawn of the Dead, but I saw it after seeing the remake so I can’t help but wonder if I would have liked the original better if I had seen it first. There are big differences in the two though so they can be taken as completely separate movies with the same basic principal; people holding out in a mall to stay away from the zombies. I always find “horror” movies to be the funniest movies, so it was not a problem that Dawn was a little funnier than Night. There was added gore and zombies and the mall was a great location for the movie to be filmed in. Most people probably say Dawn of the Dead was a better film than Night of the Living Dead, but it is hard say. It really depends on what you are looking for. Night was obviously more original and the black and white picture gives it an eerie advantage for actual horror, but Dawn takes the franchise to a new level of excitement with the shopping mall and more zombies.


The Short Version

Raw Score: 791,144
Sharon Movie? No

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