Dawn of the Dead(1978). A fun, blood splattered masterpiece
I’ve owned many copies of my favourite movie Dawn of the Dead(1978) from late night video tape recordings and DVD’s to my eventual holy grail of Dawn of the Dead ownership, the 4K second sight copy, which might I add is glorious.
I digress, yes I’ve owned many copies simply because I cannot and will never let it go. It’s the film I come back to time and time again. Why? I really have no idea, but I knew the first time I watched it on a dingy old VHS player that this was my favourite movie of all time. This year it’s 45 years old, or 45 years young depending on how you want to look at it. And I can tell you that it’s still holds up today as one of the greatest, if not the greatest zombie movies of all time and yes in my opinion one of the greats of all time.
The film is a sequel to George Romero’s Night of the living Dead and follows four survivors of a zombie apocalypse seeking shelter in an abandoned shopping mall crawling with the undead. As the survivors each succumb to the powers of this facade they’ve built themselves in the mall, the pale faced zombies await outside to reclaim their home.
The sight of confused hordes of the undead aimlessly waltzing around a shopping mall, stumbling up escalators and having pies thrown in their faces is magnificent.
By today’s standards these slow ponderous zombies would seem old hat, modern zombie flicks we are greeted to features zippy super sprinters. Yet there’s something about the zombies in Romero’s movies. They have character, soul and a sense of time and place about them. They aren’t just mindless CGI generated hordes that look like ants clamouring over one another. They seem like once they were human beings.
It’s this idea that really stands Dawn of the Dead above all others. Instead of throwing gazillions of zombies onto the screen, the dead here are sympathetic and at times alot more civilised than their human prey.
There’s a point in the movie where a television host and his guest are discussing the events that have transpired, and the zombies are referred to as ‘Pure motorised instinct’.
They aren’t evil, they aren’t monsters, they just aren’t who they were anymore, overridden by a virus that turns them on their families and their friends without judgment or pre meditation, they just are.
It’s the humans in the movie that bear the weight of morality, even after our four main protagonists Peter, Fran, Steven and Roger eliminate every zombie in the shopping mall they inhabit to make their own, there’s a sense of unjustness about it.
No character is elated by the fact they have just killed dozens and dozens of zombies, they are sombre and reflective. Very aware that they may not be the good guys, aware that this is truly the end and when they do have the mall to themselves, eventually even this can’t satiate the longing for normality.
Romero’s direction is wonderful, even though the themes of rampant consumerism are right there in the thick of it, it never feels like were being bludgeoned by them. He lines the edges of the movie with a deep rooted cynicism whilst revelling in the absurdity of it all.
The characters will the desire of their own utopia into existence and when they finally have it, they push against it. Each understanding that this isn’t living still, it’s merely survival, the mall a friendly reminder of a world they once knew.
The zombies themselves are reflections of these ideas, Fran asks ‘Why do they come here?’ Steven replies ‘Some memory, of the things they used to do, this was an important place in their lives’. And to an extent our leads do this exact thing, retreat into a world they believe they can control. A safety net in a society gone mad.
As a pre teen youngster who was way too young to be watching it, these themes weren’t apparent or visible to me. Yet as I have grown older these ideas have become more and more relevant in and age of not just rampant consumerism, but mindless consumerism.
Shopping to escape, shopping with no logic or reason, shopping to make us happy to replace the great burdens we have in our minds, whilst ignoring the things we set aside.
The media in this movie, particularly television news networks are portrayed as idiots, much like today, scrambling still for viewership and ratings, mumbling and panicking through broadcasts as chaos evolves all around them.
And eventually even they succumb to the inevitable, later on in the movie we see there are no more broadcasts, no more talking heads with opinions and half baked solutions, instead replaced by a vacuum of silence.
The performances are spot on in this film too. Peter(Ken Foree) is the heroic centre, a member of a swat team thrust into the apocalypse. He even gets to wear cowboy holsters and swinging 6 shooters. Yet his character too becomes victim to the mall, realising quickly that all is lost and that this place really doesn’t matter.
Roger (Scott H Reineger) also a swat team member opposite Peter is the joker. The comedic relief, yet fairly early on his demeanour changes, and his cavalier attitude to the doom at large has devastating consequences as he is bit and turns into a zombie. Even in his turning he gives a superb snippet of a performance. His zombie awakens, confused, not fully sure of what he is, then when he sees human prey his instinct takes over as Peter pulls the trigger on his friend, it’s then as an audience we realise this mall fairytale is truly become a nightmare.
Then there is the married couple of Steven and Fran, Steven(David Emge) wants to be the hero, he wants to save Fran and to be the main man. Yet he proves incompetent and rash and utterly selfish in the end. His delusion of normality in this place becomes his downfall, as he seeks to recreate the idyllic suburban life he craves, yet ultimately in this world its doomed. And by the end he becomes just another victim of his own entitlement. His zombie transformation towards the film’s close truly must be considered as the greatest of all time.
And then there is his wife Fran(Gaylen Ross), who is the heart and the brains of the movie. She is the person looking in and saying, what the fuck are we doing here? What have we become? Initially she seems like the typical 70’s ‘damsel in distress’. Yet as the film grows, as does Fran, instead she becomes the strength of the group, the most human of them all, finding her strength amongst these men who all falter and fall in their own apathy. In a documentary about the movie I saw some years ago, actress Gaylen Ross spoke of her own struggles with her performance, not wanting just to be another scream queen, but rightfully a part of the story. It’s testament to Romero that he gave freedom to his actors and let Gaylen fly, her growth and strength as the movie moves on is what ultimately saves the character from being another cookie cutter copy of its time.
And how to mention Dawn of the Dead without mentioning the great make up artist Tom Savini. The film at times may look dated and some effects cheap in comparison to his later efforts in subsequent movies after, without him though the carnage wouldn’t of been possible.
100s of zombies churned out daily by Savini and his crew at breakneck speed to keep up with production only adds to the sense of awe. Each zombie given chance and license to create their own unique spin on their undead portrayals. Heads are exploded, lopped off, guts ripped from bellies and bullets rip through tissue like steel thorough butter. It’s deliciously juicy and extremely violent, yet the violence is such that it feels almost a parody.
The violence is never malevolent, never nasty or wincing, instead it’s over the top to such a degree that you can’t help but laugh at it. This comes back to Romero, who guides the movie with flair and panache. Given the biggest budget of his career at the time, the purse strings are loosened and Romero and his crew expunge every last ounce and make it count.
The action sequences are tightly edited, quick cuts and tracking shots stick you in the action in a quasi documentary style that never feels out of place. Cinematographer Micheal Gornick strapping the camera to his shoulders and getting stuck in as blood and guts spew from lens to screen.
The musical score fronted by Italian prog rock group Goblin is suitably weird and only adds to the drama, as strange waves of synth like wahs and woos bubble in the background. And who could forget the accompanying sound of corny library music that litters the mall, humourously juxtaposing the insanity and bloodshed.
Dawn of the Dead really is a masterpiece, a blood soaked epic featuring hordes of colourful zombies, an eccentric cast of main characters, a director and crew having an absolute ball and a fucking action sequence involving a group of lawless bikers rampaging through the shopping mall at the end.
It’s batshit crazy, but it’s my kind of batshit crazy and if you ever get the chance give this classic a go, you won’t regret it.
