Dawn of the Dead
Continued on the Zombie Theme That Romero Created.
Dawn of the Dead
picks up where
Night of the Living Dead
left off and provided much-needed guidance to the developing zombie
genre. Not all fans of the zombie horror movie genre are
“sick
and twisted freaks”…but it helps.
Review byThe Zombie Master Lee
Roberts August 25, 2006
Release:
1978 Written and Directed by:
George A. Romero
Starring: Scott Reiniger as Roger Ken
Foree as Peter Gaylen Ross as Fran David
Emge as Stephen
Anybody who knows me knows that I am a fan of zombies. Some might even
say that I have been a zombie fan forever.
But alas, it was not always that way. I started my journey into
freakdom with slasher films. Then, many years ago a friend introduced
me to a film that would change my life. I no longer would be considered
just a freak but now “sick and twisted” would be
added to
my personal description. The legend of The Zombie Master would have its
humble beginnings in one of the most famous horror taglines;
“When
there’s
no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.”
Dawn of the Dead
continues the story that was started in Night of the Living
Dead.
The dead are returning to life and feasting on the living. The opening
scene takes place in a television studio where we are given an idea of
the panic and confusion that is facing the public during this crisis.
Here is where we meet Stephen (David Emge), a helicopter pilot, and his
girlfriend Fran (Gaylen Ross). Both are employees at the television
station. Stephen has decided to leave the station and informs Fran that
she needs to meet him on the rooftop.
Switch scenes to a
S.W.A.T. team preparing
to storm a housing project
where the tenants have refused to kill their family members that have
become zombies. It is here that we meet Roger (Scott Reiniger) and
Peter (Ken Foree), two S.W.A.T. members who have had enough of the
housing project zombie mission and want out. Roger happens to be
friends with helicopter pilot Stephen and plans to join the flight out
of town. He invites Peter to leave with the rest of them.
On the
trip north, our four “heroes” discover a mall where
they decide to land and try to find some supplies. Instead, they find a
place that has everything that they could ever need
or want at there fingertips. The only problem is that the mall is
infested with zombies. They proceed to block off the mall doors with
tractor trailers from outside, and kill off the zombies that are inside
until the mall is empty. It is during this time that Roger is bitten,
and we discover Fran is pregnant. Roger eventually succumbs to the
disease, forcing Peter to dispose of him.
During the following months life becomes pretty much routine until our
heroes’ presence is discovered by a band of bikers
turned looters
that have survived by staying on the move. The bikers also see the mall
as a veritable gold mine but they plan on taking - not sharing.
As the bikers bust
into the mall, they of
course let the zombies back
in and what ensues is mass confusion that leads to the destruction of
everything that our heroes had tried to keep for themselves.
Dawn of the Dead not only shows us the genius that
is George
Romero, again taking on the role of writer, director, and editor, but
it also shows us the genius of one Tom Savini. The make-up and FX work
he did for Dawn of the Dead made Savini a household
name among the fans of independent horror and made Romero’s
vision come to life.
Dawn
of the Dead single handedly put the zombie genre of film back
on course and directly led to the success of future gems such as Zombi
2, Return of the Living Dead,
and a continuously growing list of zombie films that can trace there
influence back to this quintessential tale about the overall failure
and eventual destruction of structured society.
Oh yeah, there happens to be some really cool zombie gore
(i.e. head shots, bodies ripped in half, etc.) that seems to give
everything much more meaning.
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On the
trip north, our four “heroes” discover a mall where
they decide to land and try to find some supplies. Instead, they find a
place that has everything that they could ever need
or want at there fingertips. The only problem is that the mall is
infested with zombies. They proceed to block off the mall doors with
tractor trailers from outside, and kill off the zombies that are inside
until the mall is empty. It is during this time that Roger is bitten,
and we discover Fran is pregnant. Roger eventually succumbs to the
disease, forcing Peter to dispose of him.
Dawn
of the Dead single handedly put the zombie genre of film back
on course and directly led to the success of future gems such as Zombi
2, Return of the Living Dead,
and a continuously growing list of zombie films that can trace there
influence back to this quintessential tale about the overall failure
and eventual destruction of structured society. 
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Technorati
Y!
MyWeb