Mutant Reviewers from Hell do
"Every dead body that is not exterminated becomes one of them. It gets up and kills. The people it kills get up and kill."

1978 R / Horror Comedy Directed by: George A. Romero Starring: David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger

Tagline

When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.

Summary Capsule

Four survivors of a zombie invasion shack up in a 70's mall. It's a wacky sitcom made in hell!

Mutant Meter

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DVD | Soundtrack (Score)

Justin's Rating: The End Is Near! The End Is... arrgghhhh!!!!
Justin's Review: The question begs: if zombies were rampaging your neighborhood and slaughtering everyone in sight, where would you go? If you said The Gap or Orange Julius, then you might just be one of the survivors.

"Despite being pretty safe from the zombies, our heroes keep finding reasons to venture outside and risking zombicide."

Dawn of the Dead is the sequel to the famous zombie fest Night of the Living Dead, and picks up more or less where Night left off. For some inexplicable reason — we're guessing Mexican food — the dead have returned to feast on the living. Despite being slow as hot tar rolling down a slight incline, their sheer numbers are forcing the living to run for their lives. Two members of a Philadelphia SWAT team defect with a traffic reporter and his girlfriend to a Pennsylvania shopping mall. Because... why not? The mall's a better place than any. In their own fashion, they turn this zombie-infested center into their own paradise, holing up until the nightmare passes... or old age kills them.

As a general rule, nobody takes zombies seriously. They stumble around like Happy Hour at Billie's Bunker, and the only way you're going to scare me with the image of the undead is if you kill and bring back the Spice Girls. Fortunately for us, director George Romero doesn't think zombies are all that scary either, and plugs his tongue in his cheek during the entire movie. The SWAT guys, for instance, have WAY too much fun blowing zombies away and looting the mall. Hey, it's just what we FPS addicts would do as well!

Not to say that there's not a few tense moments, because there are. Despite being pretty safe from the zombies, our heroes keep finding reasons to venture outside and risking zombicide. These scenes function to test if we can yell "No, you fools!" loudly at the TV.

Bloody, jim-dandy, and constantly full of suprises, Dawn of the Dead is easily one of the most authoritative and fun zombie movies of all time. Rent it with a friend, and have fun licking your chops and glancing sideways while watching.

Kyle's Rating: Nowhere near “scary” but indisputably a “classic”
Kyle's Review: For me, the George Romero Dead films were to the horror genre as Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was to everything else. That is, I was dying (figuratively) for a long, long time to see them all, and when I finally got around to seeing them it was like “Wait, this is it?”

"Due to personal preferences and the complex diversities of all life forms, one person’s 'masterpiece' is another person 'drink coaster'."

It goes to show you how dangerous it can be to toss around that term “classic” like it’s going out of style. It’s one thing to argue the merits of whether or not films like Dawn of the Dead or Mannequin are classics among film scholars, film students, and idiots. It’s quite another to write something up as a classic in horror film guides and articles in Fangoria, where impressionable young future Mutant Reviewers will read it and assume it’s Truth. It’s the same with other words and phrases, like “the scariest film ever!” and “nightmare-inducing terror” and “thrillingly timeless masterpiece.” You’re entitled to use them as you will, but due to personal preferences and the complex diversities of all life forms, one person’s “masterpiece” is another person “drink coaster.”

So anyway, from the forbidden horror books and magazines I had read, from listening to my horror-loving grandparents and uncles, and from examining the super-forbidden films’ covers on the rental copies in the grocery stores’ rental rooms, I was convinced that the Dead films were the coolest “worst” possible thing ever; beyond even those (stupid) Faces of Death movies my friends Andres and Troy were always talking about. It helped that my mom talked about Night of the Living Dead like it had mentally scarred her for life. She never said as much, but the way she would say “It was scary! I don’t think I made it through the whole thing!” made me realize it must’ve been horrific. My dad was like “Eh, it was okay,” which is what he says about every film he’s ever seen, so what can you do. But I was pumped. I figured when I finally got to see all three films (Night, Dawn, and Day of the Dead) it would change my life, especially since there were many people who considered Romero’s films to be so influential that they belonged on “greatest films ever” lists. As it was, anything less than soul-searing horror was going to be hugely disappointing to me.

And so it was that upon initial viewing all three dead films were hugely disappointing to me. I mean HUGELY. It’s no wonder that I soon started to champion Return of the Living Dead, which made little sense but looked fantastic (at this point in my young life, I was less concerned with subtle humor and satire and more happy with cool-looking zombies and rampant hot punk girls constantly getting fully nude. Arguably, that’s true even today).

Viewing the original Dawn with my new, refined cinematic sensibilities, I can see how it really is a masterpiece of horror. In any other genre the performances and stuff wouldn’t be up to par, especially in the “romantic comedy” world (where people would be like “the love story was kind of touching, but the zombies made it all so creepy”). But the horror genre is so marginalized and full of clunkers that the gems shine even brighter, and Dawn is a gem. It’s interesting, full of (Romero’s best) social commentary, and clearly a product of its time yet somehow timelessly relevant. Consider it through the “hey, this is a horror movie after all” prism, and the performances are exemplary, the effects are even more fantastic, and the direction is brilliantly precise.

I’m really impressed with Dawn nowadays. The remake is more appropriate viewing for the young modern horror fan, but if you want to know what you’re talking about when it comes to the zombie renaissance, Dawn won’t waste your time like some other zombie flicks will. Be prepared for more human drama than zombie massacre to be sure, but be sure that you’re getting a more quality film than you’re expecting. I doubt it will scare your pants off, but it’ll probably make you want to go to the mall to buy some more.

It's rabbit season. And Bugs B. is on the menu. "So be it, Jedi!" They didn't even have to do zombie makeup for this scene; it was actually filmed without the participant's knowledge in the opening mall hours. Suckers.

Didja Notice? [some sources: IMDb]

• The primitive arcade
• George Romero in a cameo as a TV director
• Shag carpeting. Ew.
• The evolution of their "safe room"
• The length of time it takes for an infected human to turn into a zombie
• The Hari Krishna zombie
• Tom Savini as the zombie who breaks window of truck then is shot by Roger with revolver.
• In the Extended Edition (available on both laserdisc and Anchor Bay's "Ultimate Edition"), the music that is heard when Peter and Stephen are closing the gates of the mall in an effort to keep the bikers out is taken directly from the opening credits of Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Is It Worth Staying Through End Credits?

Sure; the zombies overrun the mall throughout the course of the end credits.

Intermission! [some sources: IMDb]

Dawn was filmed in Monroeville Mall, Monroeville, PA. Night of the Living Dead was filmed near Justin's college town of Grove City, PA. What does this prove? Pennsylvania will be the first place to bite it when the zombies hit the fan. Filming at the Monroeville Mall took place during the winter of 1976-77, with a three week reprieve during the Christmas shopping season (during which other footage, e.g. the TV studio, was shot). Filming at the mall began around 10 p.m., shortly after the mall closed, and finished at 6 a.m. The mall didn't open until 9, but at 6 the Muzak came on and no one knew how to turn it off.

Some of the zombies (notably one in the tenement scene) were actual amputees.

Many effects were thought of on the spot. Tom Savini created many effects (such as the arm in the blood pressure tester) with no preparations whatsoever.

An alternative ending had the survivors commit suicide — it is debated whether this ending was filmed or not.

Dario Argento re-cut this film to fit the Italian audiences, taking out most of the humor, leaving in all the gore and titling it "Zombi" to make it more of a true Italian horror film. It was such a hit that it Italian horror master Lucio Fulci filmed a sequel, titled Zombi 2. It was released around the world as "Zombie". At the same time, director George Romero filmed his own sequel, Day of the Dead, so, in a sense, there are two sequels to this film: an Italian version and an American version.

Groovy Quotes

Francine Parker: What are they doing? Why do they come here?
Stephen: Some kind of instinct. Memory, of what they used to do. This was an important place in their lives.

Francine Parker: Spam!
Roger: You bring a can opener? Francine Parker: No, I guess I didn't.
Roger: Then don't knock it, it's got it's own key.

Peter: Something my grand-dad used to tell us. You know Mucumba? Voodoo. My grand-dad was a priest in Trinidad. He used to tell us "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth."

Dr. Foster: Every dead body that is not exterminated becomes one of them. It gets up and kills. The people it kills get up and kill.

Camera man: Go ahead and leave. We'll be off the air by midnight; the emergency networks are taking over. Our responsibility is finished.

Roger: One-stop shopping; everything you need, right at your fingertips.

Soundtrack Review

Most of us have been well-conditioned to tune 70s music out, so I don't really recall the score all that much.

If you liked this movie, try these:

• Dawn of the Dead remake
• Night of the Living Dead
• Return of the Living Dead