October 25 - Horror Feature: Dawn of the Dead (1978)

George A. Romero may have gotten his start in the zombie subgenre with Night of the Living Dead, but he carved his legacy with Dawn of the Dead. The writer/director continued his thematic and morally-conscious series of living dead films with an eye on American commercialism and excessive violence. Dawn does not directly connect to Night with characters or settings, but the dead still rise and in a much larger scale. Dawn of the Dead took more time to analyze the way the living dead represent humans in a primal and stripped-away fashion. The seemingly mindless zombies shuffle and shamble their way to the mall because their basic instincts are taking over. They only know that it is a place they want to be in their otherwise two-dimensional lives. The surviving humans in most cases show the greed and lack of empathy for others that people experience in a pressure situation where its all about themselves. When given an opportunity to blow something's brain out, they lunge at it. Most of this example is present during the beginning with the police raid on the apartment. Other hunting parties make a game of a very serious crisis that shouldn't be taken lightly, but they don't understand because nothing bad has happened to them yet.

Dawn of the Dead was graced by newcomer special effects and make-up creator Tom Savini who went on to work on films like Friday the 13th, The Burning, Day of the Dead and others. Dawn holds some of the most iconic kills and character make-up in his career such as the infamous headshot, some of the more lengthy screen-time zombies and the machete kill, not to mention the countless feeding scenes like the one in the apartment basement. Savini's time during the Vietnam War inspired his work and influenced much of his approach to the effects. Not everything looked super realistic, but, as it has been said to me before, it increased the gross-factor.

It is nice to see a Romero film with heavy gore receive critical acclaim and high box office numbers. Dawn of the Dead has been considered by many to be the greatest horror film of its time. I'd only argue in favour of Halloween in that case, but they are not necessarily comparable given their differing subject matter and themes.

When there's no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth. So, before that happens, check out Romero's 1978 classic Dawn of the Dead!