Dawn of the Dead (1978)

George A. Romero – the godfather, veteran director of zombie films. Starting back in 1968, when he released ‘Night of the Living Dead’, when at that time, zombie films were rare, but I like to believe that George Romero wanted to make these films to show the horror of what could happen during a zombie apocalypse and to terrify the cinema public. But in 1978, ten years later, now this is my own opinion to horror fans, Romero released what I believe to be his best zombie film, if not ‘the best’ zombie classic ever made ‘Dawn of the Dead’, supposedly a sequel to ‘Night of the Living Dead’, where things have escalated and grown out of control, showing humanity on the brink of society collapse as the zombie pandemic has spread across the country, and 4 survivors hold up in a shopping mall. But ‘Dawn of the Dead’ introduced the cinema public to the realisation that zombies wouldn’t be the only problem that survivors would have to face, but reckless non-friendly looters. I want horror fans to realise why ‘Dawn of the Dead’ is one of the best horror/zombie films is the climax when our characters who have held up in the shopping mall for some time, have to defend themselves from a large looting gang of bikers as they force their way into the mall, allowing the living dead into the characters sanctuary.

At the start, Philadelphia is in a state of panic as the dead have risen and began attacking humans and humans turning into the living dead. We have our four main characters: Helicopter traffic report pilot Stephen (David Emge), his television executive girlfriend Francine (Gaylen Ross), who abandon their workplace with the helicopter, just to survive. The other two characters – S.W.A.T team members Roger (Scott Reiniger), and Peter (Ken Foree) who leave their separate teams, as they travel to meet up with Stephen and Fran, as they escape Philadelphia. Next morning, we learn that the zombie outbreak has spread across the country when Roger says “Jesus, it’s everywhere”. They barely escape from an abandoned airfield when they stop to refuel. The next day, they come across an abandoned shopping mall, where they decide to hold up for a while, making use of their new surroundings, all the while listening and watching to radio and television broadcasts as the situation worsens, solutions are offered by government officials but are useless. Fran is revealed to be pregnant, considering to move somewhere else, they decide that staying in the mall will improve their chances of survival, as they have everything they need the mall can provide.

The 4 survivors plan on blocking the entrances with trucks, but in the process, Roger is bitten after becoming too reckless. The next risky plan is to lock all the main doors so no more of the living dead can enter the mall. They are fully stocked up on ammunition (thanks to a gun store in the mall, having everything they will need). The plan is too risky if they run around trying to lock the main doors on foot, as Fran decides that using a displayed car will finish their job much quicker.

Once all the main doors are locked, Peter and Stephen proceed on a zombie hunt to eliminate all the zombies remaining in the mall. They build a ‘false wall’ to block the access to their new living quarters (not wanting anyone to know it exists, should any patrols/looters come across the mall).  Now they have the whole place to themselves, they try to make do with acting normally, like shopping for new clothes, buying food and drink, trying out the entertainment facilities etc. Roger’s health deteriorates as he starts to succumb to the infection from the wound he suffered.

Roger reanimates but is shot in the head by Peter. Stephen tries to propose to Fran, but given the current situation, Fran turns the offer down. Weeks pass by, and all radio transmissions and television emergency broadcasts have ceased (implying that society has completely collapsed). Should anything happen to Stephen (the only one who can fly the helicopter, should they need to make a quick getaway) Fran takes helicopter flying lessons from Stephen (completely unaware that from afar, they are being watched by two bikers who have spied on them with binoculars, as they plan to raid the mall that very night). Peter, Stephen and Fran listen to a radio transmission from the bikers who are obviously not friendly and know of the survivors holding up in the mall. Peter and Stephen rush to the roof, and discover that the biker gang is bigger than they expected as they approach. Faced with the realisation that they will break into the mall (despite the mall’s parking lot completely overrun by the living dead in the hundreds, it’s obviously the biker gang has survived all the way throughout the zombie apocalypse and will break. Peter and Stephen lock down all the gates and intend to confuse the raiding bikers that they have left. They break in, allowing hundreds of the undead inside, Peter orders Stephen not to engage, but after having become too consumed by the mall, Stephen starts a gun fight, which forces Peter to reveal himself as he tries to help Stephen fight off both zombies and the invaders. Stephen is severely wounded, as Peter tries to make his way to Stephen who is in the elevator.

The zombies find Stephen first and he is severely bitten several times, he later dies, but reanimates. The bikers leave after losing several of their numbers. Peter makes his way back to Fran, as they wait for Stephen (unaware that he has been reanimated as a zombie, and still bares the knowledge of the ‘false wall’ that protects the survivors’ hideout). The reanimated Stephen and a large group of zombies destroy the false wall as they make their way up to the hideout. Peter doesn’t hesitate to kill the reanimated Stephen (to spare him wondering around as a zombie). Peter orders Fran to escape in the helicopter, as he locks himself in a room and contemplates suicide. Just as zombies break in, Peter makes a last minute decision as he decides he wants to live. He fights his way up to the roof and re-joins with Fran. With very little fuel left, Fran and Peter fly away just as the dawn arrives.

I can highly recommend ‘Dawn of the Dead’ to horror fans, as its old horror classic that is still considered the best of George Romero’s zombie films. The characters have interesting developments as the film progresses.David Emge’s character – Stephen, isn’t the typical hero and boyfriend during a zombie apocalypse. For example, he tries to prove himself to Fran by taking out zombies with his weapon, he’s not even a good shot as he misses and can’t seem to aim for the head, resulting in Roger stepping and finishing off the zombies for him, leaving him disappointed. Stephen also tries to prove himself as being protective, when I mean protective, I mean he unwittingly takes Fran’s only mean of protection when he decides to follow Peter and Roger when they have already started investigating the mall. Seriously, he leaves Fran alone! Without a gun! And almost is responsible for her death when a zombie discovers Fran’s location, but the men return just in time. Plus later on, he tries to propose to Fran but she turns him down (proposing to the girlfriend during a zombie apocalypse a good idea? Not the best time). Plus he ignores Peter’s order to avoid engaging the bikers when they break into the mall near the end, seriously what the **** he just goes ahead and starts shooting! LOL. If only he followed Peter’s order, he could have avoided been wounded, avoided been bitten by zombies and could have escaped with Fran and Peter.

Scott Reiniger’s character – Roger, Stephen’s friend, escapes with him, Fran, and Peter. Roger comes across as a survivalist, using his skills as a former S.W.A.T team member along with Peter, he uses his firearms skills to dispatch off any zombies that get too close. Later on, Roger becomes too well adapted to the current situation, Roger’s own recklessness leads him to being bitten and infected. Roger still does his best to help his friends’ right up to the point when he starts to succumb to the infection. He reanimates but Peter shoots him to spare him a life of death.

Ken Foree’s character – Peter, another S.W.A.T team member alongside Roger, comes across as a strong character who accepts the way things are. I like how Ken Foree’s character is portrayed as a great strategist and thinker – when he comes up with the idea of putting up a fake wall that will block the entrance to the stairway that leads up to their hideout, in the event should looters raid the mall, they won’t know the stairway up to the hideout even exists. His strategist traits when he knows best not to respond to the biker gang’s radio broadcast, knowing it could lead to his, Stephen’s and Fran’s deaths should the bikers discover them. Despite ordering Stephen to avoid starting a gun battle with the biker gang, he has no choice but to do so himself, managing to pick off several bikers before they retreat. Now, this is what I believe is Peter’s best moment, to which I consider Peter my favourite character from Dawn of the Dead. The scene is where he tells Fran to go up to the roof on her own, as he decides he doesn’t want to live. He locks himself up in a room, to which the zombies enter, while he has a gun pressed to his head. The best moment is when Peter makes a last minute decision as he decides that he indeed wants to live. This is followed by heroic type music when Peter fights his way through to the Fran to re-join Fran in the helicopter, as they both head off to an uncertain future.

I want to get across to horror fans why they should watch the Dawn of the Dead 1978 original, instead of the shameful, yes I am going to describe the Dawn of the Dead remake from 2004, as shameful and just awful LOL. The beginning of the 1978 original is one of the best ive seen in zombie films, as the opening scene is set inside a television studio where everyone is going crazy and have already started abandoning their duties just to survive. What is also worth considering while watching the first few minutes of the opening is how it shows that Society has already started to collapse as society is being bombarded, yes ‘bombarded’ by an uncontrollable zombie pandemic where the walking dead are multiplying too rapidly. Secondly – Dawn of the Dead is one of the very few zombie films in personally like due to a particular scene where gun happy hunters are out in the countryside, socialising well with armed forces and police personal, smoking and drinking, having a good laugh all the while picking off zombies who are pretty spread out in very few numbers, in open country, whereas cities are overrun. Thirdly – the film itself focuses on just the 4 characters – Peter, Roger, Fran and Stephen, which is good as it’s not a very large group, like what we see in the resident evil films, we get more focus on just 4 characters. Fourthly – the ending, my all-time favourite part from throughout the whole film, that I can guarantee will be every horror fans favourite part, with the addition of heroic type music when Peter decides he wants to live as he fights through zombies to re-join Fran on the roof and escape.

To be quite frank and I am going to be quite honest with horror fans, there’s actually not that much bad to talk about the original Dawn of the Dead. The only bad things about it are some of the characters qualities. For example instead of the toughened up boyfriend that Stephen should be to Fran (and obviously his unborn child) as Fran is pregnant, he isn’t a good shot when it comes to taking out zombies with firearms, and he practically leaves his girlfriend alone, without a gun, as a zombie finds her, but Stephen and the others arrive in time just as it’s about to attack her. This is including About Fran, I mean, she just stands frozen when Stephen is attacked by a zombie during the airfield scene. Seriously, she just stands there and doesn’t run or help Stephen! Bad character quality. Oh yes, Roger’s recklessness that leads to him getting bitten, not properly adapting well to the current situation the survivors are in.

Ok, enough of talking about bad character qualities, lets delve right into how comedy works into Dawn of the Dead. Because, let’s admit it, there some comical moments that are seen as funny. Firstly – one of Roger’s best zombie kills as he kicks it in the face before taking his time to take out his handgun and shoot it in the head. Secondly – a later scene when Roger, Stephen, and Peter, are behind one of the mall’s locked doors as they cause enough noise to attract a large group of the walking dead that can’t get to them through the glass LOL. Thirdly – Roger fooling around when they decide to use trucks from a nearby warehouse to block the mall’s entrances from the outside, he gets a bit cocky as he gets out of the truck, knocks zombies over, and punches one right in the face, before he starts laughing as he has already become reckless LOL.

To conclude my review of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, is how well the film fits well into the horror genre. As the title suggests, the main theme used in Dawn of The Dead is based on the ‘zombie apocalypse’ theme. We have interesting urban environments, like the city of Philadelphia. As we know large cities are common in horror films. I personally like how certain locations often used in horror films that are used in Dawn of the Dead are: countryside (even the scene with the abandoned airfield can cause a few jump scares as despite there been very few zombies about, it’s just as dangerous as when they were in Philadelphia. Shopping malls are really interesting in horror films, like Dawn of the Dead, as the vast majority of the film has the 4 survivors hold up in an abandoned shopping mall right up till the very end of the film. The location is very large, and what makes a shopping mall a creepy location for a horror film, are the corners that lead to long corridors where something not human and not friendly could be hiding wait to catch an unsuspecting person off-guard, which adds suspense and jump scares. We have Close-Up and Extreme-Close-Up shots of zombies and their victims, that helps the audience identify with horror and fear which is good for a horror film. Dark colours like red is used a lot, yes, as it’s a horror/zombie film, expect a lot of violence and gore when zombies devour their victims. Specific props are identified with certain characters, like firearms carried around by the survivors and using them when necessary. A lot of weaponry is used in Dawn of the Dead, being a zombie film of course. The iconography of the zombies help to connote extreme fear, disgust and terror, as they can only be destroyed by means of destroying the brain or removing the head. The terror is when they gather in large numbers and surround people, displaying fear. Unlike most horror films, where most narrative structures leave room for a sequel. Dawn of the Dead is one of them, as we have a classic narrative structure which can be left for closure, or maybe perhaps leaves room for a sequel that would enable a franchise, that would hopefully explain what happened to Peter and Fran. This I was hoping for when viewing George Romero’s Day of the Dead which was released back in 1985, all it does is introduce new characters and that zombie pandemic has grown to an even larger scale that has spread out across the whole world. We never find out what happened to peter and Fran, and that pisses me off LOL.