Dawn of the Dead

Written and Directed by: George Romero
Starring: David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger and Gaylen Ross
Details: 126 mins / Anchor Bay / Rated R

This is the original, mind you, not a pseudo-hip remake with zombies that move like superheroes on speed. The original Dawn of the Dead is the quintessential zombie movie. It perfectly balances the elements of drama, cheese, horror, and satire, along with a great gore and a cult style filmmaking and that rivals the best of movies of this type. The premise is simple enough. The dead have come back, and they’re biting living people who then turn into zombies. The United States (and possibly the world) is in ruins. Cities have been completely shut down, the airwaves are slowly crumbling and the terrible green zombies roam the countryside in a stupor. Only a few brave remain, and they take cover wherever they can, in this case, our intrepid group takes refuge within that greatest of American institutions, the mall.

Dawn of the Dead is so pervasive in American culture, that the ideas and ways that it presents those ideas now seem almost cliché. But it’s important to note that the film was something of a revolution for its time. Like its predecessor, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead was revolutionary in the way that it presented gore, laughs, and social commentary all in one big package.

Romero justly believes that his film has an anti-consumerist bent, but that’s never what struck me about it. What I notice more is the choking loneliness that comes from being in a sealed off world, surrounded by slow moving zombies with no brain. Dawn of the Dead brilliantly presents this passage of time, like travelers on a space ship. It has the very real effect of making you think “what the hell would I do?” What would you do with a whole lot of time, a whole lot of resources, but little more than that?

The film has mostly aged well with very few things that make it seem dated. This film could very well take place now. It has a little bit of everything for everybody: tons of gore, lots of laughs and lonliness that never ends.

Movie Grade: A

Video: 4 out of 5
Rarely do you see such an old film look so good. They cleaned it up, balanced the colors, and if not for the sometimes 70’s clothing, the thing could have been made yesterday,
Widescreen Anamorphic - 1.85

Audio: 4 out of 5
The DTS track is extremely unnecessary and very under-utilized, but it does present the mono audio as well as you’re going to hear it.
English (Dolby 2.0, 5.1, DTS 5.1, Mono)

Extras: 5 out of 5
Since it is a four disc set, this is where it really shines. There are no less than three different versions of the films, including the US, European, and Extended. Only the European version is significantly different. It’s quicker paced, includes different music, but my money is still on the original version. The fourth disc has a great new, talking head documentary about the creation of the film. There’s not tons of archival material, but it is worth the hour and a half that you’ll spend with it. Next is another documentary from 20 years ago. It’s not as polished, but does include a lot of nice interviews with the cast and crew in their younger days. Also included on the disc are some short home video of the production and a bizarrely conducted walking tour of the Monroeville Mall. All the film versions have commentaries, the best being the moderated version on the theatrical version. Scattered about all discs are bios, photo galleries, and art.

Overall: 4.5 out of 5
This is certainly the ultimate edition for any fan. I don’t know what else they could have included in this package to make it more appealing; maybe some fake zombie skin or something. Horror fans should be ashamed if they haven’t seen this, and newbies would be well advised to pick it up and check out one of the classics. I feel like going to the mall now.

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