THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
George Romero reiterated the word 'zombie' as a new breed of monsters in his directorial debut Night of the Living Dead. a decade later, he brought it back to prove they were here to stay with Dawn of the Dead.
PLOT
The 1979 film takes place in another setting where the United States is suffering from a plague of reanimated humans eating flesh and the casualties have reached to millions which collapses social order itself all of which in the span of three weeks. At night, officers Roger DeMarco and Peter Washington overcome a shootout between tenants at a low income neighborhood due to the latter defying the martial law of delivering the undead of their loved ones to the National Guard. After they're officially dispatched by SWAT, they join traffic reporter Stephen Andrews and his pregnant girlfriend, producer Fran Parker, to leave Philadelphia via helicopter due to how Roger is friends with Stephen. After a brief stop in retrieving fuel for the chopper, they come across a shopping mall and agree to remain there since there is enough food & supplies between the four of them. Since many ghouls are already inside, they block a stairwell entrance that'll take them to a safe room. Roger & Peter also use trucks to block the entrances from outside, but the former gets bit in the arm and leg by one of the creatures. Once regrouping, Fran & Stephen join them in closing whatever doors left and stock up weaponry at a gun store in the mall. Once the interior of monsters are wiped out, they begin a hedonistic lifestyle with the supplies they stacked up. Peter would kill Roger once he turns to an undead, whereas all emergency broadcasts are ceasing which could imply the government has officially collapsed. With that put in motion, the remaining group puts enough supplies in the helicopter incase they need to leave. Sadly, that day comes when a biker gang sees the chopper in flight thanks to Stephen teaching Fran to fly should anything happen to him. The gang breaks into the place which leads to more of the undead walking in and it gets out of hand quickly. Most bikers would be overwhelmed, but Stephen ends up getting bit too when trying to defend the mall. When he comes back undead, he instinctively returns to the safe room only for Peter shoot him down. Peter then guides Fran out of the mall from the roof to reach the chopper. He contemplates taking his life in the mall, but he joins her before he can get overwhelmed. Despite being low on fuel, the film ends with the two flying away to an uncertain future.
THOUGHTS
With a bigger budget compared to the predecessor, you know everything you saw before would be anted up as you'd expect. Tom Savini's makeup for the zombie's appearance and their violent feasts are exactly how we imagine these settings in modern horror and it doesn't disappoint. Every bite these things make off of someone is disturbing as it should be and I applaud it for going there. Hell, I'm still stunned about one zombie getting scalped by a helicopter blade. In a bigger location that is a mall, it does make the experience feel unpredictable in where the monsters could be. What also excels here is Romero's way to continue calling out the flaws of society. Particularly, it is the carelessness that is so effective because that mistake unleashes the domino effect of consequences. You already know how wild it'd be for a racist cop to have pleasure in killing an ethnic neighborhood or a biker gang wasting pies on zombies before biting the dust, but we also see a a conversation about consumerism that can affect us too. Us human beings can be attached to any material and always find a way back to it because it is all that we know. And that is the big problem in life because if we don't expand our horizons, we're gonna keep failing once the going gets tough. Stocking up in an apocalypse is indeed smart because it pauses the need to scavenge, but it doesn't mean we should immediately be over reliant on one thing. If you can pushing yourself to do more than what your conscience says, then you gotta better chance than other people. This philosophy is incredibly explored thanks to a new batch of characters that get pushed to the limit from the beginning to end. Ken Foree started his legacy in the horror genre right here as Peter and it couldn’t be anymore good of a choice. He is such a badass in this role because he’s one of the stoic kind who knows how to think things over better than anyone and sees everyone as equals in order to have a functional group. He’s a guy who has seen his share of hellfire & brimstone ensure and has grown up as a fighter to the point where he is able to strategize better than everyone else. Whoever he finds common ground with is a blessing because it represents they share the same goal of survival and nothing more. He shares the agreement that it is a good idea to reside in a mall because it saves them time to scavenge. He even proves to be honorable when it came to staying by Roger’s side until it was time to put him out. It definitely sucked to see that guy die because Scott Reigner showed him to be somewhat likable in his given time. Even though he was level headed enough to get through his day to day job, he got cocky when it came to the apocalypse and it cost him big time. With all the blood he was witnessing & shedding, it was a toll for Peter that he wanted the fight to end at some point that he was willing to kill himself. Thankfully, he was able to realize life is still worth fighting for before it could’ve been too late. Moving on, the dynamic of Stephen & Fran was an interesting duo due to how they came off as polar opposites. Gaylen Ross shook things up because the latter is quite assertive compared to Barbra from Night because she wants to avoid being a burden, whereas David Emge shows the former to be the clumsy one who doesn’t become that beneficial when he tries to help, such as sleeping when first flying. His biggest mistake is his most fatal when choosing to defend the mall as a result of being territorial which he never needed to be. I honestly don’t blame him though since he got too comfortable in what was a new home to him. Even though he wasn’t a perfect guy, this never changed things between him and Fran per se since he was all about protecting her. When they weren’t killing zombies, they appreciated each other for past & present sincerity passed between them. Since Fran was able to fly out of the mall in time, I do hope she gets a safe haven for her baby and build a solid future alongside Peter. In short, Dawn of the Dead is a action horror classic due to revving up everything that worked before while giving another glimpse of humanity as we know it. If Night got you into zombies, see this now.
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