"When there's no more room in Hell, the dead shall walk the Earth."
This is arguably not only George Romero's greatest zombie movie (out of his 6 to date) but also his greatest film of all time. Fans of Romero young and old love this movie. Even Romero says that this is favorite of his movies and one of his best. It is also his longest zombie movie.
For a little background, this movie, uncut, is about 2 hours and 15 minutes with the cut being 2 h, 5m. There is also the British release, which is edited differently than the American release. This version was released under the title of Zombi, which brings in the Zombi movie series, which is very confusing with so many unofficial sequels, but we will get into that when i do that series which will not be for a while.
Dawn of the Dead wasn't going for as much of a horror/claustrophobic feel like he did with N.o.t.L.D., instead he wanted something a bit more campy with more action or as Romero put it comic book-y and it is. In fact, a graphic novelization of the movie was released with the film.
The movie takes place a few weeks after Night. For a time frame, if you notice carefully in Night, you will see a calendar on the wall with the month of August showing and Barbara references how the days are still too long and that Day Lights Saving Time should be earlier in the year than it is, anyway just a little trivia. So now, it is like the second week of September. It appears the living have been doing a good job of containing this epidemics. It has been a few weeks and the TV news is still running.
That is where we come in and meet one of our main characters: Fran, a TV news techie. Her boyfriend Steven is the news chopper pilot and they plan to steal the chopper and get the fuck out of dodge while there is still some sort of order and there is still a chance to get away. They plan to leave with their friend in the SWAT team, Roger, who we cut to in the next scene. SWAT is working with the National Guard to kill zombies who people in the projects have not killed for some reason (religious beliefs, grief, etc) Roger ends up befriending, Peter and tells him about his plan to leave.
They get in the chopper and end up flying over the farm towns we saw in Night and we see the "good ole' boys" having a great time still working with the local police and national guard to try and get ahead of this thing. They don't seem too worried or concerned with the fact the dead are rising. This is another social more` that Romero focuses on how human beings are the real monsters seeing how we are killing for fun having a good time while the world around them is coming to an end. This theme is repeated in several of his films. Romero clearly has no tolerance for intolerant people. there are themes of equality and themes against racism throughout his films.
They decide to set down in a mall, which in 1968 or 1978 (depending on when you think the trilogy takes place) is a new thing. They decide they could take it easy and hide out in the mall for a few months, which is what they do. Conveniently in this mall, there is a grocery store, gun emporium, and the power is still running which is explained by the power plant the powers the mall being nuclear. Anyway, the point being is this mall has everything they need in an apocalyptic world: food, weapons, medical supplies, and safety. To protect themselves, they put up all the security doors over the mall doors with are thick glass that these zombies have trouble breaking. To increase security even more they take semi trucks from the nearby parking lot and drive one in front of every main entrance into the mall. Once they get into the gun store, they then take out all the undead inside the mall.
Tensions rise after they have been there for so long. In addition, trouble brews once large gangs of raiding, marauding bikers turn up and see the helicopter on the roof. As Peter says, they are a professional army. They end up breaking into the mall letting all the zombies in as well. They end up leaving the mall in the chopper to go to a destination unknown.
Overall, it is a fantastic film. The acting is great as well as the chemistry between characters. Though Night started the genre, this movie set the standard. One of the lead raiders is played by Tom Savini who is known as the king of gore in makeup. He did the make up for dawn and for day, was a pioneer in his field, has taught, and inspired many makeup/special effects artists. The main theme of this film is anti-capitalism. The characters reference how zombies are sill drawn to the mall because it meant something to them--it was an important place. And Tom Savini even said in the documentary “Zombiemania!” that if you go to any mall today you will sure enough see zombies (i.e. consumers) walking around the mall. The film is fun done well and despite the zombies being blue/gray and the blood looking like bright red paint that defies the laws of biology and physics, it is still done well. The only really the effects aren't better is that this is still in the 70's and the people like Savini and George are learning more and more but they certainly revolutionize their fields. I give this movie a fun and entertaining 5 out of 5 stars.
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