Matt Connarton Unleashed: Erich Pilcher reviews George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978).

In nineteen sixty eight, George Romero brought us Night of the Living Dead.

It became the classic horror film of its time. Now George Rameiro brings us

the most intensely shocking motion picture experience for all times. It gets up and

kills the people it kills, get up and kill. This situation must be

controlled before it's too late. They are multiplying too rapidly. Dawn of the

Dead. Leave me on the roof at nine o'clock out in the chopper.

We've got to survive. Somebody's got to survive. They kill for one reason.

They kill for food. They eat. They're victims. Imagine if you

will, that something has gone terribly wrong. Soon now, except the fact

that there's no escaping the horrible consequences. George Romero brings back the dead.

Night of the Living Dead has ended. Dawn of the Dead is here.

We must not be loved by the concept that these are our family members or

our friends. They are not. They will not respond to such emotions.

Operated dead post a van and they never get out of law. It's everywhere.

What the hell is It looks like a shopping center, one of those

big indoor malls. What are they doing. Why do they come here some

kind of instinct memory? What they used to do? This was an important

place in their lives. What is it? We've got a war. We

have spawned our own savagery. Soon it will consume us all. It is

a horrible, puntingly accurate vision of the mindless excesses of our society gone mad.

Why they must be destroyed on site? When there is no more room

in hell? The dead will walk the earth. We are down to the

line boats, We are down to the line of the Dead. Sequels are

some of the most polarizing films in cinema history. They are debated as being

worthy to the previous film, or even if they should have been made.

Ten years following his landmark Neither of the Living Dead, George A. Rameira

returned to the beasts, He created zombies, and in turn gave a rare

instance in film more where a sequel could even be considered to supersede the original.

Released in nineteen seventy eight, Dawn of the Dead continues Romero's story of

the zombie apocalypse. When the film begins, the world is in more chaos

than we left it. At the end, A Night of the Living dead

due to the fact that the undead are winning on their rampage, tearing through

the living. The film starts frequent Romero contributors Ken Free in his most known

role and special effects group guru Tom Savini. In this film. To escape

the undead, four individuals land a helicopter on the roof of them all to

seek refuge. In that refuge could end up being their demise. I mentioned

chaos that has overwhelmed the world, and the opening scene of this film shows

that the film begins at a local news station where two individuals are on the

air arguing about what is going on behind the scenes. Individuals are arguing over

what te air, what not tear, and even if they should be on

the air. Why I chose this scene is the fact that we hear a

common trope in these Romero films that society can be crumbling and falling apart,

and instead of working together, we look towards our own interests, in our

own survival. You are right, what the hell, that's a whole different.

But if we do that, we don't know that, we don't know

that. We got to operate on what we do know. I'm still dreaming

human beings who to say. Turn the explained several times. The guys and

the crew are going crazy. A couple of them plowing the coop already.

I don't know how long we're gonna standing here. Came to you just got

to report the half those stations have been knocked out. Give me a list.

Sure, I'll just pull it out of my ass. Right, you

want the day to return to life. I'm not so you believe the day

to returning to life and attacking the living. I'm not so sure what to

believe. Doctor. All we get is what you people tell us. And

it's hard enough to believe. Fact, it's fat hard enough to believe without

you coming in here. And you're not running a talk show here, mister

Berman, you can forget pitching an audience tomorrow. You're talking about the Freddie

gets another list of rescue stations. Charlie's receiving as stations. Half of those

are inoperative as of now, Charlie, the rescue stations we can't send people

are inoperative. Restu station. You've had all information on the air for the

last twelve hours. Kill those old ones, givens one stuff, kill them,

help given to see meself. The situation to me lately by the public

guitar. You have not listened. You have not listened to the situation for

three weeks. The po will see people aren't willing to accept your solutions,

doctor, and I for one, don't blame them. Every dead body that

is not exterminated becomes one of them. It gets up and kills the people

it kills, get up and kills operated rest the stations. When Dan open,

he is trying to do type that up, I think Foster's shright.

We're losing, blowing in our suits. Hill's going on, who killed those

supers? But he has these porters through that garret who told you to kill

those supers? No, my air killed them there at days you know you're

on the air. I want to Since this film's release, a common opinion

is that this film is a criticism of consumerism. The undead marched aimlessly towards

the mall, and when they get in, they stumble around without direction,

So it's easy to see where one can get that opinion. For the four

individuals that seek refuge in the mall, new station workers Stephen and Francine and

officers Peter and Roger, the refuge becomes a hedonistic paradise. Our next two

clips set the all up. First, the individuals arrive and fill out a

plan to get inside and attract little attention from the undead. And then,

when their greed takes over as they raid shops throughout the mall, Roger is

bitten and begins to turn to a zombie. This scene is very hard to

watch, as while Roger dies, the three survivors are watching an individual speak

on television about the nature of the newly deceased, rising to feed. What

the hell is it? Homes like a shopping center, one of those big

indoor malls. Oh my god, no chance, forget it. Let's get

out here. Wait a minute. They can't get up here. Yeah,

and we can't go down there. Let's check it out. Most of the

gates are down. I don't think they can get it to the stores.

I haven't seen any of them up on the second floor, the big apartments.

Those usually use both floors. If we can get in up top,

okay, yes, the poll is not often that there. What are they

doing? Why did they come here? It's a kind of instinct memory what

they used to do. This was an important place in their lives. Thank

you. Look at this They said, you get down into the mall.

Now business, how do we get down there? Now? The death of

Roger, I'll stay with it. Take care of me, or to Peter,

you take care of me when I go. Just try to get some

sleep back the safest strength. I I don't wanna be walking around and like

a fat Peter. Peter, Yeah, I'm here, man, don't do

it to you. Sure I am coming back. I'm going to try not

to. I'm going to try not to come back. I'm gonna try not

to. They use maybe five percent of the food available in the human body.

The kind of thing. With that small amount, the body is usually

intact enough to be mobile when it revives. What do you say? I

mean, you know, use science and dummies, suggested dummies. Dummies listen,

quiet, quiet, One wonders whether it's worth saving. This is worth

saving? For all I know, the brains are already dead, and it's

the idiots that are still alive. And I figured out how to stay alive.

Two And I'm trying to help you, dumb in your calm helping way

to irritate way, logic, way illogical, hell illogical. Hell, I'm

showing you a way that we can up the food supply twenty times supply for

who, for a whole specimen that is walking around there in increasing numbers.

We should need them. What else you're going to do with them? Give

me an alternative? I thought you scientists could come up with an actual way

to solve the problem rather than feeding the opposition. Doesn't make any sense any

With the commentary at play, it could be argued this film is more thought

provoking than the original. My opinion is the criticism of consumerism is so in

your face that it is not the prime piece of social commentary. But to

describe what the point of the film truly is, why not go to the

source. Our final clip of this review is a clip of an interview Romero

did with BBC two in nineteen ninety seven regarding this film in what he was

trying to show us about human nature through the zombie apocalypse. Now, this

interview does have film clips interjected into it, just to warn you, so

you're not sitting there thinking that I did anything to the clip itself. I

don't think anyone would have gotten it except Dario Argento. Approached us Italian director

and we showed him the script and he said, I'll be the first money

in on this one. I mean, basically, he caused the movie to

happen. Right, run, why not go? Right? A theme that

I've always used is just this idea that we don't talk to each other.

I mean, this complete lack of communication that we have and a willingness to

adopt a position. People aren't willing to accept your solutions, doctor, and

I, for one, don't play the three dead body that it's not exterminated,

becomes one of them, It gets up and kills the people it kills,

get up and chill. You know, this sort of tribalism or you

know, I think it's white, I think it's black, and there's no

attempt to try to figure out, you know, any sort of middle ground

or build a bridge. I mean that's true in everything from religious wars to

the O. J. Simpson case. I'm not so sure what to believe,

doctor. All we get is what you people tell us. And it's

hard enough to believe black. It's fat hard enough to believe without you coming

in here. And if you're not running a talk show here, mister Berman,

you can forget pitching an audience for Morald. To me, that is

the most appalled thing about what we do to each other. And so it's

a theme that I've tried. I've worked with, particularly in the zombie films.

I think, if your people start shooting at you, then sure you're

all going to shoot back at the same common enemy. But in a situation

where there's where anything is ambiguous, I think there's going to be at the

very least arguing and that then perhaps at the worst, you know, people

murdering each other for their point of view, Hey, oh my god,

what are you doing? Scary, isn't it? Until the shooting starts,

there is no common enemy, And that I think that in trying to decide

who the enemy is, or if even if there is an enemy, that's

where we just need to talk and figure out what our strategy is going to

be. Let them know we're here. Did all right this time? Boy?

How about it? Feeling? I was trying to do it like a

comic book kind of visual The blood it's you know, very red, bright

red, flowering out behind somebody's head. What we were going for was just

this garish kind of ec comic book kind of a look. None of that

stuff was particularly threatening. The repetition of the violence. I mean, zombies

get shot every few minutes in the action parts of the film, and you

sort of get immune or inured to it. Again, that was part of

what we were seeing in the eighties, I mean about us just getting so

desensitized by the things that we were seeing on television and you know, show

the military and the hunters and all that, just just you know, enjoying

it. And as that being an outgrowth of g you know, we got

ourselves a new shooting gallery here. And also it worked to sort of ramp

you up towards the really grizzly scenes in the end when we become just pieces

of meat there at that point, and then the people upstairs in those quarters,

it's sort of what we do. We live somewhere over here while all

this you know, violence, and you know, the world's exploding. If

I ever do another one, if I ever do the you know, the

the two thousand one, I think that's what it'll be like. I mean,

you know, maybe humanity will have come back. There'll be security guards

and the zombies are out in the street, you know, sort of like

the homeless. But will we care as long as we get you know,

as long as we have this valet to bring the car and we can get

out of there and not really have to deal with it. Obviously, the

film's success does not need to be stated. However, it does deserve recognition

based mainly on word of mouth in some commercial advertising, this film well exceeded

box office expectations. It grows twenty four million dollars worldwide after being made on

only a nine hundred thousand dollars budget, and it is the most profitable of

Romero's Dead series of films. This film is just as influential as Night of

the Living Dead. It has been remade, had tributes done to it,

parodied, and even became the primary basis of a successful video game series,

Capcom's Dead Rising. It is harrowing, dark and brooding as great as Night

Was. Dawn is a rising of a new era for the zombie film and

is the best of the series in my opinion. It is rare to have

a sequel be more highly regarded than the original, and that is the case

here. That makes this must see viewing no matter the time of the year.

I hope you join me next week when we continue our Halloween slate of

films with Sam Rainey's rollicking, hilarious time travel in demon filled gorefest Army of

Darkness, starring the Great Bruce Cambon for WMNH and Matt Connorton. Unweas this

has been a classic film review with Eric Hilter Allen, No, I'm dam

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