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Dawn of the Dead (1978)
10th January
Nobody else understands zombies quite like Romero did back in 1978. The original Dawn of the Dead is the zombie film.
- Zombie Speed: Shambling
- Zombie Catalyst: Undisclosed
- Zombie Contagion: Bites, or death
- Zombie IQ: Can bludgeon
- Protagonists: Traffic reporter, his pregnant girlfriend, his cop friend and another cop who tags along
- Apocalypse Vibe: Genre-defining
At first all the characters seem unlikeable. The peril, contrived. The banter, inappropriate to their predicament.
But piece by piece Romero builds up the ultimate zombie film.
The scene is set. Characters develop atypically. The full survival medley is performed. For a time things seem fine, good even. Boredom sets in. The safe house falls. The apocalypse cannot be stopped, only delayed. Some of our protagonists escape. The chance of survival is slight. But, there is hope.
Nowadays slow zombies seem ridiculous. How on earth could anyone get caught by these pathetic things?! But I think really we’ve just become used to the high horror of speedy modern corpses. Romero’s zombies are just a back drop. An encroaching animosity that forces a ragtag bunch of office workers and mall-shoppers to embrace situations that civilisation has long since made extinct.
As the film draws to a close Romero lets his message come across clearly: the biggest threat is humanity itself. In most other films such a statement would be cliché; it might even feel condescending. Dawn of the Dead pulls it off. For one because back in 1978 it wasn’t clichéd — Romero may well have been the first to put the concept to film. Mainly though, the message is given to you so gradually, so subtly, that in the end you feel he’s probably right.
Verdict: Unmissable
