Dawn of the Dead (1978)

--Reviewed by Lindy Loo

Plotline: Zombies have taken over the United States, and people are seeking out refuge wherever they can. A group of folks ends up holing themselves up at a mall until they realize that perhaps life's not worth living if it never means trying to get somewhere else, somewhere perhaps free of zombies.

Scariness factor: I didn't like this movie too much the first time I saw it, mostly because it suffers a tiny bit from the slow-moving zombie curse. As always, I find it hard to be terrified of things lurching so slowly that a toddling wobbly baby could outrun them. Thankfully, however, the characters seem to feel the same way for once.



Gross-Out Factor: Fancier special fx are JUST starting to get dabbled into (in comparison to the Night of the Living Dead) and you can see it in some gross-out moments where the special fx artists are clearly geeked up at getting to use their special fx. But it's moreso PG-13 gross than anything. The blood is the color of red paint, for pete's sake.

Complaints: It's a bit slow at times--not tons of zombie-action. But then again, I dig some of the characters in it and that kind of makes up for it.

High Points: It's just a fun zombie-romp and a must-see if you're a fan of zombie flicks as it's a classic. It was interesting rewatching it again after having seen the 2004 version (which I *do* like). You can see that it's a commentary on consumerist culture in a lot of ways, but I'd say the same about the newer version as well (consumerist AND MTV-culture). I really dug some of the characters in this one in a way that I didn't in the 2004 version--I *liked* them quite a bit (especially the two main male characters pictured below--their friendship warmed my cockles in a zombie cockle-warming kind of way) and this made me enjoy the movie in a different sort of way. Nothing deep, but a bit more complex than usual. And I heart Romero and his love of zombies, so what can I say?



Overall: Watch it if you're a fan of zombie-flicks. You're almost obligated too, for pete's sake.

Grade: A-