Dawn of the Dead (1978) Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Dawn of the Dead is a zombie horror film, the second in George Romero's Living Dead series of films (after Night of the Living Dead (1968)).The film was made on a budget of around $1.5 million. The zombie effects were created by Tom Savini and are a little cheap - most extras receive no more than a face-full of blue-green or grey shading and all the frequent blood is bright, bright red.
The original film is, to date, the most fiscally successful film ever released in the "horror" genre (based on cost to produce vs. profit). This is based partly on the fact that the film was edited in a variety of ways to reflect what was popular in cinema in different regions of the world. For instance, many European versions were gorier and more dramatic than the American version, which was peppered with humour and cultural satire.
The film carries on from Night. The US is struck by a zombie plague (which remains defiantly unexplained), society has effectively collapsed and many survivors are heading for any safety they hope exists. The film centres on a group of four survivors, a local televison personality and her traffic pilot boyfriend, one of his close friends and another resourceful man, both from the Philadelphia SWAT team. Flying aimlessly and low on fuel, they decide to take temporary refuge in a large shopping mall (Monroeville Mall in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, which is still in operation). Upon landing and exploring, they decide to make the mall their own private sanctuary. The film satirises and parodies materialism -- the humans clear the zombies from the mall (even zombies want to shop!) and barricade themselves inside, indulging themselves from the stores and created a hyper-real consumer life-style, while the external world collapses and zombies paw at the mall doors.
The four main actors are Ken Foree (Peter, cop), David Emge (Stephen, "flyboy"), Scott Reiniger (Roger, cop) and Gaylen Ross (Francine, TV interviewer). As in the first film the black character, Peter, is far-and-away the most heroic character. Roger is reckless and careless, while Stephen is incompetent and petty, in true horror film style they both suffer for their character flaws.
A remake of the movie premiered on March 10, 2004 in the United States. The new version varies considerably from the original; many of the major themes including the primary setting in a shopping mall remain essentially the same, but the film is a complete rewrite.
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