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Dawn of the Dead (1978)

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Dawn of the Dead (1978)

1978 | Horror

127 mins

As hordes of zombies swarm over the U.S., the terrified populace tries everything in their power to escape the attack of the undead, but neither cities nor the countryside prove safe. In Pennsylvania, radio-station employee Stephen (David Emge) and his girlfriend, Francine (Gaylen Ross), escape in the station helicopter, accompanied by two renegade SWAT members, Roger and Pete. The group retreats to the haven of an enclosed shopping center to make what could be humanity's last stand.

Produced by	United Film Distribution Company
Director	George A. Romero
Writer	George A. Romero
Cast	David Emge, Ken Foree and Scott H. Reiniger

Images And Data Courtesy Of: United Film Distribution Company.
This content (including text, images, videos and other media) is published and used in accordance with Fair Use.

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Added this item on Jan 20, 2018

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Dawn of the Dead (1978) Reviews & Ratings (30)

9-10			50.0% (15)
7-8			46.7% (14)
5-6			3.3% (1)
3-4			0.0% (0)
1-2			0.0% (0)

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Dawn of the Dead (1978) reviews from people you don't follow

LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated

Oct 27, 2020

Dawn of the Dead is considered by many to be the cream of the crop when it comes to zombie movies.

George Romero upped the ante with his second entry into the Living Dead series - bigger set pieces, more gore, more zombies (this time in colour!)
The true star of Dawn is the setting for a couple of reasons. The shopping mall is a fun and striking place to set a zombie film in, and plays a huge part in this films classic status, but most importantly, it's the epicenter of commentary running through the narrative, pointing fingers at capitalism and consumerism. A friend of mine (who deeply loves this movie) rightly pointed out that there's more to it than that, with the opening dealing with classism, and ultimately leading to discontent after the characters are comfortable in their situation, and have all they need. They're left with nothing left to do, nowhere to go, and it's genuinely quite bleak in that respect.
One of the greatest things for me about Dawn is the screenplay. It's pretty much air tight, it's clever, and has a handful of all time great lines. It also has some fine performances from the main cast, in particular Ken Foree. That dude is great in pretty much anything.
Also, the practical effects on display are fantastic (the zombie walking under the helicopter blades is a highlight) and is another example at Tom Savini's prowess.

However, despite all the positives, I just LIKE Dawn of the Dead, but I don't LOVE it. The main thing that turns me off is how goofy it is in parts. It verges on comedy at times (which I get, this being a semi-satire after all) but the silly music is a bit much for me. The film drags a fair bit during the mid section, and although I like all the actors, I find the characters they play hard to care about. I just don't think it's aged particularly well (although the message it carries is still as relevant as ever) and it's my least favourite of the original trilogy.

Although I have reservations, I still recognise how seminal Dawn of the Dead is. Without it, so many great movies wouldn't exist today, and it's easy to see why it was so groundbreaking at the time. I'm thankful it's exists, but it's ultimately a mixed bag for me (and I desperately hope my aformentioned friend doesn't hate me forever for feeling this way!)

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Simon Pegg recommended (curated)

"This was a mythic, elusive film because it was banned from the UK. It took me a long time to track it down, but I heard many a story about it — helicopter decapitation and the guy with the screwdriver in his ear. That stuff was just so fascinating to me as I grew up, and when I finally saw it, it did not disappoint. It obviously eventually led to me making a film with a similar title"

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Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated

Jul 18, 2019

Zombies Run The Mall

Contains spoilers, click to show

Dawn of the Dead- is the second movie in the living dead franchise directed by horror icon George A. Ramero.

The plot: As hordes of zombies swarm over the U.S., the terrified populace tries everything in their power to escape the attack of the undead, but neither cities nor the countryside prove safe. In Pennsylvania, radio-station employee Stephen (David Emge) and his girlfriend, Francine (Gaylen Ross), escape in the station helicopter, accompanied by two renegade SWAT members, Roger and Pete. The group retreats to the haven of an enclosed shopping center to make what could be humanity's last stand.

On the way these surviors to encourter a bike gang that raids the mall and some how the survivor have to survivor the bike gang without getting killed.

You really get to care about these charaters, because you are with them, you are one of them, you fell like your apart of them and trying to survivor the zombies.

This movie is 2h and 30mins long but that is the perfect amont of time, for this zombie epic.

A must see horror movie, a must see zombie survival movie and george a ramero director it.

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Kevin Phillipson (10072 KP) rated

Mar 27, 2018 (Updated Mar 28, 2018)

Zombies (1 more)

The gore

The best zombie film ever period set in shopping mail swat team under siege from the zombies trying to get them whats not to love romero at his best with this film the zombie make up is excellent the gore buckets full thanks to tom savini who also appears in the film. Highy recomended

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Dawn of the Dead (1978) reviews from people you don't follow

Blazing Minds (92 KP) rated

Oct 29, 2021 (Updated Nov 2, 2021)

Watching the Argento Cut of the release, enjoying it. Seems to have more gore, less comedy and more seriousness.

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John Cusack recommended (curated)

"I just think the premise of holding up in a mall… being that prescient about the kind of gated communities, and consumerism, and mixing that with zombies in 1978 is just beyond genius. If you look at, like, John Waters doing Female Trouble in 1974, saying things about crime and beauty and the rise of paparazzi, you know, this kind of crazy Kardashian, TMZ, beauty industry — I mean, as psychotic as that film is, it’s so ahead of the curve. It’s so amazingly looking into the future. So I think those kinds of themes I responded to. And Goblin did the original soundtrack."

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Peter Jackson recommended (curated)

"Another movie that absolutely blew my mind was George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. That was an unbelievable film at that time, and really it did shape my sense of humor and splatter style of filmmaking that I did."

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Awix (3310 KP) rated

Mar 12, 2018

The big daddy of modern zombie movies builds on the micro-budget charms of Romero's own Night of the Living Dead to create its own sub-genre. World is gripped by zombopocalypse; survivors flee the city in search of refuge, come across a vast mall filled with provisions (also many luxury items). They decide to stay and fortify the place, but is this really wise...?

Few films depict society on the verge of collapse quite as convincingly as this one; the relatively low budget just makes the scale of Romero's achievement more impressive. The film plays with gory B-movie tropes with cheery abandon, and you're seldom more than a few minutes away from the next grisly set-piece, but its ability to quietly engage with more serious and mature themes is also striking. Romero seems equally in love with having zombies' heads blasted off their shoulders and making serious points about the toxic effects of consumerism and the human predilection for unchecked violence. Even the parts of the film which feel a little primitive are still somehow just right for it, and couldn't really be improved upon. One of those virtually perfect films; the reason the scale goes up to 10.

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