Dawn of the Dead (1978)

The second film in George Romero’s zombie trilogy concerns two SWAT officers along with a helicopter pilot and his girlfriend who are “running” from the chaos that has ensued from the recent zombie epidemic. They eventually land their whirlybird down on the roof of a huge deserted mall where they decide to hole up and take a wait-and-see approach with all that is going on. I may be wrong on this, but I always think of this one as being the first official “splatter” film. Guts ripped out, heads and hands chopped off, large chunks of human flesh removed by zombie incisors and packed with plenty of blood squibs, “Dawn of the Dead” wears it’s “unrated” label with mucho pride. But there’s more than just blood and guts going on here, Romero delivers with this film a view of our own society, and it ain’t all that great friends. Some people have even gone as far as to compare the zombie plague with diseases such as the aids virus, etc. and, while I’m not going to go that far with it, it is something along those lines. The acting here is nicely done, and the viewer really starts to root for our little group to make it out alive. I remember back in 5th grade I would watch the scene where the character of Ben and Steven go into that ammo store and stock up on weapons and ammo, and it always made me want to dig out all my toy guns and go on a zombie hunt of my own. Truthfully speaking, I just re-watched this movie the other day to do this review, and though I had not seen it in quite awhile, that scene still made me want to get all “stocked” up with my best firepower and go on a zombie shooting spree. Sure wish I still had all my old cap guns dammit. Anyways, this one is a definite four star classic and a must see for anybody who calls themselves a fan of the horror genre. God bless George Romero.