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The zombie plague that began in George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead contines in Dawn of the Dead. As society falls prey to the zombie menace, four people take refuge in a zombie mall filled with zombies. Once they have the mall secure and everything that they could ever want, the people in the mall start to realize that they are no better than the walking dead outside. The shit really hits the fan when a large group of raiders show up with the intent of looting the mall...
This is a smart zombie movie. The main characters are interesting and deep, and there’s so much subtext to this movie, that it’s pretty hard not to notice it to some degree. Our four heroes, Peter, Roger, Stephen, and Francine seem much more like real people than the majority of characters in Romero’s previous zombie movie, Night of the Living Dead. I’ve seen this movie at least half a dozen times, and I still care when Roger gets bitten by a zombie half way through the movie. That alone says something to me about the quality of these characters. The subtext that I mentioned in the last paragraph has to do with the social commentary in this film that deals with materialism. Just like real people, zombies keep going to the mall in the movie without any reason. I’m sure lots of people can think of times they went to a mall without any reason other than they wanted to go somewhere. Why are people attracted to places like malls? One reason could be that you never know what you’re going to find in them to buy. Although, the zombies in the movie aren’t going to buy anything, they are still drawn there because part of the person they once were is still inside of them. What does it say about society when shopping malls have become a meeting place and almost a form of recreation for many people? Basically, the zombies could be seen to represent society.
As the movie progresses, Stephen, Peter and Francine become zombies themselves in a metaphorical sense. They have everything they could want in the mall once they have control of it. They start to drift apart from each other and become obsessed more with their belongings than with living. The pinnacle of their obsession comes when Stephen starts shooting at raiders who have broken into the mall. He could have let them raid the mall and escaped without ever being noticed, but his greed overpowers him. It’s only fitting that he eventually becomes a real zombie near the end of the movie.
Like Night of the Living Dead this movie was made with a low budget. Some of the makeup and gore effects are still good, but the best gore is that involved from the raiders being torn apart by the zombies. Most of the zombies are just people painted blue, which hurts the movie in the eyes of many modern viewers. Compared to the special effects of today, blue makeup just doesn’t cut it. Personally I don’t mind the makeup, but I can understand why people would complain about it. As well, the blood is obviously fake, looking more like red paint than anything that would ever come out of a human body. The other major complaint I often hear about this movie is that it is boring. A friend of mine even considers Dawn of the Dead one of the most boring movies he has ever watched. I tend to disagree with this criticism, but it’s something I hear about this movie quite a bit. Parts in the middle of this movie do drag a little because instead of zombie carnage Romero is giving us character development and also further adding to the subtext of the movie. Once they have the mall secure, why would there be much more zombie carnage?
I think a major drawback for Dawn of the Dead is that there is no strong antagonist in the entire movie. The zombies and the raiders are the main villains, and let’s be honest, zombies by themselves aren’t that interesting as characters. However, I think this problem is the reason the main characters in this movie are probably the best Romero has ever come up with. Stephen, Peter, Roger and Francine have to play off each other, meaning that the characters had to take turns acting like an asshole to create conflict. The funny thing is that formula is a lot like real life. Who hasn’t had a day when they acted like an asshole to someone? If you think you have never acted like an asshole before, well that’s a whole other topic for another day.
Dawn of the Dead is often considered one of the best, if not the best, zombie movie ever made. I tend to agree with this view. This movie is what all zombie and horror movies should try to be. Dawn of the Dead is smart, the characters are not one dimensional, and I would recommend it to anyone.
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