- Also Known As:
- Zombie: Dawn of the Dead; Zombies
- Year:
- 1978
- Country/ies:
- Italy
- Predominant Genre:
- Horror
- Author(s)/Director(s):
- George A Romero
- Outstanding Performance(s):
- Various featured zombies; especially Clayton HILL
- Premiss:
- Following an ever-growing epidemic of zombies that have risen from the dead, survivors seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall.
- Theme(s):
- Alienation
- Christianity
- Compassion
- Destiny
- Emotional repression
- Friendship
- Loneliness
- Loyalty
- Narcissism
- Sexual Repression
- Social class
- Solipsism
- White culture
- White guilt
- White supremacy
- Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:
- Night of the Living Dead
- Review Format:
- DVD
Perhaps a tad too long for a horror film and so unable to sustain the tension and pace necessary. Yet the pointed comments about the emptiness of consumerism and of defining yourself by what you own rather than by what you are, are well made. Inevitably, consumers are presented as the literal zombies one sees in any shopping center.
This satire has its humorous side as the hunting-down of "customers" means shooting them, as they stupidly place themselves in the line of fire; dying with bemused, quizzical or totally-inexpressive looks on their faces. They are amusingly-unaware that their murderous intent to loot and kill makes their extermination necessary.
The problem for the survivors is that they have nothing much better to replace what has been destroyed. They pass their time consuming everything that the shopping mall in which they hold up has to offer. This points-up rather too well the problem of such social critiques - they usually possess no other mode of living that could possibly replace that which they criticize.
As the film progresses, the characters slowly develop and we come to see the world through their eyes. It is then that we begin to see the full horror of the situation presented. We also then come to see that the actors are actually sterling performers doing their best in a world that has come to its inevitable, materialistic end.
The 2001 of zombie movies that terrifies because most of the people in the West are not that different from the living dead shown here: Where everything has a price and nothing a value.
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