My first exposure to the original DAWN OF THE DEAD was when someone happened to click over to the channel playing it right when the one cop is going bonkers and shooting as many people as possible at the beginning. I’m pretty sure it was right when he blasted some poor guy’s head apart with a shotgun. Obviously, that kind of SCANNERS-like, over-the-top violence had me hooked… right after the requisite “Holy expletive!” response, of course.
I mean… good grief. [Click link to YouTube clip at your own risk.]
Don’t get me wrong, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is really a great film, and it’s got as much to say about society as this one, methinks. Still, this one turns the social commentary up a notch, and though that might not play well or perhaps come across as preachy to some, it elevates the film from being just some zombie gorefest into a film that succeeds on other levels, too. Of course, it also provided Seth Green with a goofy song with which to close out every episode of Robot Chicken. So, there’s that.
With apocalyptic movies like this, part of the fun is trying to envision what you would do in the situations the characters face. I’d imagine that the hedonistic life that the survivors enjoy in the mall [gleefully recreated in the remake, along with the most apropos use ever of Richard Cheese’s cover of “Down with the Sickness”] would probably be Plan A for most. This might be even more the case if you encountered the “Hey, I can sprint?” category of zombie featured in the remake.
One of the most interesting bits of social commentary stems from how both the survivors and zombies descend on their habitual gathering place, the consumer cornucopia of the local mall. If anyone here has a background in psychology or psychiatry, I wonder what you’d say about this as a kind of latent operant conditioning. This doesn’t really have much directly to do with the film, though the fact that it could spur a discussion of that sort is one reason why it made this list at all.
But… maybe a better discussion would be which kind of cinematic zombie you prefer: slow, a la this flick, or fast, like in the remake thereof or films like WORLD WAR Z. Regardless of which type of movie zombie gets your seal of approval, here’s hoping you’ll give this classic a try. Enjoy!
[Day 1 - THE DARK KNIGHT; Day 2 - DESPERADO; Day 3 - THE ROAD WARRIOR; Day 4 - X2: X-MEN UNITED; Day 5 - TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY]
I mean… good grief. [Click link to YouTube clip at your own risk.]
Don’t get me wrong, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is really a great film, and it’s got as much to say about society as this one, methinks. Still, this one turns the social commentary up a notch, and though that might not play well or perhaps come across as preachy to some, it elevates the film from being just some zombie gorefest into a film that succeeds on other levels, too. Of course, it also provided Seth Green with a goofy song with which to close out every episode of Robot Chicken. So, there’s that.
With apocalyptic movies like this, part of the fun is trying to envision what you would do in the situations the characters face. I’d imagine that the hedonistic life that the survivors enjoy in the mall [gleefully recreated in the remake, along with the most apropos use ever of Richard Cheese’s cover of “Down with the Sickness”] would probably be Plan A for most. This might be even more the case if you encountered the “Hey, I can sprint?” category of zombie featured in the remake.
One of the most interesting bits of social commentary stems from how both the survivors and zombies descend on their habitual gathering place, the consumer cornucopia of the local mall. If anyone here has a background in psychology or psychiatry, I wonder what you’d say about this as a kind of latent operant conditioning. This doesn’t really have much directly to do with the film, though the fact that it could spur a discussion of that sort is one reason why it made this list at all.
But… maybe a better discussion would be which kind of cinematic zombie you prefer: slow, a la this flick, or fast, like in the remake thereof or films like WORLD WAR Z. Regardless of which type of movie zombie gets your seal of approval, here’s hoping you’ll give this classic a try. Enjoy!
[Day 1 - THE DARK KNIGHT; Day 2 - DESPERADO; Day 3 - THE ROAD WARRIOR; Day 4 - X2: X-MEN UNITED; Day 5 - TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY]
