Dawn of the Dead (1978)
“Some kind of instinct. Memory, of what they used to do. This was an important place in their lives.” – Stephen, wondering why the zombies are attracted to the super mall
A combination of dry wit, quirky social commentary, and an ever-brooding sense of doom helps to propel George Romero’s sequel to Night of the Living Dead into its rightful place as one of the greatest horror films, and one of the greatest films, of all time. Dawn of the Dead’s shopping mall setting provides the perfect vehicle for taking a wickedly funny satirical bite at American consumerism. The small stores and department stores all act as great symbols of a consumptive society. These images are eerily familiar, but in their present vacant state, they serve as anthropological relics, representative of the gods and customs belonging to a civilization now gone in the face of apocalypse.
A combination of dry wit, quirky social commentary, and an ever-brooding sense of doom helps to propel George Romero’s sequel to Night of the Living Dead into its rightful place as one of the greatest horror films, and one of the greatest films, of all time. Dawn of the Dead’s shopping mall setting provides the perfect vehicle for taking a wickedly funny satirical bite at American consumerism. The small stores and department stores all act as great symbols of a consumptive society. These images are eerily familiar, but in their present vacant state, they serve as anthropological relics, representative of the gods and customs belonging to a civilization now gone in the face of apocalypse.
The zombies are, in fact, the outrageous extreme of consumer conformity: going so far as to consume human beings that are not apart of their mindless, instinct-driven mob. Perhaps this is reading too far into a zombie film, but regardless of these interpretations, Romero does choose his protagonists carefully: a strong, underappreciated woman, her wimpy, unpredictable husband, an intelligent, resourceful black man, and a reckless, often violent soldier. As with Night, Romero enjoys playing with these racial and sexual stereotypes to great effect. Maybe this discourse is not as pertinent today, but the messages of consumerism resound: a small community willing to fight to the death for the material possessions they have only recently sequestered; and all of this to the sound of 1970s muzak.
This one made me sad:
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