George Romero's
Dawn of the Dead (1978) was released exactly ten years after his first zombie masterpiece,
Night of the Living Dead. In many ways, it's an upgrade of the first movie. It's in color, there's a lot more violence, the locations are grander, and the music is now a combination of stock music and music recorded by Italian progressive rock band Goblin, who were brought in by the movie's producer, Italian horror director Dario Argento. When I first saw
Dawn of the Dead around 2000 or so, I didn't even realize that it was a sequel to anything, but I knew from the first moments of the movie inside of the television studio that I was watching a movie that was going to be nothing like anything I'd ever seen before. The music alone told me that. And it only got even better from there.
Starring Ken Foree (
From Beyond), Scott Reiniger (
Knightriders), Gaylen Ross (
Madman), and David Emge (
Basket Case 2), with Tom Savini (
From Dusk Till Dawn, who also did the special effects in this), John Amplas (
Martin), and Taso Stavrakis (
Knightriders) in small roles, it's the ultimate zombie movie. With its greyish blue zombies, pink blood, and shopping mall setting,
Dawn of the Dead has quite possibly left behind an even bigger footprint in the history of zombie movies than its predecessor, again showing just what can be accomplished on a low budget and again proving that back then, George Romero knew exactly how to make his zombie movies stand out from the rest of the zombie movies that were cropping up during that time.
Stock up on your lighter fluid and Spam and get ready for another...
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