There can be little opposition to the facts that George Romero's follow up to Night of the Living Dead was an anxiously awaited film by 1978, and that in the years following it would become a legendary film, not only in that it expanded on the idea of a world infested with the shuffling dead, a world we see visited with frequency in modern media, but also in that the luscious and seemingly endless shots of practical effects from Tom Savini did for horror what Star Wars did for Sci-Fi in defining the art for the next decade and change.  Throughout the VHS days that represent to the end of the analog era, as I discuss from time to time, Dawn of the Dead represented a high bar that few films were able to reach in terms of shocking and impressive practical magic that truly felt like it was REAL in the context of the film that viewers were visiting.  For that, it's a classic that's embedded in the history of genre cinema in inextricable ways that should not be overlooked by the casual viewer.

That said, in 2019 the long run time and quirky, uneven tone can feel quaint or off-putting, drawing comparisons to the now fifteen year old remake of the film that was successful in replacing the Hitchcockian suspense in the fabric of the orignal with pulse pounding thrills that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats for fear that some growling corpse may charge into the room, while also hitting the emotional marks and comedic beats in an arguable more successful way.

Love it or not, the movie is one worthy of consideration, and we hope we were able to do it some justice here.  I had fun talking about it, and hopefully in some tiny way, we're able to help to contribute to it's legacy in horror history going forward for just a little longer.  

Cheers!

Shonny Constant

12/9/2019

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 Cover art for this episode by Crystal Mielcarek!  Find more of her work on Facebook, Instagram, or Smushbox.net