Theatre of the Dead #2 - Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Director: George A. Romero
Stars: David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott Reiniger


Review:

In reality, zombie apocalypse, among other apocalyptic scenarios, is the easiest to deal with. Just do not send infantry troops in, but tanks or armoured vehicles. The event of Night of the Living Dead last for a night, but people love the concept so much, it never ends.

Dawn of the Dead seems to pick up right after Night of the Living Dead, but it stands alone. Zombies are now at large, and people want to survive. A group of people flew off in a helicopter, and landed on a shopping mall for some supplements. Soon they realize it may be not such a bad idea to stay in the mall and live on all of the supplements in it.

Shopping mall with zombie shoppers. Is there really a big difference?

George A. Romero extends the idea of zombie apocalypse, than not just to survive for the instant, but how to survive in a matter of a long time, at least weeks. The answer is capture a mall, in which you have almost infinite supplies. It's fun to even think about that a whole mall is upon your disposal, and how to survive with the existence of flesh-eating zombies. We watch them having fun with all the things in the mall, and even playing with the zombies, using them as target practice or teasing them. At some times we even wished we were in it with them. They made the mall suitable for themselves, and safe from all the zombies, and that is almost a tutorial on how to survival a zombie apocalypse.

Step 1: Find a safe spot that is free from zombies.

Step 2: Go in and out of your hiding spot through secret tunnel  that zombies would not know.

Step 3: Block the entrance with trucks. I never fully understand this.
If they cant get in, they cant. I guess in a movie you have to do something stupid.

Underlying the entertainment, there is a social satire implied in the movie. We see the zombies walking around in the mall, and heard the characters asked "Why they come here?". Yes, why do we go to malls? Is that really because we have something to buy? Or even having any definitive aim? How many times have we go to malls just because we have to do something or to spend some money. In a sense the zombie virus represents consumerism, turning us into zombie that have no thinking. In 1978 it maybe malls. Now it probably be iPhones. Maybe its for the better. When zombie apocalypse come we just distract them with an iPhone.

The zombie makeup is a little dated. Hey but that's 1978.

In a whole the movie is very much like a walk of live. We know that life is a shithole, zombies roaming freely, but we want to find fun out of it. Later we looked back and realize that life is still shit, and the zombies are still haunting us, and we have the face the inevitable fate, which is death. Maybe I'm going too far and this is not that kind of movie. But without the recognition of the satire or implication, as I have said, it is interesting to even watch how much fun to survive in a zombie apocalypse.