George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead

What can you say about Dawn of the Dead?  It is one of the most revered of horror classics and arguably, the most beloved of zombie films.  A film that both shoves gruesome gore-filled scenes in your face and presents some still-relevant social commentary about consumerism, Dawn of the Dead was a follow-up to another already classic film, Night of the Living Dead, that managed to stand on its own, rather than just hanging out in the shadow of its predecessor.  It is an American movie with Italian funding, featuring a score by an Italian prog rock group, mixed with various pieces of stock music.  There is a nearly-as-classic documentary by Roy Frumkes that deals with the making of the film, Document of the Dead.  On top of all that, there are multiple cuts of the film, with each having its own group who support it as the best version.

The "Ultimate Edition" DVD release from Anchor Bay
Includes U.S. theatrical cut, extended cut, Argento's cut, and Document of the Dead

With as readily available as Dawn of the Dead has become, it may be strange to think that there was a time when it was next to impossible to track down a copy.  I first saw the movie by renting it on VHS decades ago.  I made a copy of the tape I rented and that was the only copy of the movie I had for some time.  Then one day, I was at Blockbuster Video, of all places, and happened to glance at some of the tapes for sale and saw on the shelf Dawn of the Dead.  Back then, Blockbuster sold VHS tapes as well as renting them.  There were the "previously viewed" tapes (aka used tapes, aka former rental tapes), but there were also just new tapes that were specifically intended for retail sale, which is where I found Dawn of the Dead.  The price on the tape was $14.99, which was more than reasonable.  I grabbed it and got quite a surprise at the register: it rang up at $4.99.  I wasn't about to complain.

Possibly the best $4.99 I ever spent

Some time after that, release after release of Dawn of the Dead saw the light of day.  Much like other movies such as The Evil Dead and Halloween, the film went from out-of-print, or at least very hard to find, to a point of veritable over-saturation.  Part of this stems from something that was going on in the 1990s, which was the Laserdisc format finally finding a real place for itself.  Various companies (primarily Elite Entertainment and the Roan Group) began releasing special edition versions of various horror and exploitation titles-- Maniac, Hellraiser, I Spit on Your Grave, Zombie, Phantasm, and many others.  Seeing how as most people did not have Laserdisc players, somebody figured it might be a good idea to put out VHS editions of these Laserdisc releases.  It was a pretty great time to be a horror fan.  Films you had been a fan of were getting a respectful and loving release, often restoring scenes that had been trimmed down or removed altogether for many years.  The main company when it came to these VHS releases was Anchor Bay.  While not every one of these Laserdisc releases got a VHS version, many did and they pretty much all had the Anchor Bay logo on the package.  One notable exception I can think of is Cannibal Ferox, which got a Laserdisc release in the late '90s by Grindhouse Releasing, followed by a VHS version that was released in conjunction with The RMM Agency.

Laserdisc boxed set release by Elite Entertainment

VHS version of Elite's Laserdisc release from Anchor Bay

Let's just focus on the film itself, though.

While it is a follow-up to Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead is not a regular sequel.  There are no returning characters or really any familiar settings.  The only thing tying it to the original is the world in which the characters exist.  This really allows the film to stand on its own two feet.  There is no need to see the first film to understand the new one.  There are no characters' histories developed in the first film that affect the events of the second.  Even the world in which the characters live is set up within the film itself, so it remains quite self-contained, even if watching the movies in order allows you to see the progression of the apocalyptic scenario.

Dawn also is not a rehash of Night.  The focus this time around is on a smaller group of characters and they get along a lot better than those in Night.  The story unfolds over a significantly longer time period, as well.  There isn't an ever-present threat really, either, allowing the characters to eventually get a little too comfortable in their new home, lapsing into an all too familiar rut of mundane day-to-day existence.  In the end, an invading motorcycle gang breaks into the mall in which the main characters have set themselves up, smashing the illusion of normalcy the group had created for itself in the mall.

For the music, George did things a little differently than he had with Night of the Living Dead.  While he did still utilize pieces from a music library as he had previously, he also used some pieces written for the film by the Italian group Goblin.  This was a result of Dario Argento's involvement with the film.  The music ended up being one of the major differences between the cut George created for territories such as the U.S. and the cut Dario made for non-English speaking European countries-- while Dario utilized all of the pieces Goblin had created, George used only three: "L'alba dei morti viventi", "Zombi", and "La Caccia".  "L'alba dei morti viventi" is one of the most powerful pieces ever conjured by Goblin.  It is the piece that plays during the chaotically intense opening of the film and the title translates to "Dawn of the Living Dead".  As a side note, "L'alba dei morti viventi" is the title of the very first issue of the Italian horror comic book, Dylan Dog, which I have previously written about on this blog.   

Cassette release of the Goblin score from Cinevox

Back when Dawn of the Dead came out, there was also a novelization released.  One of the advantages of a novel is the ability to get into characters' heads more easily and this shows in the novel.  For instance, Roger is always trying to impress Peter, which accounts for some of his careless behavior.  In the movie, it seems more that Roger is maybe a bit immature or reckless.  This gives a different perspective to his character.  If you enjoy the movie, check out the novelization as well.  It is a fun read and there have been reprints of it, so it isn't too difficult or expensive to find, unlike the novelization for Romero's Martin.

Another interesting thing about Dawn of the Dead is that there was a board game made of it at the time.  Naturally, these days it is hard to find and is pretty expensive.  One of these days I want to get the game and play it at least once.  Apparently, there is the normal multiplayer set of rules and then a "solitaire" version so that if you don't have anybody to play the game with, you can still play Dawn of the Dead, which is a good feature because, in all honesty, it is difficult to get people together to play a board game, especially these days.

If you are a fan of horror and you have not seen this one, then I don't know what you have been doing with your time.  If you have seen it and just legitimately just did not really care for it, then fair enough, everybody should form their own opinions.  Love it or hate it, though, there is no denying Dawn of the Dead's place in horror cinema and cinema in general.