Dawn of the Dead (1978) review

(9/10)

This classic zombie film has enough gore, story, political undertone, and creeps to satisfy every horror film fan and most movie-goers in general. Romero knew what he was doing around the time this was made, but does it stand the test of time?

PLOT:Taking place not too long after "Night of the Living Dead", this film puts us into the chaos of the media and general public dealing with the zombie apocalypse. Our main characters here are two National Guard troops who were sent to clean out any infestation, Peter (Ken Foree) and Roger (Scott Reiniger), and two members of the crew at a local TV station, Stephen (Davide Emge) and girlfriend Frances (Gaylen Ross). These four snitch a helicopter and head for the country, but decide to not to after coming in contact with a few ghouls around that area. The eventually stumble upon a shopping mall infested with the creeps to hide out in, but life isn't easy living on the higher floor's deep recesses. Not to mention a biker gang find out about them and makes life even harder for the four of them. It's a good plot executed greatly.



ACTING:The acting in this film is really good. Ken Foree and Scott Reiniger are really great as the two National Guard officers, as are David Emge and Gaylen Ross as the "happy" couple. The four really added personality to their roles. There really wasn't a bad performance in the bunch. The zombies were pretty well played too.
SCORE:The soundtrack in here is brilliant and composed by one of the kings of horror score, Dario Argento and his band, Goblin. The score was very unique and pretty creepy at times. I really liked it.

EFFECTS:The effects in here were very gory and somewhat realistic for the time period. For the time period, the zombies looked fairly realistic and very creepy. The blood and gore effects are still very well done and rather brutal as ever.



OTHER CONTENT:This film was more than just your basic zombie film. There was enough action, drama, and comedy for it to have been generally accepted among more than just one audience. This film actually deserves a lot more respect than it gets by the general public. The film is also fairly realistic to how life might be and how the world might react if a zombie apocalypse really broke out. However, a lot of the scares and basic make-up effects don't stand the test of time; they aren't scary compared to today's standards. There are a good bit of scares that still leave a lasting impression on the audience, but for the most part, they're really dated. I was hardly scared by this film at all, but it is still a good film, especially for its time.

OVERALL,an awesome zombie film with a great plot, really good acting, brilliant score, very well done gore effects, more genre possibilities besides the horror label, and realistic situations pertaining to any possible zombie apocalypse, but some of the scares and general make-up effects don't seem to stand up to the test of time.

Night of the Living Dead (1968) review

(9/10)

The zombie movie that awakened a nation.

PLOT:Barbara (Judith O'Dea) and her brother are going to their father's grave to place flowers on it; however, when they get there, a man is roaming the graveyard and her brother jokes with her saying it's going to get her. Ironically, the man attackes her, but her brother fights him and is left on the ground. She runs to a nearby farmhouse where she meets an African-American named Ben (Duane Jones) and the family that lives there, including stubborn father Harry (Karl Hardman) and eccentric Tom (Keith Wayne). They find out by TV that these things are cannibalistic corpses brought back by radiation from a satellite shot down by the army. Now they must keep them out of the house and stay alive until they acn reach a rescue station. It's a great set-up for a zombie movie, and is executed as well is it can be.



ACTING:Excellent. O'Dea and Jones steal the show as the show real fear, panic, and overall emotion. An honorable mention is Marilyn Eastman as Helen, the mom. I could see her fear when she was attacked.

SCORE:Very scary and at times hypnotic.

EFFECTS:There's just a few scenes with blood and gore, but the ones with it don't go as far as to overuse the blood. They make the effects realistic and necessary.



OTHER CONTENT:I appreciate this film for how, at the time being, it was a groundbreaking spot in horror entertainment. Zombie films had not been invented until 1968 when this came out. It does still unnerve in today's times, with its shocking ending, wandering corpses, the idea itself, and the best scene with the little girl and her mother However, it's just a bland film compared to today's zombie film. So much has been done with the zombie subgenre that this film is just seen as a bland zombie film no different from the others. Time wasn't the best to this due to many other sequels and additions. Either way, it's still a classic, distrubing zombie film that started it all. Congrats, Mr. Romero, you started something big.

OVERALL,an awesome horror film with a well-executed zombie plot, excellent acting, hypnotic and scary score, realistic effects, and the power to still unnerve today, but time wasn't real good to it.