Dawn of the Dead (1978) Movie Review

Movie Length : 2 Hours, 7 Minutes

Main Characters
Stephen
Peter
Roger
Francine

Movie Summary: Following an ever-growing epidemic of zombies that have risen from the dead, two Philadelphia S.W.A.T. team members, a traffic reporter, and his television executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall.


If you've ever seen the remake of this movie but not the original, then I highly recommend you watch this one. Because as far as a good movie, this one beats the remake hands down.

To me it offers more of a backstory on each of the characters as well as different side-characters that don't really hold any value to the plot but they add a bit of spice to it and more of a depth to how humans would react to this type of situations; such as a zombie-breakout. Granted the remake of this movie had more characters that I really didn't see the point of them there, much less what their purpose was to the plot.

However, I should let it be known that the characters of this movie got on my nerves with their actions. They became overconfident in their fortress and in the end it was their downfall. Well two of them.

Oh warning, there will be spoilers so don't read beyond this point.

First off the only female character that is not a zombie, Francine, gets on my nerves so much with her attitude. I would have slapped her at the beginning of the movie and then proceeded to knock her brains out at every given chance. Granted at the end of the movie, she changed for the better but after watching her for nearly two hours complain after every little thing it got old quickly.

The other main characters were a variety of male mindsets, Peter, Stephen and Roger. Now Stephen got on my nerves because he kept trying to shot and he couldn't even aim straight but at the end of the movie he did redeem himself slightly but it still cost him his life. Roger's turning was sad to me because to me he really didn't deserve to be bitten at all, much less Peter having to shot his best friend. I would have liked Roger and Peter to be the two survivors rather than Peter and Francine. But I guess it's frowned upon to kill off a pregnant character...well maybe not but perhaps there was a reason why Francine wasn't killed off by the zombies.

Really didn't like the addition of the motorcycle gang but I can understand that during a zombie breakout of any kind that zombies aren't the only thing to be feared, nor are they they the most dangerous at times. While it did lose them their fortress aka the shopping mall, I did appreciate how they turned the zombies back to the invaders.

Another thing about this movie that I found odd was that the zombies maintained some type of memory of their past. Like the way Stephen was able to find the hidden doorway to the hidden room that him and Peter had worked hard on. I wish the movie would have explained this a bit further in detail but in the long run I don't guess it really matters.

All in all this movie was fantastic. The plot progressed in a steady manner. The zombies were awesome looking but I have come to expect that from a George A. Romero movie; much like I expect the gratuitous amount of gore that comes with these movies. So I have to give many kudos because of when this movie was made to the attention to gore that this movie has.

So I give this movie five zombie brains out of five.

Again I apologize for not posting daily as I wanted to but my family are going through some personal things that cannot be put on hold. But I do want to write as many reviews as I can so please be patient with me.

Until Next Time!