Try
and imagine a time when malls were the new flashy capitalist thing,
and not the loathsome trash compactor dungeons that you venture into
if you want to avoid the rain for a bit or if you like wearing
tracksuits but are neither Paulie Gualtieri nor doing sport of any
kind? You can't? Well, THAT TIME IS NOW.
I
like what Romero is trying to say here. More things should have
subtle messages. It's good to stay busy, and I like things with more
than one thing.
There's
not a huge plot or the presence of character arcs here, it's not a
very conventional film, but it's great. The music is weird, the
lighting is bright and static, and you get the impression that a lot
was filmed but that the real movie was made in editing.
We
open with a news studio slowly falling into chaos and a swat team
busting a zombie-ridden block of houses. Our four protagonists escape
on a helicopter, and really it could have been anyone. They end up in
a mall, where they survive for a while until a biker gang comes by to
mess it up.
The
four leads were pretty great, though a lot of the minor actors were a
bit hammy. The filmography was pretty basic really, but there were so
many fun deaths and quirky moments (many of the interesting deaths
were apparently thought up at the time of shooting). It's a much more
fun film than the first or third one, and it's also probably the one
most people think of (it's certainly the one most people rip off). I
think it's my least favourite of the trilogy though, simply because
the first was a classic that created the whole concept, and the third
was far darker and was set in a bunker.
Dawn of the Dead: 67.3