Movie review: ‘Dawn of the Dead’ (1979)

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When I saw the original “Dawn of the Dead” in its first run in 1979, I thought there would never be a better zombie film. It was George A. Romero’s masterpiece and even better than his classic zombie film “Night of the Living Dead” from 11 years earlier. “Dawn of the Dead” has everything: scary, explicit gore in the zombie-eats-humans realm; lots of death, destruction and mayhem; and a conclusion that is less Hollywood-scripted than talented writer-director scripted. The remake of the film is solid, too, but it’s nowhere as near as good as the original. It would be overtaken in the category of zombie flicks by the creative “Shawn of the Dead” in 2004, which itself would be overtaken just five years later by the magnificent “Zombieland” in 2009.

‘Dawn of the Dead’
(1979*; 127 minutes; rated R; directed by George A. Romero and starring David Emge, Scott Reiniger, Ken Foree and Gaylen Ross; * – premiere was in 1978 in Italy, but not until 1979 in the U.S. and most internet sources show it as a 1978 film)

IT TOOK 25 YEARS TO GET A BETTER ZOMBIE MOVIE

Director George A. Romero turned out a classic zombie flick in black-and-white in 1968 with “Night of the Living Dead.” However, it is the sequel “Dawn of the Dead” that is the perfect zombie flick and not the cult-favorite original. “Dawn of the Dead” is as a complete horror film as you will ever find.

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I find the most interesting thing about “Dawn of the Dead” is that while the acting is second-rate and and essentially wooden, the story and underlying psychology of the idea of zombies, dealing with zombies and the effect of violence on people’s psyches, is much deeper than you would first believe of this film. There’s so much more about the film’s theory and emotional challenges for the characters than could ever have been communicated by the cast and, I believe, is left more the audience.

What you have with “Dawn of the Dead” is that a zombie apocalypse has begun in the U.S. and is in an early stage and “experts” talk on TV about the phenomenon with some saying “kill” and others saying don’t kill. You know, kind of like how competing philosophies clash through podcasts and YouTube on social media today.

To go along with the deep-thinking premise underlying in the film, is its totally graphic gore – you get close up views of zombies biting skin off the living as well as people being gutted alive and their intestines pulled out. The only thing missing is the type of humor you find in “Zombieland” (click here to read my review) when one character points to a zombie having a meal and calling the victim the zombie’s “Manwhich.”

It is important to note that the graphic gore in “Dawn of the Dead” actually makes you uneasy, unlike what would come in too many films later in the late 1990s and into the 2000s with more hideously explicit special effects and when horror films just set out to sicken with their violence and being nothing more than congenital gorefests.

Now, back on point … “Dawn of the Dead” is the story of four people – two from a television station and two police officers – who get out of the big city via the TV station’s helicopter and make their way to ultimately finding a shopping mall, where they will set up residence behind walls and doors blocked to keep out zombies.

The group sets up shop in the mall and conceals the hallway to their second-floor hideout by making it look like a wall. Then, they start to make the mall their home: They block all the doors to the mall by parking tractor-trailer rigs in front of each and then go on a “hunt” to kill all the zombies inside the mall.

Unfortunately, one of the police officers gets bitten by a zombie during the truck-blocking adventure. He ultimately dies, reanimates and the other cop has to finish him off.

The group’s oasis, which, at first becomes a quite luxurious home with the best foods, drinks and … well, video games, starts to quietly become a negative.

It all unravels after a roving biker gang spots the helicopter landing on the roof of the mall (the pilot was teaching the others how to fly so all would be able if they needed to fly themselves). The bikers then see how the doors are blocked, see a place ripe with booty and break in themselves since the zombies were unable to and bring the whole thing crashing down.

The second of the group (the pilot) dies when he gets cut off and is killed by the zombies, reanimates and leads the zombies to the fake wall and on to the group’s hideout.

Some of the scenes in the mall are humorous, such as when one biker sits down to use a blood pressure machine and you see his blood pressure go off the chart when zombies get him, but basically it is the analogy that the serpent has arrived in Eden.

The last remaining cop sees nothing but death and decides to kill himself rather than face the future, but has second thoughts and fights his way to the helicopter with the other remaining person from the group. The pair then fly off to an uncertain future.

Here’s a look at as much of the cast of “Dawn of the Dead” as I care to note individually …

  • Ken Foree plays policeman “Peter Washington” and while the last to join the group, he quietly becomes the leader and Foree does the best job of all in the cast. Foree’s “Washington,” like the other cop, is competent, but he manages to convey his character’s more experienced and callous nature. Foree has had a much more varied career in entertainment than his co-stars, as he has 112 acting credits coming into 2024. He was in the 2007 remake of “Halloween” (not a very good film) as well as paying the bills by working on a bunch of 1980s TV shows and even voiced some video games. One film that I love the title is “Samurai Priest Vampire Hunter” (sadly, the original title was “Live Evil”) and he plays “Macks the Blood Pusher.”
  • David Emge plays “Stephen ‘Flyboy’ Andrews” and he’s the traffic reporter/pilot for the television station. Emge does an OK job guiding his character through the film, but, like the others, he doesn’t manage to elevate the character to memorable status. Emge starts out as the leader of the group, but gives way to Foree. He had a very short career in Hollywood of five acting credits, with the last being “Hellmaster” from 1992. Emge died at 77 on Jan. 20, 2024.
  • Gaylen Ross plays “Francine ‘Fran’ or ‘Flygirl’ Parker” and she’s Emge’s significant other who is pregnant. Ross, who has a more extensive CV as a director or producer, gives a milquetoast effort, but on occasion tries to have her character show emotion beyond what’s expected. Again, it is an undistinguished effort. Ross refused to scream in the film as she reportedly told Romero that she didn’t want the female character to show that stereotypical weakness. Too bad that drive didn’t come out with a better look on screen. One of her other two acting roles was in “Creepshow” from 1982.
  • Scott Reiniger plays “Roger ‘Trooper’ DeMarco’ and he’s the first cop you see as part of police storming an apartment building holding family members and a bunch of zombies in the basement. Reinger is second best in the acting efforts in this one behind Foree and he tries with expressions what he wasn’t given in the way of dialogue. He’s OK because he conveys his character’s competence until getting bitten by a zombie trying to do too much. Reiniger, too, had a brief career in Hollywood with only eight acting credits (this one was his first) and the final one was the remake of “Dawn of the Dead.”

After the four principal cast members, you don’t get much in the way of acting that you can evaluate on an individual basis. There are some interesting zombies, such as the “Nurse” creature because of her makeup, or the minister so smooth with a deadly pronouncement about the apocalypse or the Hare Krishna zombie, but none of the supporting cast is worthy of individual review.

The only wound in the storyline is that Ross’ pregnancy basically disappears long before the end of the film (not so in the remake). Oh, well. I never say “Dawn of the Dead” is perfect in that regard.

Romero’s direction in “Dawn of the Dead” is cool and efficient and he deserves all the acclaim he garnered over his career that made him a legend in horror cinema. His third “Dead” film was “Day of the Dead” from 1985 and, like the first two films, Romero both wrote and directed the effort. However, “Day of the Dead,” which was partially filmed Southwest Florida near my hometown, isn’t that great and Romero should have known better. He died of lung cancer at 77 in 2017.

It’s interesting that Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” was a sequel better than the original (even if only marginally so), and the remake of it in 2004 is actually decent and better than many other “reboots” of successful films. The 2004 version has an ensemble cast with Ving Rhames in the role originated by Foree, but has components even more ghastly than the original sequel (and you’d never believe that possible watching “Dawn of the Dead”).

“Dawn of the Dead” was the 52nd ranked film at U.S. theaters in 1979 with $5.1 million in ticket sales, according to The Numbers website (see, even it recognizes that the film was released in 1979). According to Box Office Mojo, The No. 1 film was “Superman” with $93.1 million (here’s another with a goofy “release” date – it actually premiered in 1978, but is listed as a 1979 film); at No. 2 was “The Amityville Horror” with $86.4 million; and at No. 3 was “Rocky II” with $85.1 million. Here are the other films from 1978 that I’ve reviewed for my blog:

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Emge and Reiniger worked at the same restaurant before working on this film. Emgee was a chef and Reiniger was a waiter.
  • It was reported at the time of filming that extras were paid $1, given a doughnut and given a T-shirt with the film’s title on it.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “The outdoor scene where hunters, emergency crew and soldiers are shooting at zombies was done using local volunteers. Several local hunters arrived on-scene with their own weapons, the local National Guard division showed up in full gear, and local emergency crew (police, fire and ambulance) were present, all voluntarily.”
  • Several members of the motorcycle gang that invades the mall were members of the local chapter of the Pagans motorcycle club and used their own customized bikes.
  • There was no gun store in the mall where much of the filming took place. Romero filmed the gun shop scenes at a nearby store and edited the cuts to appear as if it were in the mall.
  • Hunters early in the film are drinking Iron City beer.
  • An Oscar and Golden Globe nominee for the terrific racial drama “A Soldier’s Story,” Adolph Caesar was the voice on radio and TV commercials for the film. Caesar died at 52 in 1986 of a heart attack.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “The working title was ‘Dawn of the Living Dead,’ a logical name for a sequel to Night of the Living Dead (1968). The reason for changing it to ‘Dawn of the Dead’ was that after making ‘Night,’ writers George A. Romero and John A. Russo decided to go their separate ways and make their own sequels to it. While Romero wrote and directed ‘Dawn,’ Russo made a movie called The Return of the Living Dead (1985), loosely based on his own sequel book with the same name. To set the two movies apart, ‘Return’ and its sequels take place in a separate universe from ‘Night’ and use ‘Living Dead’ in the title, whereas Romero’s ‘Dawn’ and its sequels continue from ‘Night,’ but leave the word ‘Living’ from their titles.”
  • Click here to view IMDb.com’s extensive trivia page about the film …

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