DAWN OF THE DEAD

US, 1979, 139 minutes, Colour.
David Emge, Ken Foree.
Directed by George A. Romero.

Writer-director George Romero made a cult name with his low budget American Vampire classic, Night of the Living Dead (1968). Here, with help on script and music from Italian horror director Dario Argento (Suspiria), a bigger budget and a two-hour running time, he plays with his Living Dead theme (an infected world), survivors at the end of the world (most of the action taking place in a self-sufficient modern shopping mall) and bikie ravagers on the rampage. Nothing new, just Romero doing it - somewhat lazily at times and sometimes not too seriously. Other Romero horror films are The Crazies (1973) and Martin (1976).

1. The writer-director and his reputation? Trading on his reputation? The assistance from Dario Argento for screenplay, horror, shocks, music - from Argento and his group with electronic music?

2. The quality of the horror film as regards content style? The American locations, make-up, special effects, editing? The atmosphere of the score - the electronic music and the Muzak style?

3. Horror films as the equivalent of nightmares - the power to shock, the power to raise up unwanted images? The healthiness of facing nightmares?

4. To what purpose this film? The establishing of a world full of the Living Dead, the end of the world as we know it, Hell being full and the Living Dead wandering the world,, the impact of human chaos, the end of government especially in the United States, the possibilities of home and survival? The significance of the ending with a world of Living Dead and few survivors? The film as an exercise in horrifics? How seriously presented, how much tongue-in-cheek. how much satire?

5. The presentation of the Living Dead - the world presented as full of such creatures, their feeding on living human beings and their blood? The satire on a world full of zombies? The infected world and parasites eating humans? An appropriate apocalyptic image for the end of the world? How well did the film blend these themes?

6. The opening with the chaos at the television station, frantic arguments on and off television, fights? The late transmissions and the end of media communication? The point of opening the film here? The background of politics and trying to cope with the emergencies and crises?

7. The police and their raids, the long detail of the ugly Living Dead? Violence and murder sequences? Death? The killing of the Living Dead? The range of ordinary people showed as Living Dead? The overtones on the violent police films?


8. The impact of the mutants, seeing them feed? The cities full and being transformed into living morgues? The mutants out in the countryside? In the towns and waiting outside the supermarket?

9. The contrast with the living human beings and their attitudes? What constituted their humanity? The escape in the helicopter with its dramatics, the landing and refuelling and the attacks? People living at their wits' ends?

10. The decision to stay in the shopping mall - the mall as a microcosm, the detail of all the shops? How well did the camera communicate all the overtones of modern commercialism by showing advertisements, shops, the goods on sale, the supermarket styles? Money and goods? To what purpose? The zombie Living Dead moving back into familiar grounds - and the irony of people and supermarkets? The surviving group and using their wits to barricade themselves, elude the Living Dead, collect enough food? The style of life and civilisation that they established? The ultimate invasion and corruption of the survivors?

11. The final opting for death or survival - the option for life and escaping?

12. The characterisation of the four in the group - the young policeman and his becoming infected? His love of action - and his wanting to die when corrupted? The fiance and his flying the helicopter, his love for the girl, the pregnancy? His decisions and lack of effort, his finally succumbing? The girl and her pregnancy, a tough professional television woman, her coping with fears, the various dramatic scenes in which she was menaced? The significance of her pregnancy and survival? Peter as the black man, the policeman, friendships? His leadership and various strategies? His option for death and his changing his mind for life?

13. Themes of life and death - and pregnancy within this world?

14. The impact of so much of the film in the supermarket - ordinary life and the parody of it? The importance of the bikie ravagers and their confrontation with the Living Dead? Who was better, worse?

15. The impact of this kind of horror film - experiencing the visuals and the effects rather than an intellectual analysis of themes?