Editorials
George A. Romero’s ‘Dawn of the Dead’ Turns 40!
George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead is often considered the best film of his game-changing zombie series. This time Romero embraced the political reputation of Night of the Living Dead and opted to aim for the jugular with his statement on the consumerism of American capitalism. He upped the gore and the humor, too, delivering a memorable classic about four unlikely allies holed up in a secluded shopping mall amidst the zombie apocalypse. Dawn of the Dead was released in Italian markets on September 1, 1978, due to a surprising partnership, before finally making its way to the U.S. six months later on April 20, 1979, meaning that this Romero favorite turns 40 not once, but twice.
After the release of game-changing classic Night of the Living Dead, co-writers George A. Romero and John Russo had a disagreement over where the series should head. Thanks to the film being in public domain, the pair branched off to deliver two very memorable zombie franchises. Russo wrote the novel Return of the Living Dead that served as the loose basis for the 1985 horror comedy, and Romero eventually continued with beloved zombie favorite Dawn of the Dead. Between not wanting to be pigeonholed in horror, working on a string of other films, and struggling to find the funds needed to make Dawn of the Dead, it wasn’t an easy path for Romero to create this sequel.
An unfinished script was passed on to an Italian distributor, who passed it on to Dario Argento. A fan of both Night of the Living Dead and the unfinished script, he flew to New York to meet with Romero and the pair struck up a deal; Argento and his partners would secure half of the budget in exchange for all foreign rights in non-English speaking territories except South America. Argento had final cut of the version released in Italy, while Romero had full control over the cut released in America that was released a half of a year later. Argento’s cut is a shorter run-time; he trimmed jokes that he felt would go over the heads of Italian audiences. He also replaced the score with music by Goblin.
The script for Dawn of the Dead was a whopping 253 pages long. Romero wrote everything in lengthy detail so he could communicate everything to the various departments as he didn’t have time to make storyboards. Filmed at the shopping mall in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, which Romero had discovered while securing financing for Martin, the crew had to shoot after hours and clear out every morning in time for customers’ arrival.
Romero had a clear vision for his film, but he also gave creative freedom to the 1,600 extras that came in to play zombies. He just instructed them to be the best zombie they could, with no direction on how they should move or look. Also given creative freedom was effects artist Tom Savini, whose only direction from the script was to make it look as realistic as possible. Nearly half of the gore gags in the second half of the film were improvised. One of the most celebrated zombie kills of all time, the screwdriver to the zombie ear (played by composer John Harrison), took Savini roughly two minutes to come up with.
Of course, the gore meant Dawn of the Dead earned an X-rating. Instead, Romero and producers opted to release it unrated. In the end, only one theater refused to play the film for being unrated. The film was trimmed down to receive an R-rating in 1982 so it could play in drive-ins on a double bill with Romero’s Creepshow, but fans were having none of it and it was quickly pulled from theaters.
Dawn of the Dead traded the gloomy, depressive black and white aesthetic of its predecessor in favor of something bold, over the top, and humorous. There was no subtlety at all about the social commentary here. Dawn marked Romero’s full embrace of the political, but of his zombie world as well. These zombies weren’t just faceless killers, but distinct characters. Some of which he couldn’t bring himself to kill, like the zombie nun. He didn’t intend to have anyone survive the end of the film, but found he loved Fran (Gaylen Ross) and Peter (Ken Foree) too much and rewrote a more uplifting conclusion.
Dawn of the Dead was a critical and box office hit, and it solidified Romero’s rank as a master of horror. There’s really no wrong version to watch; all cuts of Dawn of the Dead work and it’s easy to see why it remains a steadfast favorite among fans. It was this film in the series in which Romero fell in love with his zombie world, and so did we.
It’s been 75 years since The Thing From Another World first warned us to “watch the skies”, and filmgoers have done just that by showing up to multiple instances of extraterrestrial contact on the big screen. This makes sense, as a recent CBS news poll estimated that 63% of Americans believe in intelligent life on other planets, and the ongoing disclosure movement aims to raise that number with each passing day.
With Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day leaving many genre fans hungry for more alien footage (preferably of the spooky variety), today I’d like to share a list recommending six underrated alien invasion thrillers for your viewing pleasure. After all, regardless of whether or not you believe that we’re alone in the universe, it can be fun to dream about the worst-case scenario if our cosmic neighbors ever decide to visit.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be focusing on lesser-known invasion stories rather than the popular extraterrestrials of franchises like Alien and Close Encounters of the Third (or even Fourth) Kind. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own alien favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling movie.
While it won’t be featured in this article, I’d highly recommend checking out Dean Alioto’s UFO Abduction/The McPherson Tape if you’re up for some ufology-inspired found footage thrills.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. The Arrival (1996)
Not to be confused with Denis Villeneuve’s Academy Award-winning Amy Adams vehicle about learning to communicate peacefully with extraterrestrial life, David Twohy’s The Arrival is a much more straightforward (but no less entertaining) genre romp where Charlie Sheen faces a global conspiracy involving hostile alien invaders.
It’s not exactly up there with Close Encounters or even Independence Day, but Twohy’s conspiratorial thriller plays out like an exceptionally fun episode of The X-Files that I’d recommend to sci-fi/horror fans who don’t mind a little bit of wonky CGI and 90s excess alongside their alien thrills.
5. Extraterrestrial (2014)
The Vicious Brothers made a name for themselves with the success of 2011’s Grave Encounters, but that was far from the Canadian duo’s only collaboration. And while it’s not exactly a fan favorite, I always point out 2014’s Extraterrestrial as one of their most underrated projects simply because I agree with the filmmakers’ opinion that there aren’t enough ‘cool alien abduction movies’ out there.
Admittedly, the majority of the picture functions like a run-of-the-mill creature feature with paper-thin characters and familiar horror tropes, but I’d argue that the cosmically-terrifying final act elevates the experience to new and memorable heights. The movie also boasts great performances by both Michael Ironside and Emily Perkins – a combination that more than makes up for the occasionally janky CGI.
4. Alien Raiders (2008)
Director Ben Rock has gone on record lamenting how his John-Carpenter-inspired creature feature was forcefully renamed from Supermarket to the painfully obvious Alien Raiders (a change which likely resulted in many potential viewers skipping out on the experience), but the new title doesn’t change the fact that this single-location thriller is something of a hidden gem.
Taking place entirely within a supermarket, Alien Raiders tells the story of an ensemble of customers and employees who are taken hostage by a group of armed men looking for something far more dangerous than an easy payout. I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoiling the experience, but I’d highly recommend this criminally underseen flick to fans of John Carpenter and the Resident Evil games.
3. Phoenix Forgotten (2017)
You’d think that a Ridley-Scott-produced retelling of one of the most infamous real-life UFO sightings of all time would have a bigger following, but I rarely see Justin Barber’s Found Footage period piece brought up during discussions about extraterrestrial-focused horror movies.
This is a huge shame, as Phoenix Forgotten is just as spooky as it is convincing, with this well-researched dive into the Phoenix Lights incident benefiting from surprisingly believable special effects as well as an appropriately horrific finale.
2. Communion (1989)
I wouldn’t blame you for disregarding Whitley Strieber’s controversial book about his alleged close encounter as sensationalist slop, but I’d argue that Phillipe Mora’s 1989 adaptation of these events is much better than the source material. After all, the movie works as a standalone piece of speculative fiction while also benefiting from an incredible performance by the one and only Christopher Walken!
Mora’s take on Communion may not be particularly scary, but the film is still an unforgettable character study regardless of whether or not the abduction really happened. Not only that, but the flick also paved the way for plenty of future sci-fi stories where the extraterrestrial invaders aren’t as evil as they initially appear.
1. Altered (2006)
Originally envisioned as a Sam Raimi-style horror-comedy titled Probed, Eduardo Sánchez (of The Blair Witch Project fame) eventually realized that it would be much more interesting to turn the film into a serious exploration of the emotional aftermath of a traumatic abduction incident.
That’s how we got Altered, a clever inversion of the standard abduction narrative that follows a group of troubled friends as they capture and experiment on an alien in order to enact revenge for their own abduction years prior.
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