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.
