Rating: 5/5 AKA: The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever Made – Better Than The 2004 Abomination Remake Watch Here: https://www.bitchute.com/video/QH0WsJyqZSaZ/
Live life to it's fullest, don't be a pleb slave.
One of the things lost over the years has been the ability for people to efficiently tell stories. Whether that stems from the inability to express oneself in the new era of censorship we’ve seen build from 2012 to now, or the flipside which I think is equally applicable; the inability to understand how to tell a story.
“You ain’t just in here by yourself boy.”
I guess my reason for pointing this out, has to do with what’s occurred in cinema, more specifically the horror genre over the years.
Independent creators seem to want to get their project out as quickly as possible, with minimal hassle. I don’t want to generalize but we’ve all seen the horrible rush jobs that happen and watch as the poor film quality takes you out of the viewing experience.
CG & digital film which can be implemented very successfully, has really allowed this type of instant film creation to happen very quickly over the last couple of decades.
I’m not talking about Triple A features which also suffer from extreme timelines and using technology as a shortcut to assist with rapid production, leeway is given with regards to how much is invested in the quality of the aesthetics of the product (generally).
Why Bring This Up? It would be a miracle to make Dawn of the Dead in todays society/world and have it come out as well crafted as it was back in the late 70s.
The censorship, combined with the people’s inability to tell a story; spliced with instant gratification tools would give you this:
(A Cluster Fuck, 2004)
Fast Food Cinema, which arguably we have been living with increasingly since the late 90s.
Dawn of the Dead (1978) carefully weaves horror film, social commentary, and art in one complete, perfect package.
Now I know on this blog we give Halloween Kills (2021) a lot of shit for adding social commentary to its story arc. We stand by that decision completely.
The thought that you can isolate a slasher film whose villain is legitimately after killing people for the sole, cruel enjoyment of it, cannot carry the sophistication of what would happen if society dealt with catastrophic “reality” breaking situations that led to the self-destruction of said society.
It's completely different and allows multiple genres to be called upon to flesh out the tale.
DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978)
"You are stronger than us, but soon I think they may be stronger than you."
Sequel to the epic 1968 “Night of the Living Dead”, Dawn picks up shortly after the events of the first film, where you see society basically sperging out on how to deal with the undead issue.
Some refuse to believe that people are returning to life and devouring the living and think it’s more of a viral infection that scientists should research a cure for.
The smart cats, realize what’s happening and decide to do what’s necessary in order to survive. News reporter Fran, her boyfriend and helicopter pilot Steven, along with his friend Roger, and Roger’s new bestie Peter all decide to group up together to find a safe place to “survive”.
Lucky for them on their journey, they discover an abandoned mall, still fully stocked, with the only issue being the massive amount of undead roaming inside.
“Looks like a shopping center, one of those big indoor malls.”
Watching the group as they encounter issues and overcome them is one of the best aspects of the story. You see their humble beginnings, trials, and victories as well as defeats.
This isn’t some rosy happy joyride. Every event in this movie, every storytelling nuance takes into account how people would react in the time period that it was filmed in.
Strangely it’s not too different than now. The only difference is we have less self-reliant people today, and more of a go with the flow and solve my problems Mr. Government type of society.
It is what it is. Though this element acts as just as much of foil for our heroes to overcome.
The additional foil being the overly emotional, unrealistic approach to solving the zombie outbreak, specifically this is something that cannot be legislated away by a majority of smug imbeciles who can’t balance a checkbook.
The mentally roadblocked public are just as much a threat as the zombies themselves.
“What does it take? What does it take, to make people see!?”
C19 Derp
Invariably the modern world would look to make comparisons to the C19 outbreak to the zombie outbreak we see here. Just because it’s the lowest hanging fruit of conceptualization, it’s a mistake to do that.
With our fiction in Dawn of the Dead, anyone who encounters these meat bags will either kill it or be eaten. The facts that govern the dangerousness of the zombie outbreak are pretty well adhered to in the Romero-verse of undead films. Don’t get me started on Day…I know I know…Bub we’ll get there one day.
Getting back to C19 and mistakenly comparing it to where society is split on what happened, it’s a lot more ambiguous and shrouded in bullshit than the story in Dawn.
In the movie we know zombies are coming after you to fuck you up, and if you don’t get on board with it, you are straight done son.
“Spam, don’t knock it, it’s got its own key!”
C19 narrative basically was dumped on us in the real world and here we are with a split of people who doubled down on taking jabs and believing the narrative because they literally lost someone to the flu and poor healthcare, against folks who looked at the whole thing as a flimsy excuse inoculate the population with a cocktail, that no one knows what the long-term effects are.
The difference between C19 and our fictitious story in Dawn is, that the narrative in the movie didn’t suddenly dump a massive amount of info on the population giving credence to the idea that the “zombies” just needed to be cured.
We do have the real-world equivalent (in 2022) of immunization companies finally being forced to release documentation that shows that maybe people shouldn’t have been in such a hurry to believe that they needed a shot that was put together by the real-life version of Dr. Lupesky from SoulTangler!
Gratuitous SoulTangler Reference
Just saying, brainwashing and wizardry has been around manipulating the masses forever, stop being so gullible, and you won’t get fucked.
“These creatures are nothing more than pure motorized instinct”
With Dawn you get the sense you’re on an adventure.
The rules of society, which gatekeep people’s ability to live to their fullest potential, even in the 70s; you get a glimpse of what it means to live on your own terms and die by your own hand. This notion is all but bred out of people in the modern world.
Its actually very sad that most of the problems and issues people cling to as their armchair quarterback McGuffin, would be resolved if you stopped relying on perceived “Betters” and built the world you wanted.
In Dawn time and time again, you see the media talking shit to the burnt out scientists, who like in the real world are no superheroes, and have stupid ideas, but at least understand what the actual problem is.
They want “solutions” from people other than themselves. It’s amazing to see how even 40 years ago people were comfortable with the idea that folks who were in positions of scientific academia were somehow responsible and charged with the wellbeing with all civilization.
Its just as big of a fucking joke then as it is now. In the film our heroes seized opportunity and made the best possible life they could under the circumstances. It’s what we should all be doing, regardless if we end up dead for our troubles.
“We whipped them, and we got it ALL!”
The End
The finale of the film is an epic showdown with a biker gang who has survived on the road since the outbreak began. I don’t hate them, and even Peter the levelheaded one of the group even states, “They’re just after the place.”
Peter knew their time at the mall was basically at an end, and at the very least they had a way to escape if things got hairy.
Steven however, having the emotional response of protecting what so many had worked hard to attain, decided that was his line in the sand. To defend the mall even if it means death.
It’s a poignant look at life. They didn’t build the mall, but in this movie you see the steps the group took to secure it, what they went thru to get there, and everything they lost in the process.
They didn’t wait on a “government solution” in fact they ran from how things were being organized in the big cities. It was a hellscape.
If you take anything away from Dawn, you should really think of what you're doing in your life, what you contribute to making it better, and what you build.
Without doing anything you are basically on auto pilot until you die, and you’re no different than the zombies in Romero’s films, which deep down we all know is an allegory on the dangerous peasant class that is weaponized against nature and reality.
“Alright!”
FINAL WORD –
MRHELLBOX – It’s just so fucking good. It makes you appreciate what the filmmakers must have went thru to get this made. They told one helluva horror story about humanity, and it should at the very least get you to reflect on what you’re doing with your life. – 5/5
DRUNKEN MASTER – Trying to figure out what brand of Champaign Peter was downing! Ken Foree was the man! – 5/5
PRINCE PECTORALS – What can we say? It’s the greatest zombie masterpiece ever created. Peter and Roger could have basically killed every single zombie in this film without question. Roger just needed to chill out. – 5/5
