Dawn of the Dead.

Dan and I listened to Ann Counter yap on CSPAN at this Young American Bullshit I'm a fucked up right winger college kid convention and I don't understand where she gets her facts. She likes to rewrite history. Anyway, the above picture is how I felt afterward.

But onto better things. The movie. Dawn of the Dead. Huh? I admit this will probably piss off a lot of Romero fans, but I was kind of bored. The DVD we have contains a number of different versions. There is the Theatrical U.S. Version, the European Version, and the Extended Version. Extended Version? I watched the U.S. Version and it finished at 2 hours and 7 mins and that felt way too long.

I thought the blue paint was cheesy, the blood was bad and having the film in color just doesn't work. Night of the Living Dead was so much better. Visually, the black and white only made the zombies scarier. Also, there were more details in that film, like the radio announcements, as well as the individual character development was stronger. In Dawn of the Dead, they just start killing and shooting right away, and what they're shooting at isn't that scary, it's more stupid looking, so I was a bit bored.

I get it: we're in a shopping mall, and people are walking around like zombies, we're all consumers who don't think for ourselves, etc. Overall, I would not rank this with Carnival of Souls or even The Last Man on Earth, which I recently watched, and thought was much better than this.

Anyhow, I don't think Dawn of the Dead is bad, and I suppose I can see how some like it and think it's funny, but it just might not be my thing. Others who write for this site: if you disagree and think this is great I am more than willing to listen. Is it just nostalgia?

Dawn of the Dead(s) & Shaun of the Dead.

In light of all the zombie talk after having watched the boring I Am Legend, Anthony told me he has a love of zombie films and that the original Dawn of the Dead is one of his faves. They later made some zombie films where the zombies had Mohawks and cans of spray paint but I don't know much about those.

I've not seen any of these films below, but I am planning to watch the 1978 film soon. I don't really have any interest in seeing the remake, and the parody looks kind of silly. I much enjoyed Night of the Living Dead, but probably my favorite "dead" movie would have to be Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls. It's a film that gets labeled a "B" movie, but I think it is much more deserving than that label. I was not surprised to later learn that he was influenced by Bergman.

I always thought the creepiest film would have to involve the directing of Romero and Antonioni together. Bring in the walking dead with that imagery from L'Eclisse and you have a pretty scary film.

Night Of The Living Dead

Ok, you just knew I had to add this freeby, eh?

Here it is:


Still the prime example of a great idea trumping limited budgets. Yes, the acting is hit and miss, but has there ever been a more symbolically political film (ok, maybe the original Planet Of The Apes, released in 1968, as well)?

I'll one day have to review the Millennium Edition of this classic film, but has there been a more analyzed film? Not even 2001: A Space Odyssey, Gone With The Wind, nor Citizen Kane likely equal all the ink spilled over this film.

Like 2001 (also a 1968 release), I saw this film for the first time about a decade after its initial release, and late at night. It really was scary. Granted, I was likely less scared than most kids my age were when they saw this, but that a film could scare me at all is a testament to its craft.

Unfortunately, while director George Romero made some interesting films throughout the 1970s and thru the early 1980s, the last 25 years have been a, ahum....Dead Zone.

This is his masterpiece, and likely a film that will still be watched centuries hence. Give it aanother go, or, if you are a Dead virgin, let it play out fully on you.