100 - Dawn Of The Dead

A journey through 'my' films.

Of course, they’re not ‘my’ films. However, whether I could watch them every day or would happily never see them again, these 100 films have had a marked impact on my life, my love of film, all manner of things, really.

Dawn Of The Dead (1978)
“When there is no more room left in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth. So intones SWAT team survivalist Peter (Ken Foree) in George A Romero’s sequel to the ground-breaking Night Of The Living Dead. If you’re curious about cinema’s ongoing obsession with zombie films, this is where it dates from. Not only that, but Romero’s follow-up is widely considered the sub-genre’s finest two-and-a-half hours. Experience the film’s arch satire and epic bloodshed and you might agree this represents praise of the very faintest variety.

Set in a heavily zombie-infested world, Dawn marries the superficially straightforward storytelling and sharp political content of the first film with heightened awareness and a firmer grasp. Armed with a slightly larger budget, and invaluable input from Italian horror king Dario Argento, Romero never forgets he’s making a film about reanimated beings who dine on human fresh. However, like that other leading light of ‘70s US horror John Carpenter, he appreciates that, as the terror is increased by grounding a picture in reality, so the recognisable aspects of Dawn’s world afford the filmmaker a chance to critique social mores and societal ills.