Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Director: George A. Romero

Writer: George A. Romero

Tagline: When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.

Actors: David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger, Gaylen Ross

Runtime: 2h 6m

Category: Zombie

Synopsis: A local newsroom bustles with an impending tragedy of a zombie epidemic. Francine, a producer at the station, and her boyfriend, the helicopter pilot, take off and pick up two S.W.A.T. members, Peter and Roger, at an apartment building they were raiding. The four of them get away and take refuge in an abandoned shopping mall. They sneak in from the roof into a store room and hold up for a bit. After a quick rest, they go explore the mall to get supplies. After collecting what they need they head back to their store room and make plans to eliminate the zombies inside the mall, lock all of the doors, and enable the alarm system. Time goes by slowly as the days pass without incident. Until one day a group of marauders on motorcycles break in and loot a bunch of stores in the mall. The zombie hordes that were held at bay are now inside the mall and they are closing in on our four heroes. They must escape before they became a zombie buffet!

Review: Sequel to Romero's 1968 Night of the Living Dead, this movie has everything a hardened horror fan could ever want. The blood was cheap but the head shots were beautiful. The make-up was minimal but the acting was great. As a fan of not only the zombie sub-genre, but also the old horror movies, this flick has everything! I could not, in good conscience, bash this movie in any way. This is probably the one horror movie I could watch over and over again and not get tired of it. Full of suspense and some humor, it is quite possibly one of the top five or ten horror movies of all time (before, obviously, The Exorcist (1973), and The Shining (1980)both coming soon).

Just as a note, I loved that the make-up artist, Tom Savini, was one of the marauders. Love cameos!

Rating: 23. Although I loved most everything about this movie, it just wasn't scary. It was a great horror movie and it probably was scary when it came out, but I like to be scared. That is why, even though I said it is one of the greats within the genre, I left it below the damn-near-perfect rating of 24. It was absolutely, freakin' great...but not scary. If you love zombies...SEE THIS MOVIE!!! (23of25).