Dawn of the Dead (1978) Review

Dawn of the Dead is a pretty barebones movie and as such, there isn’t much to spoil. People living in zombie hellscape, find mall, settle down, are overrun by biker gang. “But David, there is so much more to this movie than just that story structure!” I agree! Most of what Dawn of the Dead brings to the table is conversation fodder and philosophical debates. So let’s take a look at some of the more interesting talking points that are found in Dawn.

We Are Already Zombies!

This is a theme that we are presented with a few times. Why are these zombies here at the mall? Why are they picking up items and using them in a vain attempt to act human? Because this is what they know, this is what is familiar to them. When you boil that down, what these zombies knew before death was just going to the mall and buying stuff, the real terror starts to set-in. We are just slaves to commercialism!

Our very purpose is to consume what is put in front of us until we die and have to eat brains! Ok, maybe not that brains part, but still.

What’s even scarier is that our four alive protagonists do the same damn thing! They play in the mall and have a great time until the novelty wears off, and they start to fall into the rut of mall life. And then the marauding biker gang came. C’est la vie.

The Death AlleGORY

Zombies take what scares us the most, and shoves it in our face in the form of an insatiable horde who wants us to join their ranks. They force us to look at our fear of social collapse and civil unrest.

Unruly mobs scare us. Social unrest scares us. Death scares us.

Zombies are the personification of all of these things. They force us to deal with these issues face to face.

The Death Reality

Dawn of the Dead forces us to deal with the real life issue of death as it enters our life. What do I mean by this, and how is it different than the death allegory? I mean the fact that at some point in every single zombie movie you are invested in the protagonists, and at least a few of them become zombies that the group has to “deal with”. The protagonists turn, against their will, into the antagonists.

And once you realize that, you place yourself in that position, often with a group of friends or family members and you ask yourself, “Could I do it? Could I put down my friend/lover/parent?”

The Strategic Mind of Zombie Preppers

Look – if you haven’t found someone to talk about strategy and tactics for the eventual zombie apocalypse, just hit me up! This is one of the best parts of zombie movies, figuring out how you would handle yourself and your family in the event of an outbreak. I’ve reached such a fevered pitch in this arena that I am actually outfitting my truck to be able to double as a zombie bug-out vehicle (if you talk to my wife, it’s a family camper) for just such an occasion.

Dawn of the Dead does a great job of taking the “what would you do” portion of the zombie problem and taking it to the extreme right away. Well, first off, you have to think about your party. You need good cohesion and morale, and it helps to have some people who know their way around firearms.

Next, you need a diverse array of skills. We are talking about people who can pilot a helicopter, who maybe have a CDL for handling those big semis with double clutches and people who know their way around communications equipment. Dawn of the Dead gives us all of that.

Finally, we need someone who understands how to fortify a structure or location for optimal living in a zombie-infested world.

Dawn has all of the above in spades.

Seriously, if you want to talk about zombie tactics, please reach out to me on this site or any of our social media.