Thursday, October 31, 2013

Dawn of the Dead

After clearing out an abandoned apartment building filled with survivors of a zombie apocalypse resisting martial law, two SWAT team members join up with a Philadelphia news crew as they evacuate their station by helicopter. They take refuge in a shopping mall in Western Pennsylvania which serves their basic needs but also presents threats not only in terms of hordes of undead walkers but also in a renegade gang that has also invaded the shopping center. George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, more of a followup or a retread than a sequel to his  Night of the Living Dead, is less cerebral, and more akin to the graphic zombie movies that have inundated multiplexes since. It is, however, crafted just as masterfully with Romero making the most out of his locations, gruesome special effects, and an engaging, unknown cast. It is a little on the long side and hurt somewhat by its comedic sidebars, but with the number of lifeless and uninspired zombie shlock possessing our television and movie screens, Dawn of the Dead is a welcomed and frightful retreat.