Dawn of the Dead

When you ask a lot of people what the greatest zombie movie ever made was, this title is the one that inevitably gets blurted out. What makes this film so much better than a lot of the other rabble out there? Why, a little bit of everything my friend.

The follow-up to the box office and critical success of NOTLD, the story follows a group of survivors made up of two SWAT team members and two tv news workers as they try to escape from an already budding zombie plague. They steal a helicopter and hope to reach Canada or anyplace that hasn't been infected by the plague. In their travels they come upon the Monroeville Mall and stop there for supplies and then decide that it could be a great place to live for at least awhile and set out to take the mall back from the clutches of the zombies.

A gripping, gory and often campy film, Dawn of the Dead also contains a bit of social commentary on the unity of groups and the consumer natures of people. It's always entertaining and even if you're not looking for a message, you can get a solid two hours of zombie goodness out of the film.

The colors on this new dvd from Anchor Bay, released a week before the remake hits theaters, are vivid and crisp, a step up from my old Republic VHS copy. The sound has been cleaned up as well to present the sounds of the zombies with crystal clarity. There's a commentary from Romero and Savini and a couple of other folks as well as the requisite trailers and radio spots. There's also an easter egg where you can see an interview with Christine Romero and that's the only one I found so far.

There's rumor of a mega box set of this movie with all three versions of the film coming out later in the year, probably close to the Fall. I can only hope we get something that grand so I can finally see the Argento Zombi cut I've heard so much about. Until then this copy will do you fine, on sale for about 12 bucks at Best Buy and online stores, and let you see firsthand what a zombie movie can really be and get you primed for the remake hitting theaters soon. The zombies are slower in the original version and some people might scoff at anything moving that slow being scary but when they horde around you and you are trying to fight them off, you'll realize that it's not the speed, it's the sheer number of them that overwhelms. Check it out.