If this review is lacking then apologies but I find it a difficult film to review mainly down to the fact I`ve seen it umpteen times since the early 1980s . Unfortunately I first saw it on video which meant DAWN OF THE DEAD gets lumped into the rest of the video nasties that came out at the same time . In fact all my peers believed it to be a sequel to ZOMBI FLESH EATERS when it`s a sequel to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD . Incidentally most of those same peers liked ZOMBI FLESH EATERS but postively hated NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
It`s certainly flawed as is everything Romero has done . The acting is amatuerish and it`s no surprise that the cast didn`t go onto bigger things . The technical aspects suffer badly from the lack of budget like the sound where it`s sometimes difficult to hear the dialogue while the editing is all over the place in some scenes and as for the make up it`s sometimes laughable or sometimes non existant . All this is a great pity since there is a truly great story in here somewhere . If truth be told DAWN suffers from the fact that like 28 DAYS LATER the zombi element overwhelms the main story which is trying to be a gritty and realistic survivalist drama along the same lines as Romero`s earlier bleak and depressing THE CRAZIES . Despite the flaws this an intelligent film which concentrates on human interaction and relationships
By the way the BBC showed the director`s cut last night and I can see what the problem was with it . I really enjoyed the exploding head but there`s far too many scenes where the camera lovingly lingers on the gore . The gore isn`t distressing in anyway but as I said it`s unintenionally laughable as zombies tear open stomachs and stuff that looks like cooked macaroni pops out of victims bodies
It`s certainly flawed as is everything Romero has done . The acting is amatuerish and it`s no surprise that the cast didn`t go onto bigger things . The technical aspects suffer badly from the lack of budget like the sound where it`s sometimes difficult to hear the dialogue while the editing is all over the place in some scenes and as for the make up it`s sometimes laughable or sometimes non existant . All this is a great pity since there is a truly great story in here somewhere . If truth be told DAWN suffers from the fact that like 28 DAYS LATER the zombi element overwhelms the main story which is trying to be a gritty and realistic survivalist drama along the same lines as Romero`s earlier bleak and depressing THE CRAZIES . Despite the flaws this an intelligent film which concentrates on human interaction and relationships
By the way the BBC showed the director`s cut last night and I can see what the problem was with it . I really enjoyed the exploding head but there`s far too many scenes where the camera lovingly lingers on the gore . The gore isn`t distressing in anyway but as I said it`s unintenionally laughable as zombies tear open stomachs and stuff that looks like cooked macaroni pops out of victims bodies