Dawn of the Dead

Dawn of the Dead (1978) picks up after the first days of the outbreak. Four people escape by helicopter and take shelter in a shopping mall. They clear it and build a sealed life inside: shops, furs, guns, money. The dead come for the same reason, because it is the most familiar thing they did when alive. It was shot at the Monroeville Mall in Pennsylvania between November 1977 and February 1978. The mall traded by day and the film was made at night; the crew started at eleven once it closed and stopped at seven when the piped music came on. They shut down for the last three weeks of the year because of the Christmas crowds. Dario Argento co financed it in exchange for international distribution rights. He cut his own 119 minute version for non English speaking markets, scored by Goblin, and that version opened roughly nine months before the American release. The American cut was rated X. Rather than accept it, the producers released the film unrated. It was Tom Savini's first major job as an effects artist. His crew tinted between 200 and 300 extras every weekend. It cost about 640,000 dollars and grossed 66 million worldwide. It runs 127 minutes. Good for: zombie cinema, satire of consumption, and practical effects. Less good for: the violence is extremely graphic. The middle section is long and the pace sags, and the bright red of the blood no longer reads as real, which is enough to lose some viewers.