Horrorthon'08: DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978)

It's many years since I saw Romero's classic zombie film and to be honest I couldn't tell you which cut we even saw at the IFI, but it's always nice to see something like this again anyway, especially with a like-minded audience.

The first of the sequels to the seminal NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, this is the logical progression as the zombies are now overrunning the living and it's all about surviving. For one band of refugees, that means making themselves a base in the local shopping centre, allowing Romero to both spin a yarn about consumerism while also allowing Tom Savini to demonstrate some interesting ways of being killed or maimed.

The film is certainly a satisfactory outing and one of the best of the zombie genre but I'm not sure I'd elevate it to quite the same heights as many others do. I still think that parts of the film - particularly in the middle - are too slow-moving, and some scenes of dispatching zombies begin to get repetitive. After an entertaining opening, it's not really until the finale that we see Romero and his flesh-eating hoards really cut loose for all their worth once again.

It's still a classic though. You can't beat some flesh-eating zombie action, though I'm more of a Fulci man.