Zombie (film)

Movie
German title	Zombie / ; Zombie - the original / ; Zombies in the department store
Original title	Dawn of the Dead
Country of production	USA , Italy
original language	English
Publishing year	1978
length	118 minutes
Age rating	FSK No youth approval (unabridged), ; FSK 18 (shortened), ; FSK 16 (heavily shortened)
Rod
Director	George A. Romero
script	George A. Romero
production	Richard P. Rubinstein ; Dario Argento ; Claudio Argento ; Alfredo Cuomo
music	Goblin; George A. Romero ; Dario Argento
camera	Michael Gornick
cut	George A. Romero ; Dario Argento
occupation
	David Emge : Stephen "Flyboy" Andrews; Ken Foree : Peter Washington; Scott H. Reiniger : Roger DeMarco; Gaylen Ross : Francine Parker; Tom Savini : "Blades"; Taso N. Stavrakis : "Sledge"; David Crawford : Dr. Foster; David Early : Mr. Berman; Richard France : Dr. Billion rush; Howard Smith : TV Commentator; Daniel Dietrich : Givens; Fred Baker : Commander; James A. Baffico : Wooley; Rod Stouffer : Roy Tucker; John Amplas : Martinez; Rudy Ricci : Motorcycle Raider;
chronology
← Previous ; The Night of the Living Dead	Successor → ; Zombie 2 - The final chapter

Zombie (Original title: Dawn of the Dead ) is a horror film by the American director George A. Romero from 1978 . The film is about four people who holed up in a shopping mall during a zombie epidemic and from there witnessed the demise of mankind.

The second film in the “Living Dead” series, which was produced on a small budget , was very successful commercially and triggered a flourishing of the “ zombie film ” subgenre in the late 1970s , which lasted until the mid-1980s. The film has numerous fans around the world to this day and is considered a cult film among lovers of the horror genre . Not least because of his explicit depictions of violence and Gore scenes, however, he also meets with strong rejection.

action

Some time has passed since the events described in Romero's Night of the Living Dead . But the situation is far from under control. Zombies, wandering undead in search of their food, warm human flesh, roam the country and populate the streets of the cities. One bite from them quickly leads to death and the dead rise again as zombies. There is chaos among the people who are still alive. Outlaws plunder and murder. The martial law is declared. There is no effective strategy against the zombies because many oppose the emergency measures for ethical reasons. The police and the army are cracking down on the rampant violence, while more and more people, regardless of others, just want to save their lives.

Stephen Andrews, helicopter traffic reporter for WGON TV , his pregnant friend Francine Parker, who works for the same TV station, and two officers from a SWAT team, Roger DeMarco and Peter Washington, flee together in the helicopter . On their escape, they end up on the roof of an abandoned shopping mall during a stopover .

You quickly recognize the strategically favorable location of the building with its numerous supplies and unguarded shops. They barricade themselves inside the mall and finally kill the wandering undead by destroying the brain with headshots. They put the corpses in a cold store in the mall. When the building seems safe enough to them, they set up home and get all the goods they need from the shops. Via television and radio, they witness the ongoing extermination of humanity until the last media cease broadcasting.

While securing the outer doors, Roger is bitten by zombies and dies a few days later. His friend Peter has to kill him for good with a shot in the head the moment he gets up again as a zombie.

About three months later, the mall is stormed and looted by a gang of rockers. The group is undecided whether to share the center with the marauders or to defend it against them. You decide to lock the doors to the stores and hide until the rockers are gone again. But Stephen watches the gang break into the shops anyway, shoot at them, get wounded and finally attacked by zombies. He then also turns into an undead and leads a large group of zombies to the hiding place of his former companions. After some of their cronies met a horrific death, the marauders realize they have overdone and leave. You leave the mall with its entrance and shop doors wide open and full of the undead.

Francine and Peter flee in the now completely hopeless situation. With the helicopter they fly into dawn with no destination and with an almost empty tank, while the mall, populated by the undead, lags behind them.

Interpretations

Director George A. Romero on September 7th, 2009 at the 66th Venice International Film Festival

The Handlungsort shopping center was often used as an allegory on the capitalism interpreted. When the four reach the mall and see the zombies that are apparently irresistibly attracted to the mall , they suspect that the undead are returning to the place that was the most important to them in life. The zombies wander aimlessly through the corridors and it is no coincidence that they are reminiscent of completely normal department store visitors.

The four human protagonists are also initially enthusiastic about the goods in the shopping center, which they can use alone for a while. You indulge in an abundance in which no material desires remain unfulfilled. Scenes are shown where they eat caviar , drink champagne , and wear expensive clothes. They get money in thick wads from the department store bank and use it as play money for poker . Only when a state of total material satisfaction is achieved do they become aware of their desperate situation again, and dejection and depression return. The unlimited consumption distracted the group for a short time, but did not change the actual problems. Nevertheless, a little later, Stephen attacks the looting rocker gang mainly to defend the group's material property. This leads to Stephen's death and the collapse of the department store's established system. Romero said in the 2004 documentary The Dead Will Walk about his intention in this regard:

“I wanted to try to give [Dawn of the Dead] the same thematic core that the original film had and speak about some of my own ideas about society. I don't think it's underline message. I think it's like in your face ! Right upfront: The way society has been conditioned to think that as long as you have this stuff , life is wonderful. And being falsely attracted and seduced by things that really shouldn't have value in your life, but do. "

“I wanted to try and give [Zombie] the same thematic core that the first film had and talk about some of my own ideas about society. I don't think these are any profound statements. I think it's crystal clear ! Absolutely obvious: the way society has been conditioned to think that as long as you have this stuff , life is wonderful. And how to be falsely attracted and seduced by things that shouldn't be important in your life, but still are. "

- George Romero

Romero has already compared the development of the zombie epidemic with an unstoppable renewal of society from within itself: If one accepts the fantastic as an allegory, then one can see the society of zombies as the revolutionary part of our society. This is just a new form of society that grows out of our old one. The zombies are a suitable characterization for this because, unlike many other monsters in horror films, they are not created in the first place or come from the outside, but are people like ourselves who have only assumed a different form of existence.

Joe Hill described the film in his criticism for the Catholic Film Service as dangerous, because the zombies could also stand for the underprivileged of this earth who had set out to share in the wealth of others. Accordingly, he sees the violence against the undead as the violence of the haves who defend their wealth. He recognizes an irresponsible call to violence in the film, since it shows that "only those who let their own violence run wild have a chance of survival when all values collapse". In his opinion, the film is indulging in "its tendency, uninhibited, to a gentlemen's ideology believed to be forgotten ".

Another motif that can be found in all four films in the series is the inability to cooperate among people. Instead of organizing themselves in an emergency and working together against the zombie epidemic, they continue to pursue individual goals and fight each other.

Reviews

The film is now considered a classic of the genre by film and art critics because of its unorthodox structure and special atmosphere. The Museum of Modern Art purchased a copy of the film for its collection.

The renowned US film critic Roger Ebert rated the film with four out of four possible stars and gave the following reasons:

Dawn of the Dead is one of the best horror films ever made - and, as an inescapable result, one of the most horrifying. It is gruesome, sickening, disgusting, violent, brutal and appalling. It is also (excuse me for a second while I find my other list) brilliantly crafted, funny, droll, and savagely merciless in its satiric view of the American consumer society. Nobody ever said art had to be in good taste.

“ Zombie is one of the best horror films ever made, and therefore inevitably one of the most terrifying. It's gruesome, disturbing, disgusting, violent, brutal, and repulsive. But it is also (one moment please, where is my second list) brilliantly shot, funny, bizarre and wildly merciless in its satirical view of American consumer society. Nobody has ever said that art has to correspond to good taste. "

- Roger Ebert

The Catholic Film Commission for Germany gave the film a very negative rating in 1979 in its final verdict in accordance with Joe Hill's interpretation already mentioned in the Interpretations section :

“Disgusting naturalistic horror film which, beyond its superficial story , can be interpreted as a parable about the social situation. Extremely questionable due to its call to violence and the master human ideology. - We advise against it. "

- Catholic Film Commission for Germany

But this assessment of the Catholic film critics changed over the years. In 1997 the lexicon of international films said:

“Perfectly staged shocker by George A. Romero, who takes up the motifs of his surprise hit The Night of the Living Dead (1968) and develops it into a garish horror spectacle. The naturalistic severity of the staging consciously attacks the viewer's threshold of nausea; through ingenious audience guidance, Romero achieves a maximum of suggestion and irritation. Incidentally, the film suggests that it was intended as a metaphor for the self-destructive consumer society. The film is the occasion and model for a number of cheap zombie plagiarism. "

- Lexicon of international film

This film has a permanent place in the list of the top rated horror movies on the Internet Movie Database by their users .

On the film website Rotten Tomatoes , the film was rated positively by 93% of the critics and 90% of the viewers.

History of origin

First idea

As with The Night of the Living Dead , with which he laid the foundation stone for the later zombie film development in 1968, Romero was also inspired by Richard Matheson's novel Ich bin Legende (original title: I Am Legend ) from 1954 to inspire.

The basic idea for the film came from Romero in 1974 when friends who owned shares in the "Monroeville Mall " in Monroeville, Pennsylvania , through Oxford Development , showed him around. They also showed him some of the existing chambers with supplies for civil defense . Romero had the immediate thought that it would be an excellent idea to hide here in the event of a zombie disaster, and that in such a scenario one would have to defend this base full of supplies against envious people rather than the zombies.

Dario Argento's contribution

Romero began by writing a script. Due to the commercial failure of his last film Martin , it was difficult to find investors for the project in the USA at the time. So the half-finished script was sent to the Italian film producer Alfred Cuomo. He had it translated into Italian and gave it to producer friend Claudio Argento, who in turn showed it to his brother, director Dario Argento . Dario Argento was a fan of Romero's first film, The Night of the Living Dead , so was very interested in its sequel. So he invited Romero to Rome so that he could finish the script there, which he managed within three and a half weeks.

Argento invested $ 250,000 to produce the film. In return, he was given the right to create his own editing version for the non-English-speaking countries with the exception of Latin America and to market it on his own account. Furthermore, Argento later provided music specially produced for the film by the band Goblin . Otherwise, Argento did not interfere in the making of the film out of respect for Romero and only visited the filming once.

occupation

Three actors from Zombie at a horror convention , 2006. From left to right. To the right: David Emge, Joseph Pilato , Ken Foree

The casting took place in New York City because many actors friend of Romero and his then girlfriend and later wife Christine Romero worked there. It was directed by John Amplas, who had previously played the title role in the Romero film Martin and can also be seen briefly in Zombie in the role of gangster Martinez. Unknown actors were wanted. Scott H. Reiniger (Roger) worked as waitress and David Emge (Stephen) as cook in the restaurant Lady Astor’s , which George Romero liked to visit at the time, and thus came into contact with him. Scott H. Reiniger was also a fellow student of Christine Romero. Gaylen Ross forged her résumé believing that this was the only way to get the role of Francine Parker; in fact, she had no previous acting experience and took acting classes while filming.

realization

The shopping center used for the film is actually the one Romero visited in 1974. Oxford Development also invested in the film and helped ensure that the mall was made available for filming for only $ 40,000.

The film was in a period of four months - until February 1978 November 1977 - with a budget of around 500,000 US dollars rotated. For years, producer Richard P. Rubinstein claimed it cost three times as much because he believed that it would take the movie more seriously by the movie business and make it easier to raise money to make.

The soldiers, police officers and hunters seen in the film voluntarily participated in the filming without any payment and provided their equipment. Many of the zombies were played by acquaintances, relatives and friends of members of the film team. A large part of the rocker gang are members of the Pagan's Motorcycle Club , who made the filming with their own motorcycles. Only those with short speaking roles received a small payment for it.

Due to the opening times of the shopping center, the film team worked there mostly at night, between 7:00 p.m. and 8:30 a.m. As soon as the film team arrived at the mall, they began to prepare the first shots of the night and put make-up on the zombies. For reasons of cost and time, most of them were simply applied flat gray make-up, which, however, often appears greenish or bluish in the finished film. Only a few were made up more elaborately - this was Tom Savini's job - and equipped with open wounds or mutilations. The actual recordings could then typically begin at 9:00 p.m. The exterior shots of the shopping center were taken on Sundays, as the parking lots were deserted.

The hiding place for the four main characters and the maintenance shafts were sets in the building of Romero's former production company The Latent Image . This is also where the recordings were made inside the elevator shaft. The gun shop wasn't in the mall either, but was a separate shop a few miles away.

In December 1977, filming in the shopping center was interrupted for three weeks because the daily dismantling and reassembly of the Christmas decorations would have been too time-consuming. Romero used this time, among other things, to cut the existing film material. The overview he gained of the status of the project enabled him to develop further ideas and from now on to improvise even more than before.

Many of the gore and splatter scenes were quickly developed by Savini and Romero on set. The cake fight contained in the film , many of the scenes at the break-in of the rocker gang and the roles of the two rockers "Blades" and "Sledge" were improvised and so did not appear in the script. "Blades" and "Sledge" were played by Tom Savini and Taso Stavrakis, although both were originally only hired as makeup artists . Tom Savini also spontaneously took on many of the stunts seen in the film .

The American filmmaker Roy Frumkes used the shooting for his documentary Document of the Dead about zombie and the previous work of George A. Romero.

Versions

Creative interventions and the censorship behavior in the various countries resulted in a unique variety of versions of this film. When differentiating between the individual versions, however, the so-called PAL speed-up must also be taken into account, because the cinema and NTSC version run lengths could quickly convey a completely wrong picture.

The differences between the individual versions are often only minor, but in some cases they involve major artistic interventions.

Original cuts

Originally there were three cut versions on which all later published versions are based. George Romero edited two of them himself. In addition to the rather gloomy music produced especially for the film by the Italian group Goblin, he also used a lot of royalty-free music from archives, which for the most part sounds a bit more positive, heroic or even happy. The two Romero versions were not released with German synchronization before 2009 .

Long version

Notable international versions

R-rated version: Romero's and Rubinstein's production company Laurel Entertainment, Inc. brought an " R-rated version" reduced by depictions of violence to cinemas in 1982 as part of a double screening together with the Romero film Creepshow . However, this version was withdrawn from theaters after a short time due to strong protests from fans. (about 105 minutes)
Japanese Theatrical Version: The “Japanese Theatrical Version” is based on the Argento Cut and was released in English with Japanese subtitles. The explicit depictions of violence were concealed by freeze frames . Furthermore, a fade-in was added at the beginning of the film, which provides a reason for the outbreak of the zombie epidemic. (about 116 minutes)
Japanese Television Version: The "Japanese Television Version" is a version of the Argento Cut that has been removed from depictions of violence . When it was first broadcast, the score was replaced by that of the Argento film Suspiria . Due to its rarity, this version is now a sought-after collector's item. Due to numerous complaints, the soundtrack was restored for later broadcasts. In contrast to the Japanese Theatrical Version , this version was dubbed. In doing so, however, the original dialogs were often not simply translated, but numerous changes to the content were made. So explains z. B. Dr. Foster at the beginning of the film in this version that a meteor had exploded in the atmosphere and that the resulting radiation is now bringing the dead to life. (about 110 minutes)
20th Anniversary Edition: In 1999, Anchor Bay Entertainment released a new cut version in English only as the "20th Anniversary Edition" (also known as the "Hybrid Cut"). The basis was the American Theatrical Cut , but some scenes from the long version were added and more music by Goblin was used as the soundtrack. (about 128 minutes)

Cut versions for the German market

Many publications of the film were in Germany for the sake of the glorification of violence by § 131 of the Criminal Code confiscated and prohibited its dissemination. This is one of the reasons why there were always new versions especially for the German market.

The film was shown in German cinemas from August 2, 1979 in a slightly shortened version of the Argento Cut . The distribution was taken over by the Neue Constantin Filmgesellschaft , which, under the leadership of Bernd Eichinger, carried out an enormous amount of advertising in order to market zombie in the German-speaking area in the best possible way. The cuts related to five scenes, including a eating scene by zombies and a zombie's skull splitting. This German original theatrical version (including credits) was released on DVD at the end of 2003 in the so-called "Red Edition" series of the Laser Paradise label under the title Zombie - Dawn of the Dead , with the poster motif of Zombie 2 ( Day of the Dead ) was used.

The first evaluation was made on video from 1982 by the Bochum company Marketing Video . The first edition in the cardboard cover was based on the theatrical version, but some plot scenes were removed. Overall, the duration of these action cuts added up to over ten minutes. A second edition followed, which was subject to somewhat stronger censorship. For example, film tears were cut and the credits were omitted because they were in an unsatisfactory condition. This ultimately resulted in a running time of just under 100 minutes.

After both “marketing versions” had been confiscated in 1991, the VPS (Video-Programm-Service) label released a new version called Zombie - the original , in which all of the remaining violence from the marketing version had been removed; At that time, some action sequences were removed from this in favor of a more fluid process, which VPS had now reinstalled . At around 109 minutes, this even resulted in a significantly longer running time compared to the marketing video. The FSK gave the VPS tape the red sign “not approved under 18 years”, but was also confiscated by the Tiergarten District Court in August 2000 .

The German Super-8 version of Zombie , which was published by UFA / Büscher Film in 1980, is a curiosity . This version, indexed in 1983, ran for about 50 minutes. The cuts were not affected by Gore effects, but the cuts were made for reasons of space. The film was distributed over three film rolls of 110 meters each, whereby the retail price at the time was around 150 DM per roll . This publication has now become a sought-after collector's item.

Unedited versions of the film were brought onto the market in small numbers in Germany by labels such as Astro or Laser Paradise , but were also confiscated again relatively quickly. Astro published the film in 1995 on Laserdisc in an edition of 1,000 copies for the purchase price of 159 DM at the time. This version was stretched in the picture format from 4: 3 to a light widescreen in the format 1: 1.66. Laser Paradise later released the film again in the original 4: 3 format on Laserdisc.

Caused by the censorship measures of the Federal Testing Office for Media Harmful to Young People , numerous bootleg versions of Zombie were published in Germany . Among them is a rather rare 1995 release from GMT Video Productions entitled Zombies in the Department Store . For many years, this frame was considered the longest on the market. With a running time of around 145 minutes, it contains scenes from the German theatrical version and the long version . The scenes taken from the long version were not dubbed, but simply cut into the film in the English original language.

In 1999 the "Ultimate Final Cut" was published by Astro. He combined Romero and Argento's versions to create the longest published version to date with a running time of 156 minutes on VHS cassette. In this exclusively German-language publication, all available scenes from the versions published worldwide have been cut together. The scenes that were not available in German up to then were dubbed with the original voice actors. Nevertheless, the voices recorded afterwards sound noticeably different. Furthermore, this version has a strongly fluctuating image quality. Due to the fact that some scenes with the Romero and other scenes with the Argento soundtrack, it has many musical jumps. So the Ultimate Final Cut is the longest version, but the atmosphere in the film suffers considerably from the implementation.

Only one year later, a 142-minute FSK-16 version was released on DVD, which was distributed by the X-Rated company. In terms of content, it is almost identical to the Ultimate Final Cut by Astro. The difference in time and FSK results from the missing scenes of violence and splatter, which fell victim to the scissors for this version.

In 2007, a 132-minute cut version with the original title Dawn of the Dead was released by Laser Paradise . This version only has a SPIO / JK seal of approval. Although the title Director's Cut can be found on the DVD case , this is a shortened version of the Ultimate Final Cut , which is missing almost all of the Gore and Splatter scenes.

In 2009 a Blu-ray release was released in Austria as part of the Trilogy of the Dead collection box (together with Night of the Living Dead and Day of the Dead ). The published version of Zombie - Dawn of the Dead is the Romero Director's Cut with a running time of 127 minutes. The German soundtrack was created with the help of the old cinema version (Argento-Cut) and the “Ultimate Final Cut” from Astro. As a bonus, the Blu-ray contains the audio commentary by Romero, the making-of “The Dead Will Walk” as well as other featurettes and trailers.

The seizure of the film was lifted in April 2019, and the corresponding court ruling was passed in January 2019. A re-examination by the FSK in June 2019 resulted in a release from the age of 18 for the unabridged version.

Commercial win

The film was a commercial success in many countries around the world. In the Federal Republic of Germany alone , it was seen by more than 3 million cinema-goers and therefore received a golden screen in 1980 . Overall, the film had box office sales of approximately $ 55 million worldwide. The first release as a retail video cassette in the USA in 1982 found around 750,000 buyers.

aftermath

Participants in a zombie walk in 2009 on the original location in the Monroeville Mall

From the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, there was an upsurge in the horror sub-genre of zombie films, sparked by the success of Romero's film. The word upswing refers here above all to the number of mostly European productions, because most of the films did not have any notable commercial success and were of poor quality. Only the films with particularly clear references to zombie are mentioned here.

Due to the success of Zombie , a film by the Italian director Lucio Fulci was released in 1979 under the title Zombie 2 . In Germany, the film is sold under the name Woodoo - Die Schreckensinsel der Zombies . This film is certainly one of the comparatively high-quality productions. The final scenes show the zombie epidemic reaching the United States. In terms of content, despite the title, it is more of a prehistory than a sequel. The script for this film reportedly existed before Romero's Zombie was released . The name for Fulcis film was then chosen to benefit from the success of Romero's film. The title of the original screenplay and the shooting script was Island of the Dead .

Presumably for the same reason, there are films by different directors that were released as Zombi (e) 3 , Zombi (e) 4 or Zombi (e) 5 . Among the more well-known are Fulci's 1988 Zombi 3 (released in Germany as Zombie 3 - A New Beginning on DVD), which was mostly completed by Bruno Mattei , and Zombie 4 - After Death by Claudio Fragasso, also published in 1988 . In terms of content, however, both films are rather independent films, each with completely different backgrounds to the epidemic.

The 1980 zombie film Virus (also The Hell of the Living Dead ) by Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso uses the film music by Goblin, which was produced for Zombie . Police officers from a SWAT team who wear uniforms very similar to those of Peter and Roger in Zombie also play some of the main roles here.

Another film of this time with clear references to zombie is the horror comedy Io Zombo, tu Zombi, lei Zomba (not yet released in Germany) by director Nello Rossati from 1979, in which four zombies run a hotel and try to eat their customers . The four must later flee to a shopping mall, where they are besieged by other zombies as well as by the National Guard.

One of the sequences of Adrian Lyne's dance film Flashdance , published in 1983, was filmed on the same ice rink (the "Ice Palace"), which was formerly located on the ground floor of the Monroeville Mall and was also shown several times in Zombie and later had to give way to a food court .

The 2008 comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno features an ice hockey team by the name of Monroeville Zombies , some scenes from the film were also shot in the Monroeville Mall and Savini made a cameo .

Sequels

Romero continued his series in 1985 with Day of the Dead , which was much darker compared to Zombie , which was released in Europe as Zombie 2 , and in 2005 with Land of the Dead . Both films are not directly linked to the plot of zombie , but only play in the same universe with the same rules regarding the zombie epidemic. A small exception is the rocker "Blades" played by Tom Savini, who makes a short appearance again in Land of the Dead . Since he was shot by Peter in the shopping center, he now appears as a zombie.

In 2008 Romero released a fifth zombie film entitled Diary of the Dead , which takes place on the first night of the outbreak of the epidemic, i.e. before zombie . In 2010, a sequel was released under the title Survival of the Dead . Romero refers to these two films as a new series of zombie films that are not sequels to his first four films.

Remake from 2004

In 2004, Zack Snyder directed Dawn of the Dead , a loose remake of Zombie . The film retains the basic idea, but a much larger group of people holed up in the mall, and the four main characters of the 1978 original do not appear again. The most obvious difference to the Romero zombie films is the deviating behavior of the zombies: They don't stagger and stumble around slowly, but sprint after their victims as soon as they notice them. The actors Scott H. Reiniger, Ken Foree and Tom Savini from the original each have a brief appearance in the film. The film made box office sales of over US $ 102 million worldwide, at least in the USA probably more than any other horror film of the zombie subgenre to date.

Shaun of the Dead

In 2004, the British film Shaun of the Dead by director Edgar Wright and with Simon Pegg in the lead role as Shaun was a respectful homage to zombie . According to the creators, it is the first “Romzomcom” - romantic zombie comedy . Above all, she takes up many ideas from Zombie , but also cites other well-known films in the genre. This time the main characters are not entrenched in a shopping center, but in their local bar. Here, too, the music of Goblin is used in some scenes. Romero was enthusiastic about the film: “ I just loved it, man; I just loved it. ”

The Spanish-Cuban horror comedy Juan of the Dead from 2011 again refers to Shaun of the Dead in its title .

References in music

The film has also been widely quoted in popular music, especially by punk bands. Here are just a few examples of well-known bands:

The song Early Sunsets Over Monroeville from My Chemical Romance plays not only with the title of the movie, but also contains many verses that bear on its action for. E.g .: “ Up and down escalators, pennies and colder fountains / Elevators and half price sales, trapped in by all these mountains. ”

The Californian fun punk band The Dickies made a direct reference to the film Dawn of the Dead with the title of their second album Dawn of the Dickies, which was first released in 1979, including the design of its cover .

The song Anti-Zombie from the 2003 album Gerausch by the German punk rock band Die Ärzte begins and ends with slightly modified quotes from the film.

The band Eisregen used an original quote on the album Farbenfinsternis as the intro for the song Germany in Flames .

The published 2003 album Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls by Murderdolls contains a song called Dawn of the Dead , the text is about how zombies eat the living, and quotes from the movie contains: " When there's no more room in hell / Then the dead will walk the earth / And the living won't have a prayer / Cause it's the dawn of the dead. ”

The instrumental piece Dark Earth , which can be heard in the film as Peter and Roger begin to lock the doors of the mall with the trucks, was used by the band Gorillaz as the intro of their second album Demon Days from 2005. The intro then turns into the song Last Living Souls .

In 2006 the American indie band Sprites released a song called George Romero on their second album Modern Gameplay , the text of which makes clear reference to the film (and of course its director), and in which the singer wrote his own “post -apocalyptic zombie survival fantasy “unfolds. Tom Savini and Dario Argento are also mentioned in the song; In addition, original dialog samples from Dawn of the Dead can be heard (at the beginning and at the end) .

The late bassist Cliff Burton of heavy metal band Metallica was a huge fan of the film. He often wore a shirt with the movie name on it when performing.

In the song Bloodsucking Freaks by the German rock'a'billy band Autistix, Ken Foree can be heard as an introduction with the quote from Dawn of the Dead (“When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth”). In a punk rock version of the Oi band Gumbles you can hear this in German.

References in computer games

Romero's depiction of the zombies as the walking dead and the scenario of depopulated and contaminated cities influenced not only many films but also various video games. One of the best-known representatives is probably Resident Evil , who became known as the founder of “survival horror” , in which a zombie epidemic is caused by experiments with viruses and biological weapons.

One of the first computer games related to the film was in 1986 Zombi by Ubisoft , u. a. for the systems Commodore 64 , Amiga , Amstrad CPC , which is closely based on the content of the film. As one of four players you go through a department store and try to solve various tasks. After the zombies have been overcome, the main doors are barricaded with trucks and the break-in by a gang of rockers, until they escape over the roof with a helicopter.

In addition to numerous other computer games with a zombie theme , Dead Rising , released in 2006 for the Xbox 360 , is probably the most obvious homage to zombie . The protagonist is a photojournalist named Frank West , who uses a helicopter on the roof of the shopping center to get through the zombie -Epidemic-contaminated, unnamed city in the USA to be dropped off to shoot photos of the disaster at close range for his story about the epidemic. The game pushes the "department store scenario" to extremes, in that the player can use all possible objects from the various shops in the mall as a weapon against the zombies. In addition to conventional firearms and stabbing weapons, various tools, sports equipment, entertainment electronics and furnishings can also be used. In addition, the character can change clothes at will (including women's clothes or golf dress), which can lead to all sorts of bizarre situations. In this regard the game takes on absurd and sometimes satirical traits. The need to shoot as shocking or otherwise sensational photos as possible (e.g. while survivors are attacked by zombies) in order to collect experience points and thus increase the level of the character, as well as the numerous possibilities of the many shops, can also be criticized as a criticism of consumption and people's greed for sensation can be understood. At the same time, other survivors can be rescued and the real cause of the epidemic can be uncovered, but these are not conditions for successfully completing the game.

The game was followed by two sequels as well as various implementations and spin-offs on other systems.

Other noteworthy games in which the player faces a zombie epidemic in similar scenarios (rotting undead, decimated population, etc.) either alone or in a group with other characters, include: a .: Dead Island , Dying Light , ZombiU , Left 4 Dead .

literature

Interviews with Romero and Argento in: Thomas Gaschler, Eckhard Vollmar: Dark Stars. Belleville, Munich 1992, ISBN 978-3-923646-50-0 .

Frank Koenig: Dawn of the Dead - Anatomy of an Apocalypse. MPW, Hille 2002, ISBN 3-931608-49-2 .

George A. Romero, Susanna Sparrow: Dawn of the Dead. Panini Verlag , Modena 2004, ISBN 3-8332-1115-6 , (translation of the film into a novel).

Steve Niles: George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead. IDW Publishing, San Diego 2004, ISBN 1-932382-32-1 , (comic version of the film).

Web links

Zombie in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Zombie at rotten tomatoes (English)

Zombie at Metacritic (English)

Zombie in the online movie database

Zombie in the German dubbing file

Zombie - A retrospective at Schnittberichte.com , special about the film

Zombie at Schnittberichte.com, with comparisons between the different versions of the film

The Dawn of the Dead Reference Page (English)

Zombies, Malls, and the Consumerism Debate: George Romero's Dawn of the Dead , The Journal of American Popular Culture , Fall 2002, Volume 1, Issue 2 (English)

Fan about the film (English)

Script, working version from 1977 (English)

Illustrated table of contents on zombiewelten.de

Individual evidence

↑ Peter Dendle: The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia , page 7

↑ See calendar on the wall, Director's Cut, 1:40:49

↑ The answer to the question about the fill level of the tank is in the original version "Not much." For the German dubbing this was incorrectly translated as “Noch almost half full”.

↑ Before he attacks, Stephen mumbles: “It's ours. We took it. It's ours. ”, German:“ It's ours. We took it. It's ours. "

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Perry Martin: The Dead Will Walk , on DVD 4 of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead - Ultimate Edition ( Memento June 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) , Anchor Bay Entertainment, 2004.

↑ George A. Romero Documentary , on DVD 1 of Day of the Dead - Zombie 2 , XT Video Entertainment, Graz, 2003.

^ Rembert Hüser: Go shopping . CINEMA, issue 47, Chronos Verlag, Zurich.

^ Roger Ebert: Dawn of the Dead , Chicago Sun-Times , Chicago , May 4, 1979.

↑ Zombie. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .

↑ Internet Movie Database: Highest Rated Horror Feature Films With At Least 1,000 Votes , December 14, 2012.

↑ Rotten Tomatoes: Dawn of the Dead (1978). Retrieved October 16, 2019.

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d George A. Romero, Christine Romero, Tom Savini: Commentary on DVD 1 of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead - Ultimate Edition ( Memento from June 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) , Anchor Bay Entertainment, 2004.

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Richard Rubinstein: Commentary on DVD 2 of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead - Ultimate Edition ( Memento from June 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) , Anchor Bay Entertainment, 2004.

↑ David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger, Gaylen Ross: Commentary on DVD 3 of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead - Ultimate Edition ( Memento June 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) , Anchor Bay Entertainment, 2004.

↑ Roy Frumkes: Document of the Dead ., 1985

↑ Gerald Wurm: George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead is no longer confiscated. In: Schnittberichte.com. April 28, 2019, accessed October 16, 2019 .

↑ Gerald Wurm: Zombie - Dawn of the Dead has its FSK approval. In: schnittberichte.com. June 24, 2019, accessed October 16, 2019 .

↑ Internet Movie Database: Business Data for Dawn of the Dead (1978) , November 22, 2006.

^ Peter Normanton: Entry Lucio Fulci in: The Mammoth Book of Slasher Movies . Constable & Robinson, London.

↑ Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Monroeville-filmed 'Zack and Miri' gets warm reception in Toronto , October 31, 2009

↑ Box Office Mojo: Detailed Box Office Results of the Remake , November 22, 2006.

↑ Box Office Mojo: Comparison of Box Office Returns for Zombie Movies , November 22, 2006.

↑ Time Out Movie Blog: Simon Pegg interviews George A. Romero ( Memento from February 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) , August 8, 2005.

↑ B. Alan Orange: EXCLUSIVE: Alejandro Brugue's Talks 'Juan of the Dead' DVD , MovieWeb, August 14, 2012

^ Text from Early Sunsets Over Monroeville by the band My Chemical Romance .

^ Text of the song Anti-Zombie by the band Die Ärzte .

^ Text of the song Dawn of the Dead ( Memento from March 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) by the band Murderdolls .

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on November 29, 2006 .

[1] Peter Dendle: The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia , page 7

[2] See calendar on the wall, Director's Cut, 1:40:49

[3] The answer to the question about the fill level of the tank is in the original version "Not much." For the German dubbing this was incorrectly translated as “Noch almost half full”.

[4] Before he attacks, Stephen mumbles: “It's ours. We took it. It's ours. ”, German:“ It's ours. We took it. It's ours. "