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Dawn of the Dead (1978 film)

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Dawn of the Dead (the sequel to his Night of the Living Dead, followed by Day of the Dead and the recent Land of the Dead) is considered one of the greatest zombie horror film ever made. It is also responsible for launching the so-called "splatter craze" gore effects in horror films, as make-up artist Tom Savini went on to work on Friday the 13th immediately after Dawn of the Dead's completion. Dawn of the Dead received much critical acclaim for, among other things, the subtext involving American consumerism and materialism, as well as comments on news media and racism. Unlike its predecessor, this film is more of a polemic exploring the effects a "zombie epidemic" would have on society (ultimately proving to be apocalyptic) than a straight-up horror film. It features the tagline "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth." Many consider it to be the best of Romero's "Dead" films, and arguably the greatest zombie film ever made.

The film, shot during a period of approximately four months in late 1977 and early 1978, was made on a relatively low budget of around US$500,000. Filming of scenes in the Monroeville Mall [link] [link] in Monroeville, Pennsylvania was done only when the shopping center was closed for business, roughly between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.. Director Romero was quoted as saying, "Filming in the mall was hell." Zombie make-up effects, created by Tom Savini, varied widely from the austere to the elaborate. Most undead extras received little more than gray make-up slathered on their exposed skin.

However, despite limitations imposed by 1970s filmmaking technology, late-night filming and budgetary constraints, the film is one of the most financially successful horror films ever (based on production cost versus profit). The film's great success is due in large part to the fact that the film made great use of the international market. It was edited and presented in a variety of ways, based on popular expectations for cinema in each market for which it was intended. For example, Italian producer Dario Argento edited the movie to achieve a story with considerably less character development and a much faster pace, in comparison to Romero's definitive cut, which was peppered with humor and driven by cultural satire.

A remake of the movie premiered in the United States on March 10, 2004. The new version varies considerably from the original; many of the major themes, including the primary setting in a shopping mall, remain essentially the same, but the film is a complete rewrite with no input from Romero and is considered at best a "reimagining" by the original's fans.

Contents

Characters

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The plot centers on four Philadelphians:

(Note: There is a clothing store in the 2004 remake located inside the mall called 'Gaylen Ross')

Plot

Following the scenario set up in the previous movie, Night of the Living Dead, the film depicts a United States of America struck by a plague, the symptom of which is the reanimation of dead human beings whose primary goal is to feast on the flesh of the living. The cause of this plague remains defiantly unexplained. Despite desperate efforts by the U.S. Government and local civil authorities to control the situation, society has effectively collapsed and the remaining survivors seek any refuge they can find. Although several scenes show rural citizens and military effectively fighting the zombies, cities, with their high populations and close quarters, are essentially deathtraps. The chaos is implied to have finally spread to the country as well, as television and radio broadcasts become less frequent.

The film opens in the WGON television studio in Philadelphia, where confusion reigns. Following some exposition, prompted by Stephen and Francine - who are planning to sneak out and steal the studio's weather helicopter to escape the zombie threat - the plot turns to another of the film's protagonists, Roger, as he and the rest of his S.W.A.T. Team raid an apartment building (presumably because the residents, mostly Hispanic and Black Caribbeans, are ignoring the martial law imposition of burning the dead).

Ultimately the immigrants are slaughtered by the SWAT operatives (led by a racist officer) and by their own re-animated dead, when they emerge, zombified and hungry, from the basement where they were absconded. (This is the scene of the famous exploding head effect by Tom Savini).

It is during this time that Roger makes acquaintance with Peter, suggesting they desert their SWAT team and flee the city.

Late that night, the four escape Philadelphia in the television station's helicopter, with the intention of reaching the safety of the Canadian wilderness. Following some close calls while stopping for fuel, the group happens to come across a shopping mall which they decide to make their own private sanctuary, blocking the large glass doors with trucks to keep the undead from freely entering. It is during this operation that the impulsive Roger is bitten, dooming him to death. After clearing the mall of its zombie inhabitants, the four settle in, each indulging their every material desire. Eventually Roger, dying from his wounds, is shot by Peter just as he begins to reanimate. Time passes, as the undead paw at the mall entrances and society beyond those doors continues to collapse. As the novelty of their materialistic utopia wears thin, they begin to realize their refuge has become their prison.

Their "liberation" comes in the form of a large gang of bikers breaking into the mall and, in the process, allowing hundreds of the undead creatures in. (This is a key theme in every Dead film; the inability of humans to cooperate is a greater danger than the undead.) During their plunder, Stephen foolishly initiates a battle with the bikers. In the end, the only true victors are the ravenous zombies, who feast upon many of the bikers, as well as Stephen himself. Upon Stephen's reanimation, he leads a large group of the creatures to Francine and Peter, who await Stephen's return (either dead or alive). After killing Stephen, Peter and Francine escape to the roof, and to an uncertain future, as they fly away in the partially-fueled helicopter, ending the movie.

A technical note: there has been some confusion about the nature of the "zombie problem" in this movie; many people are under the impression that only characters bitten by a zombie will become one. In fact, George Romero has made it clear that his zombie pictures portray a world in which something has gone horribly wrong, so that anybody who dies -- whether from a heart attack, car crash, cancer, etc. -- will rise as an undead ghoul with a craving for human flesh (unless their death involved massive brain damage). Presumably the problem suddenly appears everywhere at once; it does not spread like an epidemic disease.

It is hinted, although never directly stated, in night of the living dead, that the problem was caused by a radioactive accident in space, although most fans consider this information to be redundant in the series.

Zombie movies by other directors, (including the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead) have different "rules".

The Monroeville Mall

The Monroeville Mall, Pennsylvania, was one of the first of its kind - a sprawling, indoor shopping complex, constructed from 1967-1969 on a 110 acre lot cleared to build the massive 1.13 million square foot complex. At the time, the Monroeville Mall housed 143 stores on 2 levels, including an ice skating rink and a 6,500 space parking lot.

The Monroeville Mall has become, in its own right, as pivotal a character as any human featured in the film. The mall has taken on a life of its own - coming to embody not only the film's sanctuary, but its tragically ironic prison as well.

Of the nearly 150 merchants located in the Monroeville Mall, almost every one permitted full use of their stores (excluding the bank and jewelry store, both of whom required supervision by security), while only 13 stores refused to cooperate. Interestingly, JC Penney was featured prominently, a feat which would seem nearly impossible to accomplish within today's standard of high priced corporate advertisement and product placement.

Making of

Preproduction

The history of Dawn of the Dead begins in 1974, when George Romero was invited by friend Mark Mason (whom Romero had met while attending a party thrown by a mutual friend George Nama - an artist Romero knew from Carnegie-Mellon), part owner of Oxford Development Company, to visit the Monroeville Mall, Pennsylvania, of which Mason's company was the managing party. This visit turned out to be a defining event for Romero, planting the seeds of what would become the sequel to his previous Night of the Living Dead. Mason - while touring the mall with Romero - brought the pair to a hidden area of the mall that was stocked with food and other supplies as part of a civil defense initiative. "They had these crawl spaces above the shops with Civil Defense supplies - they were too small to shoot in but they were there, and that's what gave me the idea," describes George Romero. Mason jokingly suggested that someone would be able to survive in the mall should an 'emergency' ever occur.

With this idea implanted in his head, the tour continued, with Romero making note of the blank, expressionless faces of the mall's shoppers as they shuffled throughout the indoor shopping center. Romero made the connection between the mall's patrons and his own zombies almost immediately, likening the droning consumers - with their insatiable and driving desire for materialistic gratification - with that of his own cannibalistic creations and their driving need for consuming human flesh, each motivated by a singular fulfilling need.

This inspiration would come back to Romero two years later as he was set to begin filming of Martin. His original intentions of setting Night of the Living Dead's sequel in a farmhouse were cast aside for this new idea, as he began work on a script that would encompass his plans to include a not-so-subtle attack on consumerism in America, utilizing the indoor mall - now the mecca of American consumerism, but then just a burgeoning idea - as his story's backdrop.

Romero completed nearly half of a script. It was to be a dark, primal film revolving around a pregnant woman and her companion seeking refuge from the undead in the safety of the mall, sheltering themselves in a large sequence of hidden ducts, venturing into the mall only in search of supplies. Much of the script had the characters naked. They then uncover that a military-like group is trucking in and storing fresh human flesh within its confines to "feed" the creatures. The protagonists "were really like cavepeople. I was really going out there, very heavy," Romero explained. The director would soon be contacted from overseas by Dario Argento, a former film critic turned famed Italian horror director.

Due to the poor box office returns on Martin, Romero and Laurel Films were unable to procur any domestic investors for the new project. Irwin Shapiro - who was the group's foreign distribution representative - had sent the still unfinished script treatment to a Rome, Italy-based producer named Alfred Cuomo, who, after translating it to Italian, in turn sent the script to his friend, and fellow producer Claudio Argento, brother of the famous horror director Dario Argento.

A fan of Night of the Living Dead and an early critical proponent of the film, Argento was eager to hear the news of plans to sequelize the horror classic. Argento, while in New York for the premiere of his film Suspiria, was introduced to Romero and Richard P. Rubenstein, the film's producer. His interest to become involved with the project was immediate - Argento contacted Romero and invited the director to come to Rome in order to finish the script, convinced that the change of scenery would assist in inspiring Romero's writing. He and his wife, Christine Forrest Romero, were situated within the central heart of ancient Rome, in an apartment overlooking the city. Romero, his wife, and Argento, shared dinners together, discussing the progress of the script.

Within a matter of weeks, Romero had completed the script - with a then working title of Dawn of the Living Dead. Romero abandoned his original concept for the film, eventually deciding that the progress of his zombie apocalypse had progressed too far - the zombies were already beginning to be trained to function as slaves and were already being fed - the premise of 1985's Day of the Dead. Switching his pregnant heroine with a pregnant newsroom producer and her traffic reporter boyfriend, and rounding out the group with two Philadelphia SWAT team members, Romero shaped what would become Dawn of the Dead. Dario Argento, who had been brought on as a 'script consultant', made very few changes to the script, stating later that his admiration for Romero was such that he trusted the director implicitly with developing Dawn of the Dead. After short negotiations with Richard P. Rubenstein, the film's producer, Argento contributed half of the eventual $500,000 budget, along with securing himself international distribution rights and rights to re-edit the film for worldwide release. Romero and Rubenstein supplied another $25,000 each, with the rest of the film's budget being found in Mark Mason and Eddy Lewis, owners of Oxford Development as well as Alvin Rogal (who provided 12.5%) and various other Pittsburgh investors.

With financing secured, Romero set to work planning the shoot. With the help of his investors at Oxford Development, Romero was able to secure the availability of Monroeville Mall as the primary shooting location for a nominal $40,000. For special effects duties, Romero turned to Tom Savini, the make-up maestro whose original plans for an effects position on Night of the Living Dead were interrupted by the Vietnam War. Romero contacted Savini with the simple request that he think of as many ways to kill people as possible.

Casting for the film would take place in New York, with the help of casting director John Amplas, who had portrayed the title character in Martin. Romero intended to cast a group of unknown actors to bring the characters of Dawn of the Dead to life, just as he had in Night of the Living Dead. Interestingly, both David Emge (Stephen) and Scott Reiniger (Roger) worked at the same restaurant that Romero visited while casting the film. A waiter at the restaurant, Emge was introduced to Romero by the owner, and upon subsequent conversation, Emge failed to even acknowledge the director's presence, having known of the director, but remaining unimpressed by his first film.

Once the cast was completed with the addition of Emge, Reiniger, as well as Gaylen Ross as Francine and Ken Foree as Peter, principal shooting was scheduled to begin in Pennsylvania on November 13 1977.

Production

Principal photography for Dawn of the Living Dead - its working title at the time - began on November 13 1977. The crew began work once the mall closed, starting at 11pm when the automated music came on, and ending at 7 the following morning.

On set was difficult, temperatures falling to freezing at times due to the shoot's Pennsylvania winter schedule. The set was snowed in several times, resulting in a cancelled catered lunch break on more than one occasion. Despite this, the shoot nonetheless was a creative one, with Romero fostering an atmosphere in which every crew and cast member could freely offer suggestions. There was a tangible chemistry on the set.

Many of the film's sequences were not specifically storyboarded - they were pre-planned by Romero, though often never extended further than his own mental sketches. Romero had specific direction that he intended the film to go, though it was his style to neglect the traditional illustrated storyboards. In a sense, only Romero could tell what the specific path of the film was going to be.

In working with the limitations imposed by the tight shooting hours, Romero's script was filmed nearly simultaneously at different locations in the mall - attempting to consolidate as much as possible within the stringent production schedule. As well as time constraints, creative compromises had to be made, due to the logistics of production forcing certain technical limitations. The mall itself created such limitations, forcing Romero and his crew to reevaluate previously planned shots and attempt to recreate them within the boundaries the mall provided.

It is Romero's methodology of filmmaking, along with the technical limitations imposed by the production's location, that one can attribute the descrepencies between the production draft of the script and the final cut of the film. However, despite this, certain aspects of the script Romero made sure to film nearly verbatim. The character's tempation and attraction to the mall, their approach to 'conquering' their new home - Romero insured that these central threads of plot remained constant, helping to solidify his ideas for the suspenseful build-up of the film. The sequence in which Roger and Peter block the entrances with the trucks was one such example that remained practically unaltered from page to film.

The production was shut down for three weeks during December to avoid the mall's Christmas decorations. Romero decided against having the crew remove and replace them every night - a task that would have been too time consuming. To avoid the obvious continuity difficulties and lost shooting time, production would resume on January 3 1978. During the break in filming, Romero took the opportunity to begin editing his existing footage.

Once filming had resumed, Romero had assembled enough of his script on film that he would be able to edit and cut the film into a viable release form. It was in this atmosphere that Romero fostered an improvisational stage in production - where new ideas were free to develop even more prominently than before. Chief among these was the filming of the biker gang's attack on the mall. The Pagans, a local biker gang, had been brought in by the production to create the hostile thugs that would attack the film's protagonists; their infamous pie fight was completely improvised, a gag that was concieved and filmed on the spot. (This fact is slightly contended, as there is a story that says while writing the script for Night of the Living Dead, Romero and John A. Russo contemplated how they should have the zombies destroyed, at which point co-star and makeup artist Marilyn Eastman joked that they could throw pies into their faces - whether or not this is true, though, is debatable) The opening arrival of the bikers as they raid the mall was almost completely unplanned, as well; cameras simply filmed the action, with Romero later editing the rough film into sequence.

Tom Savini's 'Blades' character and Taso Stavrakis' 'Sledge' were products of this improvisational atmosphere as well. "Blades wasn't in the script," Savini told Fangoria magazine, "But we saw everybody dressing up in costumes and stuff, so when it came time for the bikers to come in, Taso and I said, 'Hey ! We can do that !' So we dressed ourselves up with bandoliers and swords. I had all kinds of props with me. I became Blades and I had this rubber sledgehammer, so Taso grabbed it, and he became Sledge." It was essentially an attempt by the crew to get as much on screen time as possible. Romero's request for a bandito-style character was fulfilled by Tony Buba, who took on the role with much conviction, costuming himself complete with a sombrero and ammunition bandoliers.

Many of Savini's effects in the closing moments of Dawn of the Dead were 'gags' concieved and shot spontaneously, inlcuding the infamous 'machete' zombie (as portrayed by Lenny Lies).

The airfield scenes were filmed at the Harold W. Brown Memorial Airfield (3926 Logans Farm Road, Monroeville, Pennsylvania), an airport located about 10 miles from the mall. It is still used regularly. The scenes of the group's hideout at the top of the mall were filmed on a set built at Romero's then production company The Latent Image. The elevator shaft was located there as well. as no such area of the mall actually existed. The gun store was also not located in the mall - for filming, the crew used Firearms Unlimited, a shop in the East Liberty district. It has since closed down.

Principal photography on Dawn of the Dead ended February 1978, and Romero's process of editing would begin. Romero was widely known as a competent editor - a filmmaker whose true genius lie in his ability to cut his edits in such a way as to allow for the editing process to be almost completely responsible for dictating the end product. Customarily, Romero relied on wide, steady shots from many different angles - a process of filmmaking the director often referred to as "covering my ass" style of production. By utilizing the numerous angles, Romero essentially allowed himself an endless array of possibilities - choosing from these many shots to reassemble into a sequence that could dictate any numbers of emotional responses from the viewer simply by changing an angle or deleting or extending portions of scenes. Dawn of the Dead was a prime example of this - evidenced by the inumerable international cuts, and in some cases, their distinct differences in tone and flow.

"George is an editor first," describes Rubenstein, "George knows exactly how it’s going to fit together. He edits strictly by hand. He doesn’t use a Steenbeck or Moviola. He cuts the little pieces of film up. He pastes them over his shoulder, he hangs them over his ear. He works faster manually than any other editor I know who works with a mechanical system. George uses almost twice the amount of shots of an average film. He mixes sound without looking at the picture because he visualizes in his mind’s eye what will be on the screen."

Music

The film's music varies with each of the various cuts. For Romero's theatrical version, musical cues and selections were chosen from the Music DeWolfe Library, a compilation of stock musical scores and cues. Romero chose these instead of live orchestration due to their cost efficiency. Incidentally, while Peter and Stephen attempt to close and lock the gates towards the film's end, the music playing is the same as that which accompanied the opening credits of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Some of the music heard in the mall, as well, was actually unintentional. At 7 am, the music would play over the loudspeaker. Instead of trying to avoid this - because the crew could not figure out how to turn it off - Romero used it in certain scenes. The music heard playing over the film's credits was actually not the mall's music - it was a song entitled "The Gonk" - a polka style song with a chorus of zombie moans added over the background by Romero- from the DeWolfe Library.

For Dario Argento's international cuts of Dawn of the Dead, the Italian director utilized the band Goblin (incorrectly credited as "The Goblins"). Goblin was a four-piece Italian band that did mostly contract work for film soundtracks. Argento also credited himself with the band, though he was not involved in making the actual music, acting in more an "inspirational" role. Romero utilized three of these cuts in his version, saying later of Argento: "He was very respectful of my indicated intentions, following conceptually what I indicated on the scratch track [a temporary score]." The Goblin score would later find its way onto a Dawn of the Dead ripoff entitled Night of the Zombies (1981). The music heard in the European cuts is performed by Carlo Rustichelli, from the spaghetti Western I Vado, Vedo e Sparo (1969), starring Antonio Sabato. It had a decidedly more "Italian" flavor than the American music. In the montage scene featuring the rednecks and National Guard, the song played in the background is called "Cause I'm a Man" by the Pretty Things - written in 1967 by Peter Reno. The song is available on the group's LP Electric Banana.

Special effects and make-up

Tom Savini had a crew of eight (one of which was Joe Pilato, who portrayed Captain Rhodes in Day of the Dead) to assist in applying a grey makeup to about two to three hundred each weekend during the shoot. The makeup for the multitudes of extras in Dawn was among the simplest ever conducted for a zombie movie. Some extras were considered "special zombies" that were to be seen close-up or on-screen longer than others. These were caked with latex to suggest the wounds or bites that led to the person becoming undead.

A number of appliances had to be ready for any given night. Savini sculpted scars and bite wounds onto a plastic photographic developing tray and poured into it hydrocal (a mixture like plaster), thereby creating a negative mold of the Slab O' Wounds as Savini called his wound tray. Then foam latex was poured onto the slab and the excess scraped away, before it went to an oven to bake. A few hours later, the foam latex appliances were ready to go.

In any given scene, one can see the paint running off exposing the lips and natural skin color of the actor. Though extras came to the mall in civilian clothing, there were some extra measures taken by Savini to distinguish the hordes of ghouls. "Since the zombies were people recently killed I tried to make them look like victims of car accidents, cancer patients, and so on" the charismatic makeup artist recalled in Grande Illusions. "We had one zombie who walked around in a very nice suit, and I made him to look like he had been freshly done up by an undertaker."

Creating the bites on humans required Savini to cast the specific body part of the human in hydrocal. Once that part was prepared in foam latex, it was painted to match the flesh colors of the actor (with red and black colors on the bottom). The first bite in the film, in the tenement building, comes off fairly convincingly and the zombie actor actually forced a genuine scream of pain from the actress he had bitten down a little too hard. Later in the film, bikers are attacked by the zombies and their skin is seen stretching like pizza cheese, which was something Savini referred to as "chunks of flesh"-stretchy latex that pulls and tears. Tubing and/or syringes would be used to pump the fake blood. Fake is a very good way to describe the 3M stage blood formula Savini used because it didn't register on film well as he would find out midway through the shoot. For the first half particularly, the blood splashes excessively like magenta tempura paint, which seemed acceptable to Romero who thought it would only further exaggerate the film's garish comic book texture. "While George's films are certainly graphic, the horror is so stylized and highly exaggerated that the film takes on the tone of a comic book" Rubinstein is quoted in the press kit. Romero is quick to point out that "My films are not vicious. The violence is rooted in a strict fantasy realm, whereas a film like Scarface is a mean film with real people-to-people violence. I'm not saying my violence is cool and De Palma's isn't; I'm just saying there's a difference." (Prevue)

"We have the door being kicked down and the head blown off" the director gleefully told Video. "Complete silence. We throw in the zombies taking big bites out of people and the audience is dead quiet. I think they think there's this going on in the first ten minutes what is there to come?" To simulate the infamous exploding head, Savini sculpted a realistic false head (the likeness of Gaylen Ross painted brown with an afro wig) then filled it with blood-filled bags and organic material like pasta, chips and fruit cores. This was placed onto a full-size dummy nicknamed 'Boris', and shot off by Tom himself with a 12-gauge shotgun. Whenever zombies were fired at with machine guns or larger rifles, explosives effects man Gary Zeller took on the task. For exit wounds, Zeller would apply a squib to the inside of a blood-filled condom to the actor. The wires were connected to a detonator box and activated on screen for higher caliber rounds.

One of the creative ways of killing people Savini came up with was the decapitation in which a zombie stands on boxes in the Monroeville Airport and gets part of his head chopped off by the helicopter rotor. A friend, Jim Krut, had a naturally low forehead and Savini asked if he'd want to take part in the movie. Krut said yes and Savini started off by casting his friend's forehead. Then he built it up higher which would give Jim a more normal-sized forehead. After molding the piece in foam latex, fishing line was applied to the sliced sections. While assistants pulled the line, and the chunks of skull seemed to tear away, Savini pumped stage blood through Jim's clothes up to the fake portion of his head, while hiding behind the on-screen boxes. The blades were never on - an optical effect added in post-production. Even those who have never seen Dawn before sometimes are able to predict that his head is going to suffer some sort of damage as the wig and the Frankenstein-like effect comes off a little too obvious (so much so that Dario Argento cut the effect out of his foreign versions).

Savini's assistant and fellow stuntman Taso Stavrakis proposed a zombie death via umbrella to the ear while on the set and ran it by George. After a discussion, they decided John Harrison could play a janitor zombie that gets a screwdriver in his ear taken from his own toolbelt! All this effect required were three of the same screwdriver. Two of them were sawed off at different points so that when the camera cuts away from the real screwdriver, it appears that it has gone deeper into the ear. Harrison's ear was protected by Dermawax plugging. Within his hair, hidden blood tubing was ready to go. The shortest screwdriver actually slid into a drinking straw cleverly painted silver-chrome.

Savini helped realize Romero's vision of zombies being plowed down by semi trucks (an image first alluded to in Ben's diner story in Night of the Living Dead). Dressed in a mechanic's jumpsuit, Savini portrayed the windshield zombie that gets mowed down by Roger's truck. The scene was shot at different angles. First, we see an establishing shot of Savini walking in front of the truck's path from Roger's perspective. Then a shot of the zombie being hit (Savini stood on the truck bumper, spitting out a mouthful of blood and jumping back). A trampoline was placed alongside of the truck so Savini could jump backwards into a crowd of zombies. If you pause the scene in the right spot, you can actually see the edge of the blue trampoline.

"Creating those illusions for George Romero is fun, because he likes everything to happen right on camera. If somebody is going to have a machete stuck through his head, he doesn't cut away before the blow hits and cut to a shot of the bloody remains. He likes the thing to happen from beginning to end the guy picks up the machete, raises it, then whap right into the head with the blade and on camera!" (Fangoria, issue 1)

The most excessive effect seen in Dawn are the hundreds of bullet squibs, most frequently the forehead of the extras being shot by the sharpshooting S.W.A.T. Fortunately these were some of the easiest effects to pull off. Savini used the old "button trick" whereby a sewing button was hidden under a thin layer of Dermawax on the actor, and pulled away via fishing line, thus producing the illusion of a fatal gunshot wound. Unfortunately, the fishing line sometimes picked up on film as in a scene during the biker raid just before Stephen is seen hiding behind glasses in JC Penneys.

For one scene inside a truck, a zombie had to be shot from the back of the head with an exit wound on it face. Savini sculpted a face appliance for the zombie actress and filled it with blood. It was then sealed with a layer of Dermawax with monofilament line buried underneath. As with the button trick, when the line was pulled away off-screen, the face seemed to splatter all over the truck and Roger's own face. Savini did several falls including doubling for Jeannie Jeffries as she is kicked out of the truck by Roger. That is Tom wearing a wig and in the same costume. Stavrakis also did some stunts in the film. One of the most memorable is when he was dragged by the Volkswagen Scirocco inside the mall. The stuntman also wore a matching wig and costume as the zombie extra who was first glimpsed approaching the car in her distinctive bandana and apparently missing an arm. The reason for her to appear armless is to set up an effect for when Stephen shoots her in the eye. Taso held on to the bumper with one arm and hid his other hand which held a rubber ball filled with blood. This was connected to a prop eye appliance which would gush the blood when the ball was squeezed. Blades, Savini's biker character, offs a few zombies with a machete. One decapitation is seen from the back of the zombie and was done using a mannequin though Savini's philosophy is use the real actor as much as you can. An example of this is probably one of the most celebrated zombie deaths. When Blades is pulled off a motorbike by one zombie (Lenny Lies) he kicks him down and whacks the blade into the creature's forehead. First the shape of Lies' head was traced with wire and then the wire traced onto the machete blade. The contoured arc on the blade was cut away in a machine shop and rounded, and the trick machete was complete. On film, we see Savini pulling out the real machete and swinging it down. In the next shot, the blade has met the actor's skull. This was done by placing the trick machete up to Lies' head and pulling away quickly and the footage was printed in reverse. Blood was pumped from a tube glued on its backside in close-ups.

"Let me tell you about being a zombie," extra and firearms supervisor Clayton Hill told Rolling Stone. "When you go into your zomb, you're in a fantasy. I go into the role feeling I am the living dead. I researched it in books - the wide open eyes, the clutching hands, then I made my own zombie. Sharon [Ceccatti], the nurse zombie, got into her zomb so heavily the other night she made herself sick. When we were shooting exteriors and it was zero degrees and there was this 300-lb. guy who showed every night in a bathing suit. He said "I'm not cold. I love it." It seems the extras took their roles as the walking dead more seriously than Romero did as this quote from Film Comment suggests: "In Dawn, my concept was to make them a little klutzy, so I gave them these broad types an Air Force General, a nun, a Hare Krishna. You get started when one of them jumps from behind the boiler but there's no build-up of fear." Some of the zombies would go to the mall bar The Brown Derby till midnight and get drunk just in time for their on-screen appearance!

Once the zombies did get a quick meal their feast had to be graphically shown. The raider Sledge, played by Stavrakis, gets his abdomen ripped open by a mob of zombies. Savini sculpted a false chest appliance and glued it to Stavrakis from his groin to his neck. Blood tubing and actual sheep intestines were sealed inside. All the extras would have to do is rip the foam abdomen open. Anyone who would actually stick these entrails in their mouths were shot for gross-out close-ups. Whenever zombies ate what looked to be human entrails, they were actually gnawing on hams, hot dogs or other deli meats. One extra, a pregnant lady, proposed having the zombies rip her open and a fetus falling out. This tasteless idea was too shocking for even Romero and Savini wouldn't go for it either.

There has been some doubt whether the original ending was ever shot and if it was, if it is still in existence somewhere in Rubinstein's vaults. Ross recalled the snowy night when it was shot and how "George loved her death scene" in her only Fangoria interview.

In The Zombies That Ate Pittsburgh, Romero recalled clearly that it was shot. "I really pulled toward the tragic ending but then I couldn't decide whether I was doing it just because I wanted a family resemblance to the first film. The effect didn't work great - it would have been spectacular to have her stand up in the blades and I'm sure that had the effect been successful I would have kept it that way. I just woke up one day and decided to let them go simply because I liked them too much." On the Elite laserdisc commentary taped in 1996, Romero doesn't recall ever shooting this suicide ending at all.

To pull off this effect, Savini used the dummy "Boris" dressed up in Fran's clothes and fitted with a mold off Gaylen Ross's head, packed with squibs. A wooden rig held the body in place, suspended by fishing lines. Tom detonated the squibs and the false head was decapitated. One more cutaway to the body falling, which was executed as the assistants cut the lines with scissors.

Post-production and release

By the time of the film's completion in February of 1978, Dawn of the Dead had several prospective distributors, including American International Pictures, United Film Distribution (which would eventually release it theatrically) - distributors known at the time for releasing "exploitation" films, like Dawn of the Dead. While Romero managed most of the hurdles that may have otherwise hindered the creation of his film, he faced one more - the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), the self-imposed governing body that was responsible for the film industry's rating structure. A fiercly independent director, Romero was not above bypassing the completely voluntary process - several of his films already had been released as unrated by the MPAA - Romero also understood the implications of this. Romero first sought out an R (Restricted under 17) rating for the film, but was dismayed to learn that the MPAA was prepared to issue the film an X rating - an adults only rating with the stigma of hard core pornography attached to it - unless the film was recut to remove the extreme gore and violence. Today, Dawn of the Dead would easily have been rated R, though at the time, the pervasive violence was startling and shocking. Unlike today's rating system, there was no NC-17, a buffer between R and the X rating, so Dawn of the Dead was unfortunately unable to comfortably fit itself within either of those existing ratings. Cutting the film to fit it within this system of rating would have ruined it, so Romero ultimately decided against it and Laurel Entertainment would move forward with plans to release it unrated.

With the restriction and stigma that an X rated attracted, very few studios would take the financial risk of releasing such a film, given its limited audience. Laurel released the film with the following warning: "There is no explicit sex in this picture. However, there are scenes of violence that may be considered shocking. No one under 17 will be admitted." None of the potential distributors were willing to make such a compromise, and refused to release it unless the film was re-cut for an R rating. Romero refused, and to prove the filmmaker's point, Richard Rubenstein arranged an advanced screening of a rough cut of the film in New York. The crowd for the showing was enormous, and the response wildly approving. Dawn of the Dead had an audience. This turn of events caused one of the three potential distributors to give in - United Film Distribution Company, a subsidiary of United Artists Theatres. It was not a major studio, but could provide enough of the push that the film would need. Unfortunately, being an unrated picture meant facing certain restrictions - among them, not being able advertise on TV in certain states (like Maryland and Chicago) until after 11pm, or in some newspapers at all.

Romero cut a 139 minute version of the film (now known as the Extended, or Director's, Cut) for premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Eventually it would be cut down to 126 minutes for the theatrical release. Argento would cut it down further for his edit. "The first version of the film was very long, so we cut it to more acceptable dimensions." In September of 1978, Titanus Films of Rome, Italy released the first public premiere of the film with Argento's European cut, titled: "Zombi: L’alba dei Morti Viventi". Followed in March of 1979 by French distributor Rene Chateau, titled "Zombie: Le Crespescule des Morts Vivants", then Spain with "Zombi: El Regreso de los Muertos Vivientes", the Netherlands with "Zombie: In De Greep van de Zombies", Germany’s Constantin Films with "Zombie" and Denmark with "Zombie: Raedslernes Morgan". The film's US theatrical premiere was in New York, April 10 1979. A week later, the film had a Northeastern run and 400 prints were readied for pre-summer release. The Mideast and Southern premieres were July 13 1979.

In its first week of release, the film grossed over $900,000 at 68 theaters, with only a minimal $125,000 being spent for advertising. The film would become an unqualified success, eventually becoming one of the most financially and commercially successful independent films of all time#redirect .

The film went on to do well at the box office despite its setbacks in the United States, eventually grossing around $40 million worldwide#redirect . Eventually, the film really found its niche as a home video release and at midnight drive-ins, spawning a countless number of edits and re-cuts for the US as well as the international community, and even an R rating in 1983 to allow it to be shown along with Creepshow, a Romero and Stephen King venture. The outcry from fans was such that the version was never shown again, the R-rating certificate being surrendered back to the MPAA. Laurel called a "radical rejection" in a press release following the recall. Dawn of the Dead would first be released on home video in 1983. See below for a detailed description of these variations.

Alternate versions

Romero's film has received a number of re-cuts and re-edits, due mostly to Dario Argento's rights to edit the film for international foreign language release.

US Theatrical Version

This 126 minute cut is the version that Romero considers to be the definitive cut of the film. The action and pacing are tight, as is the narrative flow. Romero's cut focuses primarily on character development, and differs only slightly from his original extended cut of the film played at the Cannes Film Festival. Most scenes are nearly identical, though they are trimmed and re-edited in such a way as to maximize their pacing. The audio differs slightly as well, combing parts of the Argento-favored Goblin soundtrack and the library stock music found in the Director's Cut, as well as switching various other audio effects. The US theatrical cut was also released in the UK and Canada, but with a majority of the gore edited or cut out. It was released in its entirety on laserdisc in Japan. It has been reissued via Anchor Bay Entertainment numerous times, including their Ultimate Edition box set in 2004.

Extended Version

This version was the 139 minute cut of the film that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, often mistakenly called the "Director's Cut" - Romero still considers the US theatrical cut his definitive cut. Romero contends that this cut originally existed at over 3 hours, though no such version is available today. This was strictly a rough cut rushed into completion, though it often rivals the tighter-paced theatrical cut in popularity. Fundamentally, the two are the same, differing only in the pacing and the use of more stock music over the Goblin soundtrack. It features several scenes not seen in the US theatrical version, including an extension of the dock scene and Josef Pilato as a policeman that Stephen encounters after finding the dead body. It has been packaged as a Director's Cut numerous times, including in a 1994 Japanese laserdisc. This extended version was released on home video via Anchor Bay Entertainment and was reissued as part of their Dawn Of The Dead Ultimate Edition box set in 2004.

European Version

Dario Argento's 118 minute European Zombi cut differs greatly from both US versions. Argento specifically recut the film to meet the expectations of the European market, removing much of the character development and dialogue in favor of playing up the action-and-violence aspects of the film. The Zombi cut relied heavily on the film's comic-book adventure aspect, with the numerous edits removing much of Romero's underlying subtext—a fact that Romero acknowledges when he states Argento never really understood the film. In addition, Argento also removed most of Romero's stock cues and music, replacing them with the Goblin soundtrack, and included more classically-flavored music over the muzak heard in the mall. Though this version has a shorter running time, it features extensions and recuts of scenes not seen anywhere else, including an ending that removes the final montage sequence for a sparse, black backdrop. In certain countries, Argento's cut was re-edited even more, removing most of the gore in favor of a lightweight adventure film. It was issued as part of Anchor Bay Entertainment's Ultimate Edition box set in 2004 and separately as Zombi: Dawn of the Dead in 2005.

Japanese Versions

The Japanese version distributed by Herald Films saw heavy cuts to Argento's European version, with censors removing practically all instances of violence and gore. Essentially, this version would have amounted to a PG-13 rating in the US - most of the violence was cut around, with the film pausing until the offending frame had passed, while the audio of the scene continued to play. An interesting difference is that this version begins by explaining that the zombie holocaust is the result of a meteor exploding over the atmosphere, releasing radiation. Herald Films felt that the lack of explanation would confuse viewers, but it also removes the ambiguity that Romero had created. The film also premiered dubbed on Japanese television, cut even more heavily, with the soundrack replaced with that of Suspiria and billed Argento as director. Upon massive complaints, this version was never shown again. In 1994, a Zombie: Dawn of the Dead Perfect Collection laserdisc was released by Emotion Video, featuring both the Director's Cut, as well as Argento's Zombi uncut.

Krekel's Ultimate Final Version

The name of this version refers to Oliver Krekel who owns the German DVD company Astro, an underground label that specializes in re-releasing movies that have been banned in Germany. This version runs 156min (PAL) and is often called the Ultimate Final Cut, as Krekel edited together material from the every available version. Although this is by far the longest version of "Dawn of the Dead", it is despised by many fans as the pacing is much slower and it includes a less professional soundtrack. Despite, Krekel himself regards his cut as best version available.

DVD

In 2004, after numerous DVD releases, Anchor Bay Entertainment finally released the long-awaited Ultimate Edition box set of Dawn of the Dead. Featuring all three widely-available versions of the film, along with a slew of commentaries, documentaries and extras, the edition is now seen as the definitive set of Dawn of the Dead.

Disc One - U.S. Theatrical Version

- Widescreen Presentation (1.85 :1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs

- Audio Commentary with Writer/Director George A. Romero, Make-Up Effects Creator Tom Savini, and Assistant Director Chris Romero, moderated by DVD Producer Perry Martin

- Theatrical Trailers, TV & Radio Spots, Posters & Advertising Gallery, George Romero Bio, Comic Book Preview

- 5.1 DTS Surround Sound, 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound, 2.0 Dolby Surround, Original Mono

Disc Two - Extended Version

- Widescreen Presentation (1.85 :1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs

- Audio Commentary with Producer Richard P. Rubinstein, moderated by DVD Producer Perry Martin

- Monroeville Mall Commercial

- Behind-the-Scenes Photo Gallery, Memorabilia Gallery, Production Stills

- Original Mono

Disc Three - European Version

- Widescreen Presentation (1.85 :1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs

- Audio Commentary with actors David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger and Gaylen Ross

- International Theatrical Trailers, U.K. TV Spots

- Lobby Card Gallery, Poster & Advertising Gallery, Pressbook Gallery, Home Video & Soundtrack Artwork, Dario Argento Bio

- 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound, 2.0 Dolby Surround, Original Mono

Disc Four - Documentaries

- Roy Frumkes' Document of the Dead - the original documentary filmed during the making of Dawn of the Dead

- The Dead Will Walk - an all-new documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew members

- On-Set Home Movies with Audio Commentary from Zombie Extra Robert Langer

- Monroeville Mall Tour with Actor Ken Foree

Original script

Romero's original script for Dawn of the Dead was a 253-paged treatment. The director gave the script almost an obsessive attention to detail - infamously detailing everything from locations to set dressings and props. Romero even went so far as to draw a diagram of the fake wall leading to the group's hideout. The industry standard rule that one page equals one minute of screen time would have given this script a running time of over four hours.

In the documentary Document of the Dead, Romero tells Roy Frumkes: "This is a script that seems long. It's not really long - there's so much description, and if you read those pages, there's so much described in great paragraphs where I got carried away describing the action itself." Littered throughout are interesting additions and extensions throughout key scenes, chief among them are the opening newroom scene (which ran five minutes on screen, but was nineteen written pages), the addition of Fran's puppy Adam and the film's original suicide ending.

"In essence, the script was notes to work from," explained Romero in Paul Gagne's The Zombies That Ate Pittsburgh. "I wanted a lot of detail, because I knew I was never going to have time for storyboards or anything like that. It actually is more of a storyboard than a script. I was just trying to communicate the film to all different departments. I've always had to adapt to whatever the working arrangements were, you know? It's never been formal." Among the main differences that exist between the script and the final version of the film is in its tone. Though much lighter than Romero's initial concept, the script is a straightfoward exposition of the gruesome horror and action in the film, but without the light-heartedness and humor that eventually crept into the film's production.

[Original Script]

Soundtrack

Zombi by Goblin

The original score for the film was recorded by long-time Dario Argento collaborators Goblin. Although the score features heavily in the European cut of the film (Argento's Zombi cut), it is diluted in other cuts with stock music which often added an element of humour to the film (see below).

Track listing

  1. "L'alba Dei Morti Viventi"
  2. "Zombi"
  3. "Safari"
  4. "Torte In Faccia"
  5. "Ai Margini Della Follia"
  6. "Zaratozom"
  7. "La Caccia"
  8. "Tirassegno"
  9. "Oblio"
  10. "Risveglio"
  11. "L'alba Dei Morti Viventi (Alternate Take)" [CD Bonus Track]
  12. "Ai Margini Della Follia (Alternate Take)" [CD Bonus Track]
  13. "Zombi (Sexy)" [CD Bonus Track]
  14. "Ai Margini Della Follia (Alternate Take)" [CD Bonus Track]
  15. "Zombi (Supermarket)" [CD Bonus Track]
  16. "L'alba Dei Morti Viventi (Intro - Alternate Take)" [CD Bonus Track]
  17. "Zombi (The Living Dead's Voices!)" [CD Bonus Track]

Dawn of the Dead: The Unreleased Incidental Music

Much of the music used in the film was licensed from the DeWolfe Music Library, a much utilized source of stock music for film and TV projects. Although the Goblin score has been variously available since the film's release, it was not until 2004 that any of the highly sought-after 60-plus cues of library music used in the film were released on a compilation album from Trunk Records. The album included a song by the Pretty Things and Herbert Chappell's much loved 1965 composition "The Gonk" - the humorous song that plays over the final credits and is considered by some to be the film's most memorable piece of music. The track is used in many references to the film including Shaun of the Dead and a variation (performed in chicken clucks) is used as the theme tune to Robot Chicken. Shaun of the Dead opens with the track "Figment" which also features on the compilation. The album's cover is taken from a Belgian promotional poster for the film.

Track listing

  1. "Herbert Chappell" - "The Gonk"
  2. "P. Lemel" - "Cosmogony Part 1"
  3. "E. Towren" - "Sinestre"
  4. "Pretty Things" - "'Cause I'm A Man"
  5. "S. Park" - "Figment"
  6. "J. Trombey" - "Mask Of Death"
  7. "D. Scott" - "Scarey 1"
  8. "D. Scott" - "Scarey 2"
  9. "J. Trombey" - "Dark Earth"
  10. "Various" - "Mall Montage Scene, (We Are The Champions)"
  11. "J. Trombey" - "Barrage"
  12. "P. Arvay" - "Desert De Glace"
  13. "S. Park" - "Sun High"
  14. "P. Lemel" - "Dramaturgy"

Trivia

Influence and pop-culture references

External links


Films directed by George A. Romero
Night of the Living Dead | There's Always Vanilla | The Crazies | Season of the Witch | Martin | Dawn of the Dead | Knightriders | Creepshow | Day of the Dead | Monkey Shines | Two Evil Eyes | The Dark Half | Bruiser | Land of the Dead

The Living Dead films
Official Romero directed films
Night of the Living Dead • Dawn of the Dead • Day of the Dead • Land of the Dead
Unofficial sequel/spin-offs
Italian Zombi series: Zombi 2 • Zombi 3 • Zombi 4 (aka Oltre la Morte or After Death)
Other:  • Children of the Living Dead
Remakes
Night of the Living Dead (1990) • Dawn of the Dead (2004) • Night of the Living Dead 3-D • Day of the Dead (2007)
Return of the Living Dead series
Return of the Living Dead • Return of the Living Dead Part II • Return of the Living Dead 3 • ' • '
Spoofs/parodies
Night of the Living Bread • Shaun of the Dead

 

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