Zombie Movies

Dawn of the Dead (also known as George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, Zombie internationally, and alternately called Zombie: Dawn of the Dead) is a 1978 American horror film, written and directed by George A. Romero. The film stars David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger and Gaylen Ross. It was the second film made in Romero’s Living Dead series, preceded by 1968’s Night of the Living Dead, and followed by Day of the Dead in 1985. Dawn of the Dead contains no characters or settings from its predecessor, and shows in larger scale the apocalyptic effects a zombie epidemic would have on society. In the film, a plague of unknown origin has caused the reanimation of the dead, who prey on human flesh, which subsequently causes mass hysteria. Several survivors of the outbreak barricade themselves inside a suburban shopping mall.

Dawn of the Dead was shot over approximately four months, from late 1977 to early 1978, in the Pennsylvania cities of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Monroeville. Its primary location is set in the Monroeville Mall. The film was made on a relatively modest budget estimated at US$650,000, and was a significant box office success for its time, grossing an estimated $55 million worldwide. Since opening in theaters in 1978, reviews for the film have been nearly unanimously positive.

In addition to three official sequels, the film has spawned numerous parodies and pop culture references. A remake of the movie premiered in the United States on March 19, 2004. Labeled a “re-imagining” of the original film’s concept, several major themes, including the primary setting in a shopping mall, remain essentially the same. Cultural and film historians read significance into the film’s plot, linking it to critiques of large corporations and American consumerism and of the social decadence and excess going on in America during the late 1970s.

Cast

• David Emge as Stephen “Flyboy” Andrews
• Ken Foree as Peter Washington
• Scott H. Reiniger as Roger DeMarco
• Gaylen Ross as Francine Parker
• David Crawford as Dr. James Foster
• David Early as Sidney Berman
• Richard France as Dr. Millard Rausch
• Howard Smith as the TV Commentator
• James A. Baffico as Wooley, Insane SWAT Cop
• Tommy Lafitte as Miguel, The Zombie(uncredited)
• Sharon Ceccatti as Lead Zombie (Nurse)
• Pam Chattfield as Lead Zombie
• Mike Christopher as Lead Zombie (Hare Krishna)

Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things (also known as Revenge of the Living Dead, Things From the Dead, and Zreaks) is a 1972 horror film directed by Bob Clark. This low-budget zombie movie is the second film of director Bob Clark, famous for later directing the films Black Christmas, A Christmas Story, and Porky’s.

Trivia

• Bob Clark revisited his zombie roots in Porky’s II: The Next Day when the boys from Angel Beach tried to set up a prank on Pee Wee, by having Steve (Rod Ball) dress as a ghoul and spring out at him in a cemetery prank.

• According to Tom Savini (who served as FX artist), Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things played all through the filming of the drive-in theater scene in Bob Clark’s Deathdream.

• Actor Bruce Solomon, who plays the ghoul named Winns also appears as Sgt. Raimi in another zombie movie titled Night of the Creeps.

• Actor Jeff Gillen (Jeff) played the Santa Claus in Clarks Film, A Christmas Story.

DVD

• Although previously available on VHS, a 35th anniversary special edition DVD was released in 2007 by VCI Entertainment.
• It features the uncut version of the film, a photo gallery, and a cast commentary.
• Briefly made available on VHS through Anchor Bay Entertainment.

Night of the Living Dead, directed by George Romero, is a 1968 independent black-and-white horror film. Ben (Duane Jones) and Barbra (Judith O’Dea) are the protagonists of a story about the mysterious reanimation of the recently dead, and their efforts, along with five other people, to survive the night while trapped in a rural Pennsylvania farmhouse.

George Romero completed the film on a $114,000 budget, and after a decade of cinematic re-releases, it grossed some $12 million domestically and $30 million internationally. On its release in 1968, Night of the Living Dead was strongly criticized for its explicit content. In 1999, the Library of Congress registered it to the National Film Registry as a film deemed “historically, culturally or aesthetically important”.

Night of the Living Dead had a great impact upon the culture of the Vietnam-era United States, because it is laden with critiques of late-1960s U.S. society; a historian described it as “subversive on many levels”. Although it is not the first zombie film, Night of the Living Dead is the progenitor of the contemporary “zombie apocalypse” sub-genre of horror film, and it influenced the modern pop-culture zombie archetype. Night of the Living Dead (1968), is the first of five Dead films directed by George Romero, and twice has been remade, as Night of the Living Dead (1990 film), directed by Tom Savini, and as Night of the Living Dead 3D (2006).

Influence

Director George Romero revolutionized the horror film genre with Night of the Living Dead; per Almar Haflidason, of the BBC, the film represented “a new dawn in horror film-making”. The film has also effectively redefined the use of the term Zombie. Early zombie films — Victor Halperin’s White Zombie (1932), Jacques Tourneur’s I Walked with a Zombie (1943) — concerned living people enslaved by a Voodoo witch doctor; many were set in the Caribbean.

The film and its successors spawned countless imitators that borrowed elements instituted by Romero: Tombs of the Blind Dead, Zombie, Hell of the Living Dead, The Evil Dead, Night of the Comet, Return of the Living Dead, Night of the Creeps, Braindead, Children of the Living Dead, and the video game series Resident Evil (later adapted as films in 2002, 2004, and 2007), Dead Rising, and House of the Dead. Night of the Living Dead is parodied in films such as Night of the Living Bread and Shaun of the Dead, and in episodes of The Simpsons (“Treehouse of Horror III”, 1992) and South Park (“Pink Eye“, 1997; “Night of the Living Homeless”, 2007). The word zombie is never used, but Romero’s film introduced the theme of zombies as reanimated, flesh-eating cannibals.

Night of the Living Dead ushered in the slasher and splatter film sub-genres. As one film historian points out, horror prior to Romero’s film had mostly involved rubber masks and costumes, cardboard sets, or mysterious figures lurking in the shadows. They were set in locations far removed from rural and suburban America. Romero revealed the power behind exploitation and setting horror in ordinary, unexceptional locations and offered a template for making an “effective and lucrative” film on a “minuscule budget”. Slasher films of the 1970s and 80s such as John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), Sean S. Cunningham’s Friday the 13th (1980), and Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), for example, “owe much to the original Night of the Living Dead“.

The Astro-Zombies, aka Space Zombies aka The Space Vampires, is a 1969 science fiction horror film starring John Carradine, Wendell Corey and Tura Satana. It was written, directed, and produced by Ted V. Mikels. The plot follows a disgruntled scientist who, having been fired by the space agency, decides to create superhuman monsters from the body parts of innocent murder victims. The creatures eventually escape and go on a killing spree, attracting the attention of both an international spy ring and the CIA.

The low budget movie has gained cult status along with many of Ted V. Mikels other works, inspiring him to write and direct a sequel. Mark of the Astro-Zombies was released direct-to-video in 2002 with Tura Satana reprising her role of Satana from the original film.

American horror punk band The Misfits recorded a song entitled “Astro Zombies“, which was written by then-vocalist Glenn Danzig and released on their first full-length album, 1982’s “Walk Among Us”.

Cast

• Wendell Corey - Holman
• John Carradine - Dr. DeMarco
• Tom Pace - Eric Porter
• Joan Patrick - Janine Norwalk
• Tura Satana - Satana
• Rafael Campos - Juan
• Joe Hoover - Chuck Edwards
• Victor Izay - Dr. Petrovich
• William Bagdad - Franchot