Dawn of the Dead, George A. Romero’s 1978 horror classic, is celebrating its 45th anniversary with a return to theaters in time for Halloween, courtesy the folks at Regal Cinemas. The film will screen during a one-night-only event on October 27th. Still widely regarded as one of the best zombie films ever made, Dawn of the Dead picked up where Romero’s 1968 Night of the Living Dead left off, with groundbreaking practical effects and a surprising depth for a movie of its type. The rise of zombie movies in the 2000s happened after Zack Snyder remade Dawn of the Dead, suggesting that decades later, it remains influential with filmmakers as well as audiences.
While it didn’t share any characters with Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, it was a kind of spiritual sequel to that film, and became the primary source of zombie revenue for the filmmaker, due to an oversight on Night that resulted in that film falling into the public domain. Its success paved the way for several more Living Dead movies from Romero (and that public domain status paved the way for the Return of the Living Dead franchise, which he had nothing to do with but which took advantage of the popularity of Dawn of the Dead).
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In Dawn of the Dead, after zombies start rising from the dead and taking over a town, a handful of disconnected people all get the same idea: head for the local shopping mall, where there will be supplies, plenty of space, and basically every inch of the building is well-lit and easy to lock down. When zombies swarm the outside of the mall, that leaves the survivors trapped and worried that it’s only a matter of time before the undead manage to find a way in.
The movie featured a parody of consumerism that’s hard to miss, and given now rarely mainstream horror movies engaged in social critique at the time, the movie raised some eyebrows just by obviously being “about something.” Made for a little over $600,000, the movie is notable for bringing together horror legends Romero and Dario Argento, who both purchased the international distribution rights and cut his own version of the film for that market, complete with a progressive rock score unlike the more traditional scoring used by Romero.
While Dawn of the Dead was controversial for its violence and gore, the movie nevertheless went on to earn $66 million worldwide, making it a massive success, particularly relative to its small budget.
You can get tickets to Regal’s event here.
