SCIENCE! Movie: Dawn of the Dead

[Apathy]

DISCUSS!

I particularly like the thought put into this movie. It's true, the mall is an urban fortress and the only sizeable place I could think of that's full of supplies and easily securable.

And huge biker gangs are always good.

I enjoyed the remake as well, but the whole idea of speedy zombies kinda bothers me.

[Drooling Iguana]

I was expecting the baby to be zombified inside the girl. I suck at predicting these movies.

[Apathy]

Nope, you just predicted the wrong movie.

Watch the remake. (don't worry, that wasn't a real spoiler, the pregnant lady gets bitten right near the start so it's a foregone conclusion in that one).

[Serephel]

I liked the fast zombies in the remake. Since most zombie movies before have had the typical slow moving ones (except 28 Days Later to my knowledge), the fast ones were a nice surprise. They added new challenges to survival.

[Apathy]

28 days later weren't actually zombies. They were monkey rage.

And that's the thing, zombies are supposed to be slow. It's like vampires drinking blood. It's part of what makes them zombies in the first place.

[Amoeba Boy]

You're not the only one who thinks so.

[mario]

Wow. After watching Night of the Living Dead (which I forgot to discuss on the forum, whoops), I wasn't expecting much from a sequel, but I was pleasantly surprised by Dawn of the Dead. The production values were higher, the acting was better, the characters were more endearing (and much more capable at handling themselves during a zombie invasion; it's refreshing to watch a horror movie where at least a few of the protagonists end up pretty well off in the end). But what was up with Peter just giving up on life near the end? He didn't seem all that broken up when he had to shoot Roger in the head. Was he really that much more of an acquaintance with Stephen? That part just seemed like forced tension, making us think he's gonna die until the last possible second.

I really enjoyed the soundtrack by Goblin, enough to look it up on iTunes as the credits rolled (ahem). It's too bad the credits theme itself doesn't appear to be on the soundtrack, though apparently that and many of the other tunes were Romero's choice of public domain songs.

I'm glad we bought this DVD, as I will likely watch it again in the near future. After seeing how well this turned out, I'm very much looking forward to the other two films in the series.

[Takeru]

I liked that guy they pushed around in the shopping cart. I lovingly dubbed him Lil' Tank.

[Apathy]

Originally Posted by mario

what was up with Peter just giving up on life near the end? He didn't seem all that broken up when he had to shoot Roger in the head. Was he really that much more of an acquaintance with Stephen? That part just seemed like forced tension, making us think he's gonna die until the last possible second.

I think it was less about losing Stephen, but losing the mall. That's why Fly-boy went apeshit and started shooting at them in the first place, because the bikers were taking their stuff.

Plus it was a really good excuse for that motivational music and a bunch of zombies getting their faces smashed in.

Also note in that scene the zombie that grabs the gun from him and discards the crappier one. It's all part of the 'zombies are developing intelligence' thing they've got going on.

[mario]

Actually, I thought it was part of the 'zombies retain some learned behaviors from their past lives' thing they were talking about, back when they were playing hockey and going to the mall (and when Zombie Stephen broke through the really crappy fake wall).

[Apathy]

That's part of it as well.

They build from that base. It'll make more sense once you see Day of the Dead.

Bob is the best zombie ever.

[leesh]

Re: the soundtrack--a SECOND soundtrack to the original was released recently (we got it at the radio station). it has a lot of the score stuff on it (not sure about the credits theme) including the marching-band-esque mall montage music. i don't know if that comes up on itunes (it looks pretty low-budget) but it might be worth seeking out. i mean, it's pretty funny out of context, if nothing else.

[Apathy]

I was actually pretty amused to see that Gorillaz have sampled some sizeable sections of the music from Dawn of the Dead (The music from when they're moving the trucks to block the doors features in one of the tracks). There's a chunk from the start of Day of the Dead, including dialogue (Track 15 "M1A1" from the first album) too.

[mario]

Yeah! I recognized the tune immediately when I saw that scene. Demon Days is such a good album. It's the Intro track.

leesh, what's the second soundtrack called? All I can find on iTunes is Zombi.