Dawn of the Dead (1978)

George Romero's second zombie movie, after the genre starting 1968 Night of the Living Dead. Other then the presence of zombies there is no real connection to the first film, which is how Romero does things, and which works. This film concerns a group of four refuges from a rising zombie apocalypse who end up taking shelter in a mall, though unlike in the 2004 remake it takes them more then half an hour get there (I'm reviewing the directors cut in this post). The 2004 version of this story is probably the first real zombie movie I ever saw, excepting Shaun of the Dead, and I really enjoyed it so I was kind of surprised to find that I liked this movie more. It's as good or better then the remake, and though the remake is certainly more slick, I liked the rough edges here and that it felt very near guerrilla film making. Most of the film was shoot in the Monroeville PA Mall at night, and as one who vaguely remembers that kind of period mall the look of the place alone was enjoyable. The later Romero zombie films like Land of the Dead are disappointing, but Dawn of the Dead, is perhaps his best. I really liked it. Good