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The opening of this film is dynamite and probably my favorite sequence of any George Romero film. Romero sets up that the world is in complete chaos as the living dead are taking over. Francine (Gaylen Ross) and her lover Stephen (David Emge), escape the television station they work for in a helicopter and end up bringing along Stephen’s friend Roger (Scott H. Reiniger), a SWAT officer, and another SWAT officer Peter (Ken Foree). The way Romero orchestrates this opening is impressive as he focuses on those characters inside the TV station while people scream and argue about what to do to survive. The sequence at the apartment full of zombies, where the SWAT team takes over is exciting and eerie. The editing of these sequences, paired with Michael Gornick’s cinematography make you feel like you are right there with the characters. Romero uses mostly a static camera, with realistic production design and backed by a probing score by Italian Rock composers Goblin.

The four characters leave the city and for the countryside and eventually land on top of a shopping mall. They figure everything they need is inside that mall. But things do not work out so easily as they start to bicker amongst themselves, Francine becomes pregnant and a big bad motorcycle gang comes to take over and ravage the mall.

DAWN OF THE DEAD has something distinctive about it. It’s a combination of all its ingredients that makes it stand out as one of America’s most original horror films. It’s not so much that this film is scary; it’s more because Romero felt the pulse of society and captured the way people live and interact within the confines of a shopping mall under siege. Tom Savini’s enthusiastic special make-up effects were ground breaking and certainly helped set the stage of all horrific films to follow. Romero almost made the film like a comic book, using bright colored blood, library music and sound effects to help offset the extreme violence.

This DVD is part of Anchor Bay’s Divimax series and looks better than when I saw it playing in the theater and drive-in. You have multiple choices as far as audio and I was impressed with the new surround mix, which added dimension to an original mono soundscrape.

The new audio commentary is definitely worth checking out; which features George Romero, his wife Chris and Tom Savini. Perry Martin moderates the commentary and he helps bring out numerous film recollections that are fun to hear. This commentary, along with watching the film again made me yearn to see these folks work together again, because they have chemistry. The other supplements include; two theatrical trailers, three TV spots, and nine radio spots, as well as a full promotional poster gallery. I think there real monster of DAWN OF THE DEAD supplements will be the 4-DVD set that Anchor Bay plans to release this fall.

www.anchorbayentertainment.com

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