FilmNRZombie Splatter & Gore Comedy Horror

Dawn of the Dead1978

Name: Dawn of the Dead
Genre: Zombie, Splatter & Gore, Comedy Horror, Sci-Fi Horror
Released: 1978-09-02
Rating: 7.8

“When there’s no more room in HELL, the dead will walk the EARTH!”

Directed by George A. Romero

7.8

Crypt Score

Blended from 4 sources

IMDb 7.8Rotten Tomatoes 92%Metacritic 71TMDB 7.5

✍ Review

On the charts

#2·Top Comedy Horror Films #3·Top Zombie Films #4·Top Splatter & Gore Films #6·Top Horror Movies of the 1970s #11·Top Sci-Fi Horror Films

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Year

1978

Runtime

127 min

Box Office

Budget

$640,000

Revenue (worldwide)

$55,000,000

🏆 3 wins & 2 nominations total

The premise

During an ever-growing epidemic of zombies that have risen from the dead, two Philadelphia SWAT team members, a traffic reporter, and his television-executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall.

Horror Vault's take

George Romero's landmark follow-up to Night of the Living Dead transplants the zombie apocalypse from rural isolation to the gleaming aisles of an American shopping mall, using the undead as a biting metaphor for consumer culture run amok. Four survivors — two SWAT officers, a traffic reporter, and a TV executive — hole up in what should be a fortress of plenty, only to discover that comfort and safety are very different things. Romero balances genuinely shocking gore with sharp, darkly comic observation, crafting a horror film that has as much to say about the living as it does about the dead. Decades on, it remains one of the most influential and thematically rich entries in the genre.

Content: Graphic Violence, Gore, Exploding Head Imagery, Zombie Bite Sequences, Racial Slurs In Dialogue