Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Directed by George A. Romero. Starring Ken Foree, David Emge, Scott Reiniger, Gaylen Ross, David Early, David Crawford.

Amid a zombie outbreak, four survivors take shelter in a shopping mall under siege by the undead in this post-apocalyptic horror masterpiece, a sequel to/retooling of Romero’s 1968 cult classic, Night of the Living Dead. A nearly non-stop onslaught of nail-biting suspense, blood-curdling terror, gory shocks, tongue-in-cheek satire, social commentary, ominous foreboding, and icy pathos, it’s a movie of sharp sensations that should overwhelm with excess, but they’re executed with borderline-genius craftsmanship at this level of genre and budget. Screaming human victims and flesh-starved ghouls are eviscerated with the same severity and glee as consumerist culture and a dog-eat-dog mentality, and the shambling zombies are portrayed as relentless and murderous, of course, but are also made to seem at times foolish and even a touch heroic when it comes to dispatching an even worse enemy—ruthless bikers representing mankind at its most savage. The squeamish need not apply, but it’s their loss, and it’s not as if abstention will get them into heaven any easier—when they end up in hell, and there is no more room down there, you know what comes next. Romero also scripted and edited. Remade in 2004. Next in the series: Day of the Dead.

92/100