The Red Circle

By Tom Nix

George Romero was already adept at making societal commentary through the eyes of the undead in 1977 when Dawn of the Dead was released. The original (and, really, it can pretty much lay claim to that term across all the levels) Night of the Living Dead took a sharp left turn at the end to use the zombie apocalypse as metaphor for racism. While there were a couple other insights placed throughout that film, they all had a narrow focus.

Dawn, by making the primary setting a shopping mall, takes a very broad look at entire culture. Although, to be fair, in the 70′s it was more of a subculture. Malls didn’t captivate the huge percent of the population that they did in the late 80′s and 90′s and still do now. While the film isn’t really that frightening – the zombies are little more than people painted grey – it sets up two very specific things. One is the extreme brutality on display. Tom Savini does some his best work on this picture, allowing guts to be pulled from bellies and the scalps of zombies to get ripped off. The other is an actual sense of what the end of the world would be like.

Here are four people trapped in a mall, with all the luxuries that would provide. Some of them are lifelong friends. Others are in relationships. These are people that enjoy being with each other. This all ends quickly. Having for fortify the acreage of a supermall combined with the prospect that virtually everyone you know is dead or undead makes for a pretty drowsy cocktail. Hope has been vanquished. There is just survival.

The movie clocks in at almost 140 minutes in length, all of them necessary. This is not a world of fun zombie killing and mall sex. This is a world of staring the enemy in the face every day and sweating just to see the next. The film features so many classic and copied scenes that first time viewers may be a little confused as to the reputation this film has built up. I can assure you, it has earned it.

Seldom does a movie splice biker/zombie deathmatches with long stretches of despair. Seldom, because few filmmakers would ever conceive of mixing these two horror staples. Seldom, because there are no other filmmakers like George A. Romero. Especially during this exact time during the 20th century when he took all of a humanity through a journey that told them there is no more room in hell.

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