DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978): FAST-MOVING ZOMBIES
Dec 29th, 2009 by Conor McCabe
I recently finished reading Max Brooks’ excellent World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, and in it Brooks makes it clear that zombies move slow - real, real, slow. Indeed, up until the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead, there were no fast or quick zombies outside of the Return of the Living Dead series. Now 28 Days Later is often credited with creating the hyper-fast zombie, but this is not the case as 1) the creatures in 28 Days are not dead but infected, and 2) they do not eat flesh and/or brains. The idea of hyper-fast infected was adapted by Zack Snyder for the remake, and really it is with him that this break in the Romero zombie canon lies - one continued by Charlie Brooker in Dead Set.
However, there is one example of fast-moving zombies in Romero’s work. It’s from the helicopter scene in Dawn of the Dead (1978). The zombies in question are children, not exactly the easiest to direct, but still, they don’t move as Karen Cooper in Night of the Living Dead.
By the way, I realise that although we’re talking about zombies, I’m the one who has no life.
Loved World War Z, and I’m not really a big fan of the slow-moving, lumbering metaphor that constitutes the zombie genre. The Dawn of the Dead remake had a decent soundtrack, as I recall, though.
I’m in two minds about the slow/fast xombie thing. I really liked Dawn of the Dead (2004) and Dead Set. Both work as satire and as horror, which for me is the benchmark. The news broadcaster extra on the DVD is great fun. I think the clips are on YouTube. Have you seen Diary of the Dead? Romero gets one of the characters to make a point about how zombies can’t run and then goes on to make a shite film with slow zombies. Having said that, I’m looking forward to his new movie, Survival of the Dead, which looks like it may be a DVD only release in Europe. It’s due out in March and the ad’s already on amazon.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Survival-Dead-DVD-Devon-Bostick/dp/B002VD5S6K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1262277123&sr=8-1
I don’t know how I ended up with an obsession with Marxist economics, Irish labour history, and zombie movies. Life’s funny that way, I suppose.
Here’s one of the clips of the news report extra on the 2004 Dawn of the Dead.
At one point the studio cuts to a live report from Monroeville, Pittsburgh (where the original Dawn of the Dead is set) and interviews a cop played by Tom Savini, zombie make-up artist extraordinaire.
Yikes! I have that DVD and never noticed the extras. Thanks Conor. I shall have to dig it out.
Those hobbies you list sound pretty healthy to me. At least they’re not porn, football and reality TV.
Well, if truth be known….