(hb; 2020: nonfiction/essay collection – the 156-page book is included in Second Sight’s seven-disc Dawn of the Dead Blu-Ray/CD set)
From the back cover
“George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead has long been considered one of the high points of the zombie genre. Like its predecessor, Night of the Living Dead [1968], it blends extreme horror with broad, social commentary. Much has been written about Dawn of the Dead as a critique of consumerist society. However, as this collection of contemporary writing demonstrates, it much more than that. Here, leading voices from both genre film publications and academia bring a diverse range of new perspectives to Dawn of the Dead. In addition to fresh takes on the gender, race and class aspects of the film, there are also essays which explore the Gothic roots of Dawn of the Dead, its rocky reception in cinemas and home video in the UK and how it spawned an entire sub-genre in Italian exploitation cinema. . .”
Review
If you’re a big fan of Romero’s
Dead series and/or the zombie genre in general, this is an overall
interesting read. Not all the essays thrilled me, but for the most part they
were interesting, and lent themselves to a more intriguing, deeper
understanding of Dawn, creation, design, and influence-wise. Standout
essays, at least for this reader, include:
Kat Ellinger’s “Romero’s
New Gothic,” Jon Towlson’s “Superschlock!,” Martin Conterio’s “Combat
Shock: Reflections on Vietnam and the War Movie Genre in Dawn of the Dead,”
Daniel Bird’s “A Form of Punk: The Production and Distribution of Dawn of
the Dead” and Jim Cironella, from his essay “Needle-Drop Nightmares.”
Worth owning, this.
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