Dawn of the Dead 1979 Stills analysis

This scene in Dawn of the Dead (1979) is a great example of Body Horror as well as use of skewed angles and close-ups. The excessive use of visible body horror is used to shock the audience, as of course the film at the time pushed what was deemed appropriate, despite the Hays Code dying off – Tom Savini’s detailed effects still had the ability to shock and disgust the audience with the graphic deaths. This edited with the use of skewed angles and close ups gave the audience a sense of confusion and panic during the scene in order to simulate being part of the scene and experiencing what the Biker is. The zombies in the scene however, do not seem to be overly sadistic as Zombies in other movies have appeared to be (before DotD or after)They don’t seem to be overly aggressive or seemingly getting enjoyment out of the killing of people – they seem more depressed and vacant in actual expression than actually sadistic.




This scene in Dawn of the Dead (1979) is an example of how the average “All American Hero” is not kept, despite having the back story of Traffic Weather Reporter who is good looking and has a plan to escape, he falls outside of our stereotypical horror convention of a tough guy hero throughout most of the film. He is shown to not be able to use a weapon (un-common within the American CDI) as well as not being overly muscular or brave.This scene once again shows how Romero is an auteur, as he likes to flip and reverse the normal CDI with characters for example, Stephen’s supposed to be the “Male Hero” but is reversed into a whiny, slightly weedy useless character – whereas Peter is made into the cool and calm black guy that knows what he’s doing (which is something that would have been unthinkable in the 70’s).








This scene in Dawn of the Dead (1979) is during the Bikers’ attack on the mall, this shows Romero’s presence as an auteur as well as the Historical Context of late 70’s early 80’s. The scene consists of Stephen opening fire on the Bike’s for looting and breaking into the Mall and claiming “It’s ours, we took it!” which help reinforce Romero’s view on Mall’s and consumerism as a whole – this scene connotes that money and possessions make us greedy and violent towards each other.Also during this scene Stephen is shown to have developed somewhat as he is now able to effectively a firearm, which during this scene helps represent his power and authority in the mall due to it being a Phallic symbol of male dominance. The greed of the being in the mall has got to him, and has then caused his downfall and then subsequent death, with this it allows Romero to project his own feelings on racism and sexism into the film but having the black hero and woman get away, instead of the traditional white American hero getting the girl and escaping.