When there's no more room in hell ...

[madhair60]

I am resigned to no one ever agreeing with me on this, but I think it's a bit crap.

I'm with you on this one to be honest

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

There are dozens of us. DOZENS!

[Sin Agog]

The most horrifying aspect of Dawn of the Dead is how almost every single actor's eyes are really far apart.  It's more like a froggy invasion than a zombie one.

[magval]

First time I saw this on late night BBC around about 2001 or so, right at the end of the credits there was a little animation of a zombie head coming up over the horizon like the sun (like on the posters), and I've had loads of copies of this on DVD and Blu-Ray (working my way through the mammoth 7-disc set from Second Sight at the minute), and I don't think I've ever seen this since.

Does anyone else remember it?

[Bad Ambassador]

It's the same on my DVD from Arrow/

[magval]

Looking through the listings it looks like it was 2004, actually, and the time allocated suggests it was the longest cut (the Cannes version at about 2 hours 20). Maybe it's a TV thing, like that version of Predator ITV used to show after midnight with all the gore removed.

[greenman]

If you've got a spare £80 its actually out on UHD now, all three cuts and the soundtrack.

https://secondsightfilms.co.uk/collections/latest-releases

I'd imagine cheaper versions coming and I believe a streaming in 4K next year.

[magval]

Second Sight have confirmed they'll be releasing this without the soundtracks and books next year for much less yeah

[dead-ced-dead]

Something I'll parrot that several other users here have mentioned, I don't find it particularly scary either, but I do find it so oppressively bleak, which is only made worse by the moments of humour.

The idea that becoming a zombie is just inevitable and all the main characters are doing is delaying their fate is so depressing. There's no more fight left in them, even as they occasionally kill zombies, they're just husks. Like when Peter stays up and waits for Roger to become a zombie, he's not sad, he just knows that he needs to make sure his friend dies. And when he pours the Champaign over his grave, he's just so done.

It's honestly the most depressing zombie film I've ever seen.

[AsparagusTrevor]

Second Sight have confirmed they'll be releasing this without the soundtracks and books next year for much less yeah

This is good news. I preordered it earlier in the year then chickened out closer to release, I couldn't justify spending 80 quid on one film (to myself or my wife), not to mention the shelf-room.

[Wet Blanket]

First time I saw this on late night BBC around about 2001 or so, right at the end of the credits there was a little animation of a zombie head coming up over the horizon like the sun (like on the posters), and I've had loads of copies of this on DVD and Blu-Ray (working my way through the mammoth 7-disc set from Second Sight at the minute), and I don't think I've ever seen this since.

Does anyone else remember it?

This is my exact experience. I've always wanted to see that little animation again. I wonder if it's a relic of the original European release when it was called Zombie.

I also remember it being on BBC2: the genome confirms it was on reasonably frequently in the late 90s/early 2000s but I reckon the one I saw was the February 2000 showing (which is described as an extended cut)

[phantom_power]

Something I'll parrot that several other users here have mentioned, I don't find it particularly scary either, but I do find it so oppressively bleak, which is only made worse by the moments of humour.

The idea that becoming a zombie is just inevitable and all the main characters are doing is delaying their fate is so depressing. There's no more fight left in them, even as they occasionally kill zombies, they're just husks. Like when Peter stays up and waits for Roger to become a zombie, he's not sad, he just knows that he needs to make sure his friend dies. And when he pours the Champaign over his grave, he's just so done.

It's honestly the most depressing zombie film I've ever seen.

Yeah. There is this lazy comedy trope of zombies being easy adversaries and you only get bitten by being stupid but that sort of misses the point. For one thing you only have to be stupid once, and everyone makes mistakes. Also they are unrelenting so it is just a matter of time. You can pop hundreds in the head but there are thousands more left. Also just the knowledge of that and that humanity is done and you are just one of the remnants waiting to become the enemy

[magval]

Romero's novel (finished by Daniel Kraus and released this year) The Living Dead deals with a lot of that sort of thing in much more explicit detail than the films, and is fucking great read in general. I may even have already mentioned it in this thread but I'd recommend it to anyone who loves Dawn of the Dead as it has a lot of its feeling in terms of how much fun it is and how much time it devotes to the concept of DOING things, the actual practical side of carrying out activities.

Romero was brilliant at this. Not just stuff like boarding up windows in Night but all the detail of moving the cart to the window, distracting the zombies, upstairs, downstairs, rinse and repeat til you can get the cart out, or the scene in Martin where he's moving through the house and fucking about with the phone lines. He really takes his time with that sort of geographical choreography.

The book has that in spades. Thread in Shelf Abuse has loads more praise for those who need a consensus :-)

[greenman]

I did have more money than sense by the way and picked up that UHD and it looks absolutely superb, helped I didnt have any of the soundtrack on CD previously.

Something I'll parrot that several other users here have mentioned, I don't find it particularly scary either, but I do find it so oppressively bleak, which is only made worse by the moments of humour.

The idea that becoming a zombie is just inevitable and all the main characters are doing is delaying their fate is so depressing. There's no more fight left in them, even as they occasionally kill zombies, they're just husks. Like when Peter stays up and waits for Roger to become a zombie, he's not sad, he just knows that he needs to make sure his friend dies. And when he pours the Champaign over his grave, he's just so done.

It's honestly the most depressing zombie film I've ever seen.

Beyond consumerism as well it feels like its critical of individualism, the characters are the winners and inherit the earth/mall but theres still the sense of loss from society as a whole that means threes no real happiness even in a comfortable existence.