The follow up to the classic black & white Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead ratchets up nearly every aspect of the first film, more gore, more zombies, more guns, more everything. What makes this film a classic though isn’t so much the “more” as much as the smart subtext that plays throughout, making thought-provoking comments about consumerism in America as the action goes along.
I still think Night of the Living Dead is a better film overall but Dawn is great too. It would probably be better with about 30 minutes trimmed from its running time. Instead of going for terror like Night, Dawn does a lot more tongue-in-cheek humor that mostly works. There’s a wackiness to the whole thing that makes the ultra-violence almost comedic at times.
This is a worthy follow-up to the original film and though I actually think Snyder’s remake in 2004 is even better (need to watch that again) than this original version of Dawn, I still love this 1978 version as well. If you’re a fan of zombies, this one is well worth seeing. You’ll notice a lot of the classic tropes being pioneered here.