Dawn of the Dead

Name: Dawn of the Dead
Director: George A. Romero
Released: 1978
Cast: David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott Reiniger, Gaylen Ross

Transcript

1034 segments · machine-generated, may contain errors

Show full transcript

Unknown Good evening and welcome to horror. I'm Lee.

Chris I'm Chris.

Adam I'm Adam.

Unknown Uh and we are here at the behest of Adam to cover a film that I know he's a big fan of. Um, I got a feeling Chris is gonna like it, but we'll see.

Unknown Uh He can hear the pain in your voice already.

Unknown Eh?

Unknown I can hear the pain in your voice already.

Unknown Just trying to stay awake. I've just watched it and it's you know.

Unknown I haven't got enough caffeine.

Unknown It is a bit you did well to come out of, I would say, yeah.

Unknown If you don't like it, that is a a bit of a slog.

Unknown It's a long old time. Um but yeah, so 1978's Dawn of the Dead. I know it's a classic. I know everybody likes it. I know I'm in the minority, but I'm not gonna lie, just to keep you pricks happy. So, um

Unknown So before we get into it, um Chris, have you had the opportunity to watch anything else in the last two weeks?

Chris Uh well, so it's been a bit of a busy I was gonna say week because I was counting the previous week as Star Wars watching, but so yeah, been a bit busy with work this week and building a a cross trainer and Shelley wanted to watch Lupin. I don't know if any of you have been watching that?

Adam Is this what as in Edgar Allan Poe is that?

Chris No, it's um it's a uh gentleman thief, uh French mystery thriller.

Adam Oh, all right, nice.

Chris It's it's pretty good. It's it's a bit odd though, I think it's like it's dubbed, so it's it seems really strange sometimes the the speaking doesn't exactly seem to fit.

Chris Um but overall it's it's been quite entertaining, only seen the first two episodes.

Chris Um but yeah, it sort of unfolds, um, so how it appears at first.

Chris He he creates sort of a heist and he's got people involved, but then it just carries on turning out that he's got deeper plans throughout, so yeah, it's quite good the way the story unfolds.

Chris Um, I think it's only a short series, I think it might be five episodes possibly.

Unknown Is that the one that's just come on Netflix? Is that the Netflix original thing?

Chris Yeah, that's it.

Chris Um

Adam I've not even heard it, heard of it so.

Unknown I only spotted it because it looks like it's spelt like Lupin. I just remember thinking, oh my God, it's the Lupin Express.

Unknown And then from there I just went and moved on.

Chris Yeah.

Unknown Bring you Lupin. Oh bloody hell.

Unknown I thought it was I got confused there. I thought it was um, you know, Edgar Allan Poe has that detective, is it Dupin or something, who's like the

Chris Oh, Du Pan.

Unknown He's like before Sherlock Holmes.

Unknown Yes.

Unknown Yeah. Uh, or Du Pan or something like that. Yeah. I thought it might have been that.

Adam Uh, which I still think there would be a good series from.

Chris C. Auguste Dupin.

Unknown Well, random.

Unknown That's the fella.

Unknown That's right, because isn't he the first I think his that story by Edgar Allan Poe is the first time that the word detective was used. Is that correct?

Adam I think it's something along those lines.

Adam Because it's it's definitely because it's Murders in because he's

Adam I can't remember if Murders in the Rue Morgue is the first one that's with him.

Adam Because there's a couple of other ones as well.

Adam Um but Murders in the Rue Morgue I think it is that's the first one and it's basically like the first detective story, you know, in or modern detective story as we would understand it.

Unknown Yeah.

Chris That sounds like a quiz question I'm gonna come across at some point, so thank you for letting me know that.

Adam Well, we can't I was gonna say this is that is essentially what this show does.

Unknown We we give people that, oh fuck yeah, you remember they said something about that Chris.

Unknown Uh,

Unknown I the only reason I know that useless piece of information, um and Adam will back me up because he was with me. Uh they when Sherlock, the the newest season came out, the Mark Gatiss one, um

Unknown Uh at the was it the Royal?

Unknown But one of the

Adam It was the Museum of London, wasn't it?

Unknown That's right.

Unknown They did an exhibition on him and they had the original handwritten manuscript by Edgar Allan Poe where he used the word detective in it, and I'm sure it's the first time it was written in a story.

Unknown Um yeah, and it was a fantastic exhibit, but I just remember standing for like 15 minutes staring at a page handwritten by Edgar Allan Poe and I was just like, I don't care how many people behind me, I'm not moving. It was just magnificent.

Unknown And it obviously because paper and everything was so expensive then, his handwriting is so tiny, it's almost illegible.

Unknown It was hard to see.

Adam Oh yeah.

Chris Very efficient.

Unknown Yeah.

Adam It's very efficient, but also it's one of those things where it's like, fuck, no wonder everyone had piss poor eyesight.

Adam Right, so by candlelight and you're scratching out like beautiful prose and text.

Adam You're mixing the cat's blood with the ink to make it go further.

Unknown Um right, sorry, I dragged us off topic.

Unknown Um Adam, have you watched anything in the last fortnight?

Adam Well, I've um I mean, one was entirely inspired by the good people at not for everyone podcast, so go and listen to not for everyone podcast.

Adam And uh that was uh Bad Taste, just because

Adam They talked about it, and it's that thing that you always get.

Adam Is if you're a fan of Bad Taste, that just makes you excited and you watch Bad Taste.

Adam So, yeah.

Adam Um again, it's it's a film that it's a film I'd love to do.

Adam I mean, obviously, they've just done it, so it wouldn't be any time soon.

Adam But yeah.

Adam Because it's just mental.

Adam I think that's the only way to describe it.

Adam It's just mental.

Chris I seem to remember you mentioning it before and saying we should cover it at some point.

Adam It's well, I mean, Peter Jackson actually has a pretty good.

Adam Because it's Peter Jackson's first film.

Chris His first Okay, that's interesting.

Adam It's his first film and seriously, you watch it and it's and the thing was is I think in my head, I only ever think of that and that's the Peter Jackson film in my head.

Adam I always forget that he did like The Frighteners and Brain Dead.

Unknown Yeah.

Chris Did he? I didn't realize he did that.

Adam So he did those films.

Adam But I always forget about them. I always just like, right Bad Taste, because it was that also it was the thing of the front cover of the video was an alien given the finger.

Unknown Yeah, yeah.

Chris I remember that in the uh in the video shot. Exactly.

Adam Exactly.

Adam That's where that's where it's borrowed in my head is from that was the cover that.

Adam What's um our good friend Wez from Mos Eisley Happy Hour, he always says that it's it's the cover of Bad Taste and the drawing of a punk with a mohican between two sets of breasts.

Unknown Never found out what that film was, it was in the video shop every time. It was the one that stood out to an eight-year-old boy. I've no idea what that film was.

Adam Yeah, still no idea.

Adam Maybe listeners would like to help us with that one, you know.

Adam Um answer, Welcome to Horror.

Adam There you go.

Adam We've thrown a new spin on a moribund section of the show.

Adam Um but

Chris So Peter Jackson really ramped up then, didn't he?

Chris Because I've just looked up his list directing and yeah, he went pretty quickly into Lord of the Rings after not having done.

Adam That's the thing.

Adam That's the thing, is in my head, it was like there's they're doing a film of Lord of the Rings.

Adam Oh right, okay.

Adam He's doing it.

Adam Peter Jackson, what the fuck you doing? Just bad taste.

Adam It was like suddenly he's like involved with living trees and dwarves and elfen folk and stuff like that.

Adam And I'm still thinking.

Chris You're imagining.

Adam Yeah, I'm just thinking of Bad Taste where it's like, you know, pig guts thrown around on a beach and lots of and people vomiting up dinner.

Adam And it's

Adam it's not the first Basically, if someone said to me, okay, go and make Lord of the Rings, go and pick your director, he wouldn't have been.

Chris No. No.

Adam I wouldn't have even come to mind, I don't think, because in my head I'm just thinking bad taste.

Adam But obviously, yeah, I mean, we should cover The Frighteners as well.

Unknown Yeah.

Chris Yeah, you've definitely mentioned that as well.

Chris But yeah, I think I really need to watch these now.

Chris Because the first I heard of him was when he'd done Lord of the Rings. I was like, okay, yeah, he's done a great job with these.

Chris But yeah, I had no idea what he did previously.

Adam I suppose actually it would be it'd be the equivalent now of it's always directors like you get these really good directors who are doing more sort of independent or left field sort of stuff.

Adam But nowadays you get given a Marvel movie.

Unknown Yeah.

Adam You know, it's like Taika, what's he doing Thor Ragnarok and stuff like that.

Adam And yeah, or like the guy who did the um Godzilla from a few years back.

Adam They're all people who'd sort of like done these maybe one weird little hit.

Adam And or like in Taika Waititi's case quite, you know, a long stream of just really good product.

Chris Great stuff, but I guess still sort of niche.

Unknown Yeah.

Adam Yeah.

Adam But I mean, I think yeah, so I think that's probably why Peter Jackson ended up doing Lord of the Rings.

Adam Uh but yeah, no, if seriously, if you watch Bad Taste, you you will not Now I've told you, well, actually there's two things.

Adam Now I've told you it's Peter Jackson, plus the fact Peter Jackson is about three of the main characters in the fucking film.

Adam Because there was only like 18 people making this film in the in New Zealand.

Adam And so like it's him and like a few other mates, but at one point he he's he's fighting himself on a rock, like on a cliff face.

Adam And it's just you know, it is bizarre.

Adam And uh yeah, then he goes and does the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Adam And as they said on not for everyone podcast, unfortunately The Hobbit trilogy as well.

Adam So,

Unknown I didn't

Chris So

Unknown I've been saving that episode. I'll listen to the opening until they started to cover Bad Taste.

Unknown And then I suddenly realized I don't remember anything about it.

Unknown I've I've definitely seen it and I it.

Unknown Um but yeah, I was the opposite to you. I always went to Brain Dead.

Adam Ah, yeah, yeah.

Unknown Um yeah, so I always brought Brain Dead which is a great film, yeah, and again is to think that he went from that to Lord of the Rings seems insane.

Unknown Um.

Unknown Uh yeah, so I'm gonna go back and rewatch uh Bad Taste at some point.

Unknown Sorry, Chris.

Chris Um.

Chris That's sorry.

Chris Um, yeah, I didn't mind The Hobbit.

Chris Um.

Chris What why didn't they like it? I mean, we could sort of go off track.

Chris But I figure this may be a slightly shorter episode because I don't know if Lee can handle another two hours of us talking about Dawn of the Dead.

Unknown I've got some things to say that might take a while.

Unknown Oh yeah, I'm I'm looking forward to that.

Chris Um but yeah, no go on.

Chris So why didn't they not like The Hobbit?

Adam I think I think they just didn't think it was up to par.

Adam And which seems to be the general consensus.

Adam And I do have to

Chris It is, yeah.

Adam Stretching a trilogy out of a book that's shorter than any of the.

Chris But that's I quite liked that he I quite liked that he did that.

Chris I mean, I get it depends I did really like the book, um I I read it when I was very young.

Chris But I still thought it to me it seemed like if he bought out something that really was close to the book, then that would have seemed really odd after having brought Lord of the Rings, so he should have done it the other way around.

Chris So I kind of thought that's fair enough that he's tried to make it similar in in style and yeah, and length.

Unknown Yeah.

Adam I mean, one thing they said on the episode is apparently he was just meant to be producing it and ended up directing it.

Chris Okay.

Adam So maybe maybe there's that element to it or something.

Adam You know, maybe it just doesn't come across because I've not seen.

Adam I've not seen them properly.

Adam I've basically tuned in and gone, I know Sylvester McCoy's in this, I'll wait until Sylvester McCoy's in this and then I switch over.

Adam So after he's been on.

Adam So yeah, that's that's about the level of my experience, but what I've seen have just been a bit sort of like oh, okay.

Adam I think that's probably what it is, is it's just that he did, you know, people were really into his version of Lord of the Rings and it's almost it's almost the Star Wars prequels effect.

Chris Oh, is it? Yeah, I suppose that might there's definitely something to that.

Chris I think similar to that any Star Wars that comes out I'll happily watch whether it's, you know, very good or not.

Chris Um and it's probably a bit like that. I was just quite happy that someone was making The Hobbit.

Chris So yeah.

Adam You'd rather they were making it than not, I suppose.

Adam Is.

Chris Yeah.

Adam Always the.

Chris Yeah, unless it's so bad that, you know, that you.

Adam Yeah.

Chris Really puts you off, but.

Adam Uh.

Adam Um, I've also continued Claire's uh Claire wanted to watch an anthology film.

Adam So we watched uh.

Adam Doctor Terrible's House of Horrible, because it turns out Claire hadn't seen it.

Unknown Yeah.

Adam For some reason in my head I had watched it with Claire, but we have been doing this show on Zoom for so long now.

Adam That the reason I was like, I remember watching that and joking along with it.

Adam And everything else.

Adam Yeah, because I watched it with YouTube.

Unknown And I forgot it was almost like we've been doing this on Zoom so long.

Unknown I forgot that we the the idea is we'd meet up, watch the film, record the episode.

Unknown And you're like.

Unknown Oh yeah, that's why I think I've watched this in company, because I did.

Unknown You know.

Adam Um but yeah, so um yeah, we we watched I mean, obviously we've there was a whole episode on it way back when.

Adam Um but uh.

Adam Yeah, I mean, that's still great and has continued Claire's love of um the uh anthology movie.

Adam Um, I watched I've finished watching Tales of the Uncanny, the documentary about anthology movies.

Adam Oh, yeah.

Adam Um that was really good and at the end of it they um.

Adam Said it was um sorry, they got everyone involved to vote.

Adam And they'd also because this was like Seven Films own documentary, they'd also put like a poll up on Twitter and stuff.

Adam And it and so it was like the votes for best anthology movies and everything.

Adam Um.

Adam The only thing I think was is that they they sort of skirted over Vault of Horror.

Adam Uh but they obviously did mention Creepshow, didn't they?

Adam Can't you?

Adam Because it is the standout, it is.

Adam Yeah.

Adam Um but it's it's sort of um but yeah, no, it's a really really good documentary worth tracking down.

Adam Um and again, it's just been really weird to sort of.

Adam Because it's been either everyone's saying, that film's great.

Adam And I've agreed with them.

Adam Or I've never heard of this film and all these people are saying it's great.

Adam I've just said that all the films I really like are good as well.

Adam So, yeah.

Adam It'll probably end up um opening up like a whole new whole new avenues, new sort of anthology films to watch which would be good.

Adam Excellent.

Adam And because because we watched Doctor Terrible's House of Horrible, we actually watched uh slightly off topic, but it is an Amicus film technically.

Adam We watched Doctor Who and the Daleks, the Peter Cushing Dalek movie.

Adam Um.

Adam Which is him and Roy Castle together again and from exactly the same year as Doctor Terrible's House of Horrible.

Adam So, yeah.

Adam And because that was the thing is we was what Claire was half watching it, admittedly.

Adam Um.

Adam And uh she suddenly went, hang on, it was the in Doctor Terrible.

Adam So I was like, yes, Roy Castle again.

Adam And I was like,

Unknown Oh, yeah.

Adam And I said, that's why he's doing prat falls everywhere.

Adam Because it's very much it's a very similar performance.

Adam So.

Adam And it's also one of those lovely moments where you watch something, you think, yeah, this is a kid's film, this is a kid's film. We're all dying of radiation poisoning. This is a kid's film, this is a kid's film. This is.

Adam Yeah.

Adam And you're like, kids were made of sterner stuff then, I fear.

Adam You know.

Adam I think kids today would could take it, but I don't think their parents could.

Unknown Well,

Unknown I think I

Unknown I think it's true. I think I'm thinking about this in the week.

Unknown Again, I know it's going slightly off topic.

Unknown But I know it's something we've discussed quite a lot.

Unknown I was thinking about it in the week, you know, about um, you know, people saying, oh well, you know, I know my kids are 12 and 10 and 12 or whatever, but there's still stuff that's PG that won't let them watch.

Unknown Yeah, and I'm just like, I remember being six years old and watching Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Unknown And just like, you know, all the melting zombies and the ghosts and stuff.

Chris Yeah, the melting face scene was.

Unknown Like it did I was just like, oh that was cool. Like I never came away like fucked for the rest of my life.

Unknown None of us were none of us were scarred by anything we ever saw.

Unknown I think this whole like, oh you got to be super, you know, cushiony cuddly about it.

Unknown I'm like.

Unknown And the worst thing is, I think if you keep kids away from stuff.

Unknown This is the thing, if you don't gently ease them into it, all of a sudden, they're just gonna watch Cannibal Holocaust unexpectedly and what the fuck's gonna happen then?

Adam It's it's the thing of you fetishize it almost.

Adam Because you forbid it.

Unknown Yeah, exactly, yeah.

Adam Yeah.

Adam Because I I mean I I knew a kid at school who's um parents used to record movies, but they would cut out any sex.

Adam And it's like, well, if you're not comfortable with don't show him the film.

Unknown Yeah.

Adam Do you know what I mean? It's always seemed like a weird sort of thing to sort of do.

Adam Um.

Adam But also, I think there's it's weird because you go back I think more than anything is you just prove that kids are very resilient and pretty pretty much unaffected by stuff, because a lot of the time you do watch things that you watch as a kid.

Adam You go, I was watching this when I was a kid, this is fucking gruesome, you know what I mean?

Adam Or something but it obviously doesn't phase you as a kid. You don't sort of Maybe it's the same way that you don't you don't register the trading of Phantom Menace.

Chris But but doesn't a lot of this but it did have a cool guy with a double-headed lightsaber and a funny frog, you know, so.

Chris Do do you not think a lot of this comes from the media though?

Chris Um, the people, you know, the amount of um terrorist acts and they say, oh, he was listening to this music and he was watching this and so makes everyone think, oh, you know, shouldn't do that.

Adam The weird thing is, is it's.

Adam There's it's systematic as you go through that every time frame or generation has a panic.

Adam And it was like when we were talking about when we did Tales From the Crypt and we were talking about the EC horror comics.

Adam And that was like there was books written about how this was warping the youth and that's why they went to coffee bars and slashed seats in cinemas.

Adam And all and it's like no one goes to the fundamental fact that fucking teenagers are mental and that's why this shit happens, because you're fucking mad essentially.

Adam You know, you've got too much energy and not enough age and brains.

Unknown And brains.

Adam Yeah, it's like.

Chris Well, does this tell us what what sort of things did you get up to as a teenager?

Adam Um second drawer mainly.

Adam But but again, but then you get so you'd have like the horror comics, then it was violent films, then it was um, uh Dungeons and Dragons.

Adam And the Satanic Panic.

Unknown Yeah.

Adam Then it was rock, obviously rock music or whatever music was out of the time was dangerous.

Adam When I was at primary school, my head mistress, and Claire knows this story because I told her and she found it hilarious.

Adam My head mistress banned us from saying acid.

Unknown Really?

Adam Yeah.

Adam Because this was like, what I don't know, this would have been 85 or something like that, eight, yeah.

Adam Um, so there's a bunch of us and we're all like six or seven or something like that.

Adam And she was like, right, and there's a thing going around and we don't want it when I don't want to hear people saying acid.

Adam In and it was like, so she boiled down the panic of illegal raves, clubbing and ecstasy down to to one word, which is if you heard someone say acid.

Adam And but here's the thing.

Adam She was quite religious, we used to have a vicar come in every so often and we had a cool and funky vicar, you know, sort of like, hey, you can call me Joe.

Adam Um, that sort of a vicar.

Adam He was all right bloke.

Adam But he was yeah, he was he was definitely like a young and hip and happening vicar.

Adam And he's like

Adam he was doing this thing where it was like, right, okay, we're gonna do this story.

Adam But I want you to help me, so this group here.

Adam You're gonna be the police and whenever the police are mentioned, you go, hello, hello, hello.

Adam Or something like that.

Adam And then it was like.

Adam And you lot.

Adam You and this included me.

Adam You lot, you're the you're the street punks or the street gang or something like that.

Adam And whenever you're mentioned, you've got to go acid.

Adam And she nearly like had a fucking aneurysm over in the corner.

Adam And then we're all sat there going, but Miss, the vicar told us. He said we've got to do it.

Adam Not even that we're allowed to.

Adam We've got to a vicar told us.

Adam Oh, we were fucking loving that.

Adam And yeah.

Unknown I wonder if it was just more of a personal thing. It'd be like me, if I was a headmaster, I'd be like.

Unknown What?

Unknown They're a kids dancing in the.

Unknown No, no dancing in the playground.

Unknown I'm outlawing that, why, because I don't like it and it's bullshit.

Unknown You're not allowed it.

Unknown It's nonsense.

Unknown Dancing serves no purpose for anybody.

Unknown Just stop it.

Chris It'll turn you into a crazy teenager.

Adam Exactly. I've seen all them John Waters films. I know how it goes.

Adam First you dance in the next thing.

Unknown Yeah.

Adam Uh, or you suddenly you're just dusting off a seven inch and uh and the world goes rockabilly crazy.

Unknown Um, so I've only seen one thing, I've been pretty pants, but I have been reading a lot, so that's my excuse.

Unknown Um.

Unknown So, uh, following I think I mentioned last week uh that I'd watched um once upon a time in Hollywood again.

Chris Oh, yes.

Unknown Yes.

Unknown Uh which then led me to show Jennifer The Fearless Vampire Killers because she'd never seen it.

Unknown Um.

Adam Oh, the um.

Unknown Roman Polanski.

Adam Yeah.

Unknown Uh starring and directed film with Sharon Tate.

Unknown Um.

Unknown Yeah.

Unknown It's it's weirder than I remember.

Unknown I remember it being weird, but it was even weirder than I remember.

Unknown Um.

Adam Yeah, I always get that when I go back to it.

Adam I think, yeah.

Unknown But it's such a fun film and it's such a beautiful looking film as well. Like I just I love the way it's shot and I know a lot of it, like a lot of the outdoor shot stuff was all shot in Italy and stuff in the snow.

Unknown Um and the rest of it was all in Elstree.

Unknown But yeah, it's a really good looking film.

Unknown Um yeah, and I really enjoyed it.

Unknown So if everyone's looking for a bit of a bit of a fun hour and a half vampire film with Roman Polanski, if your politics will allow you to continue to watch his films, uh then yeah, Fearless Vampire Killers.

Unknown Yeah.

Adam He he I mean, he got an Oscar for it.

Adam Sorry.

Unknown Did he?

Adam Sorry.

Adam He got it for writing it.

Adam Either either that or I'm just about to be murdered in my bed by a group of Hollywood lawyers.

Adam Don't you tell the truth.

Adam That's what he got the Oscar for.

Unknown Right.

Unknown So.

Unknown Yeah.

Unknown Excellent.

Unknown Right, so to get into it.

Unknown Hang on.

Unknown Get myself prepped.

Unknown Okay.

Unknown I think I'm in the right headspace now.

Unknown So we have just watched all of us have just watched the full two hour and 20 minutes.

Unknown Let me repeat that, two hours and 20 my notes literally say two hours and 20. Fuck off.

Unknown Um.

Unknown Uh two hours and 20 minutes of Dawn of the Dead. So Chris.

Unknown What did you make of Dawn of the Dead?

Chris I enjoyed it.

Chris Um.

Chris It was a bit longer than I was expecting, but I kind I thought they got away with that by making it change quite noticeably throughout.

Chris So, you know, the aim of the film seemed to be a bit different where they went from um, you know, lots of fighting to then figuring out how they're gonna survive in the mall.

Chris Um, a bit of comedy thrown in, which perhaps a little bit odd at times.

Chris Um.

Chris Um, you know, a serious amount of effects, I guess Tom Savini had his work cut out for him on this one.

Chris Um.

Chris And and of course, he was in it as well, which was kind of good, so I think this is the first time we've seen him acting, I think.

Unknown No, it was we saw him on It's My Party and I'll Die If I Want To.

Unknown That's right, yeah.

Adam Yeah, he was the uncle in that, wasn't he?

Chris Um, but yeah, he had a couple of lines in this.

Chris You know.

Chris So still fairly short, the only other film I've seen him in is From Dusk Till Dawn where he had a larger.

Chris Roll.

Chris But yeah, so.

Adam The larger part.

Adam With two barrels either side of it.

Chris He did.

Chris Um.

Adam That's also something we need to cover, I think.

Adam Because that's that's a that's a genuinely great just straight up vampire film.

Adam It's, yeah.

Unknown I think I saw it once when it came out and not again since, so I probably should watch it again.

Chris Um.

Chris Surprising, yeah.

Chris That was definitely one that worked for me when I first saw it.

Chris Yeah.

Chris Um.

Chris So no, like.

Chris Overall, I thought it was good.

Chris I I wouldn't rush to watch it again.

Chris I can definitely understand if one if you're not that keen on zombies, you you know, you'd struggle with this.

Chris Um.

Chris But I thought there was a lot in there. Um I I was trying I suppose in some ways I was trying to compare it to the first one.

Chris And then I was also trying not to.

Chris Um, I think the first one had some other kind of charm about it that worked.

Chris And it could have been because it was black and white.

Chris Um.

Chris And it was so focused on the human difficulties.

Chris Whereas this one in a way because it had so much changing, you know, the focus was sort of different throughout.

Chris Um.

Chris But so I I think they did a good job.

Chris Um, definitely a lot of effort went into it.

Chris Um.

Chris And yeah, and it expanded on on the idea of zombies.

Chris So yeah, for me it was it was definitely good.

Adam I think I mean what just watching it and it's

Adam It's a weird one when it's like, I know I really like this movie and then I watched it and it's like, fucking hell, that is cracking though.

Adam And I got through.

Adam I was it was it's almost like sort of taken aback.

Adam It, however.

Adam I am totally with both of you on the length of the film.

Adam I think the film needs to be that length, but equally that's because I love the film.

Adam So I'm happy in.

Adam But I do think there are certain parts that could have been truncated and essentially.

Adam Because I mean.

Adam Obviously you've got the remake version, which because

Adam And again, this was the reason that I wanted to show you this, Chris, is because it was the really rare.

Adam There's a really the George A. Romero zombie films certainly initially, it's a really rare thing where you get sequels that are.

Adam You don't have to have seen the ones before.

Adam But what it does do is it gradually gives you the timeline of the.

Adam Sort of outbreak, so Night of the Living Dead.

Adam Is meant to be the day that it all kicks off when they.

Adam Yeah.

Adam And then this is.

Adam I think they say something like three weeks or something like that.

Adam Uh into into what's going on.

Adam And it's a weird thing to watch in a pandemic.

Unknown Because.

Adam You know, you're sort of like thinking, well, there's people dying everywhere.

Adam But TV is still going on.

Adam And.

Adam And I actually quite like, although I think it's totally.

Adam It's it's oddly mishandled in the the opening bit is I don't think it's that clear why there's a drug raid going on.

Adam Or that they're the police are involved in a drug raid.

Adam And the zombies are kind of separate.

Adam They're it's having to deal with that whilst also continuing to do your job.

Unknown See now I've got a note about that.

Unknown Because I didn't entirely get what that was like, it's never made specific that they're in there on a drug raid.

Unknown They just all pile in and they go, yeah, let's get these Puerto Ricans.

Unknown And I'm like.

Unknown What are they like are they a cult, are they all just hold up and they're refusing to go so I don't get what what what was going it wasn't made clear and I was like, they've just gone into a tower block and they're killing loads of people.

Unknown I was like, are they just refusing to leave and go to Safe Haven, I couldn't quite work out what was happening.

Adam Yeah, because they.

Chris It's it's America, cops blasting in and shootings.

Chris Doesn't matter really, does it, you know, any reason.

Adam It's a give it's a given certainly, yeah.

Adam But I think no, something definitely gets lost in that, because the whole thing is meant to be, it's basically meant to be, oh, it's a drugs raid and it's like a siege situation where this guy's held up and he's basically taken the housing like he's taken the tenement block hostage as part of like the final confrontation with the police.

Adam But what's.

Adam What's causing what's exacerbated the problem is that there's also the zombie outbreak so they're all in the um.

Adam They're all sitting in the.

Adam Like in the basement where they've just been disposing the bodies because they no one in there knows what to do or can get help or can get out and so on and so forth.

Adam And it's but it does come over.

Adam I think it doesn't they don't make it that plain, but when you know that.

Adam Like I say, and it's the similar thing to.

Adam Like where it's you know, they want um, uh, what's his name, Stephen wants to go off on the helicopter.

Adam And she's like, well, no, we've got to keep this running because people need information.

Adam And then that cameraman just goes, look, we're moving over to emergency broadcast, it's not your responsibility anymore.

Adam And again.

Adam It's that thing of everyone trying to continue.

Adam Spite what's going on.

Adam And okay, there is no way on Earth that the mortality rate or the the sort of danger rate is as great as the dead coming back to feast upon the living within Coronavirus.

Adam But you do have the it's like when there's that there's that excellent fucking guy with the eye patch who basically is Tom Savini.

Adam Um.

Adam But but he he is just fantastic where it's because again, it's debates we are seeing on telly or online and stuff like that.

Adam Where it's like, no, you've got to do this.

Adam This is the thing.

Adam And there's.

Chris Like he's he's a crazy scientist.

Chris Like, but yeah.

Chris He's he's talking some sense, and but yeah, who do you trust?

Chris Like if he's saying one thing, someone else is saying something else, you know, how do you know who's right?

Unknown And this is the thing I that I made a note of as well. So if we if they listen to the first crazy scientist at the very beginning, who's saying, look, let's not go mental, but if somebody is dead, you need to cut their head off.

Unknown And everyone is just like snowflake, no, no, you nobheads.

Unknown And because they don't do that, it gets to the point where it's like, we're just gonna have to nuke whole countries because you wouldn't contain it when you should have contained it.

Unknown You've let it get out of hand.

Unknown It's your own fault that everybody's dead now.

Unknown And it.

Unknown Yeah, so you do kind of end up.

Unknown You can see the escalation as you said, Adam, which is.

Adam It feels very real.

Adam You know.

Adam But actually Claire said something that just I thought like put the whole COVID situation in a nutshell.

Adam It was if this was because.

Adam Obviously we're sort of talking about it.

Adam As we're watching Dawn of the Dead.

Adam And she she just went.

Adam Yeah, but if the pandemic was a movie, you'd be watching it going, oh, for fuck's sake, just stay in for six months.

Adam Oh.

Adam Yeah.

Adam Why can you not fucking do this? All you've got to do is stay in and don't fucking breathe on people.

Adam And yet it's like.

Adam So the thing the other day where it was like, um yeah, a wedding a wedding party of 400.

Adam Yeah.

Adam Uh was broken up the other day.

Adam And you're like.

Adam That's that's a lot, isn't it really, when you sort of.

Adam You know.

Adam And and you know.

Unknown And it's insane.

Unknown But.

Unknown But as you say, it's it's funny the so so, being at home all day every day.

Unknown I've noticed this.

Unknown So I like you say, I've been one of those, even when the first lockdown started, I've pretty much stayed in unless it's absolutely essential for me to leave the house, I haven't left the house, I haven't been shopping once, I've filled the car up a couple of times cuz I've needed to use the car to do short journeys.

Unknown I've literally left the house as little as possible.

Unknown Somebody in my street, which is an elderly couple and their 50-year-old son.

Unknown Um every single day go out.

Unknown All day.

Unknown They have no reason to leave the house, none of them work, they're both retired.

Unknown And they're in the habit of because they're so bored of being at home every day, they get in the car and they'll drive 30 miles to a different supermarket chain just to do something with their day.

Unknown And now we're in this pandemic.

Unknown They're still doing that.

Unknown And I watch him do it every single day.

Unknown And it's like, what are you doing? Why are you doing this?

Adam It's it is a very frustrating it's it's I think that's the thing.

Adam It's a very frustrating thing and you end up, sometimes you're watching the telly, you end up like the the scientist with the eye patch.

Adam Where you're like sort of like, logical.

Adam It is logical, you just have to fucking shut down almost and just repeat it to yourself.

Adam No, I am talking fucking sense here, why can you not see this?

Chris Is is laugh trial go mad.

Unknown Yeah.

Adam Yeah, and I mean like the bikers.

Adam Again, it's that sort of thing of it's an ideal place.

Adam You know, in terms of zombie outbreaks.

Adam I mean, it's the one that everyone's gonna do because it's famously in the film.

Adam But it is yeah, there's a a lot of um so many pros to it as a a space to occupy.

Adam Um.

Adam And obviously the shopping things are fun.

Adam I I'd grab that wheel of Yarborough.

Unknown Yeah.

Unknown Fuck it.

Unknown Yeah.

Unknown It's funny, Jennifer said that, she said, you can tell this film was written by a man.

Unknown They're like, right, step one, gun store, step two, power tools, DIY.

Unknown And I was like, yeah, you've kind of got.

Unknown But yeah, and then and then cheese.

Unknown Yeah.

Unknown Pretty much. We're gonna get JD and we're gonna get some power tools and fuck everything else, it's fine.

Adam And it's but it's such a brilliant idea because it is essentially you're in the one stop place.

Adam Oh, we need some we need some hard board and some fucking.

Adam and nails.

Adam Well, you go down the fucking hardware store.

Adam Yeah, exactly.

Adam You know, it's such a fucking great sort of idea.

Adam And also there's an.

Adam There's an infectiousness of.

Adam They filmed it they genuinely filmed it in a mall after dark.

Adam Um.

Adam They had a break over Christmas because and this will tell you something about the changing in uh how sort of things work.

Adam Uh, yeah, they had a three week break because the mall because it was over Christmas and the mall had put their decorations up.

Adam And it would have caused continuity.

Adam Just fucking nightmares.

Adam But three weeks of their Christmas decorations.

Adam Not a fucking month and a half.

Adam Yeah.

Adam You know, not fucking since September for fuck's sake.

Adam Three weeks, they had their Christmas decorations up.

Adam And there was like, right, now business as normal.

Adam And actually what they they filmed between ten and six in the morning and apparently that was because the mall didn't actually open till half past ten, but the mall's tannoy came on at six in the morning and no one knew how to switch it off.

Adam So at that point they were like, oh, we're gonna have to fucking give up now, because it was just detention came out of choppers.

Adam So.

Adam And also um according to uh according to Tom Savini.

Adam Uh the bit, you know, where he um oh, bloody.

Adam My brain's not working.

Adam When Roger slides down the escalator.

Adam Yeah.

Adam Um, yeah.

Adam Apparently people kept trying to go into the mall and doing that, so they had to put like one of those box barrier things at the bottom of it.

Adam Because.

Adam That was just that was what everyone wanted to do after they'd seen Dawn of the Dead, they go down the Monroeville mall and skid down the escalator.

Adam So.

Unknown Yeah, and it's just.

Unknown I think the problem one of the problems for me is.

Unknown And it's funny because Jennifer highlighted it as well.

Unknown Like we were we'd watch half an hour of this film and she went, oh, I thought this was the one in the mall.

Unknown I was like.

Unknown This is the one in the mall.

Unknown They just still haven't got there yet.

Unknown And this is the problem.

Unknown So you've got Night of the Living Dead. You've already set up the zombies, you've set up everything that needs.

Unknown So you don't need any of that.

Unknown Let's get the ball rolling, let's get the story going, you just need there's some people, they've got in a helicopter, they're trying to escape.

Unknown It takes 35 minutes for him to get to that mall.

Unknown Yeah.

Unknown It.

Unknown It is I think you're quite right. I think it is that they've made it a little bit too real and not enough like a I mean, I was thinking about it earlier.

Unknown It is.

Unknown It's like like not to play down what's happening now, I know a lot of people have you know, we've lost a lot of people and it's a big thing.

Unknown But for the majority of us, it's just been the lockdown element, you know, for the majority of us.

Unknown So it's gonna be one of those things, people are going to be talking about this for hundreds of years, but you know, your grandkids will say, did you live through the pandemic, oh my God, you know, although it's terrifying, it must have been exciting, it must and you'll be like, it's the most boring year of my life.

Unknown I literally sat indoors and did nothing.

Unknown For a full year plus.

Unknown Like.

Unknown And and so that so that is an exciting thing for people in the future to look back at as an important part of history, but to have lived through it, it's just super boring.

Unknown And that's what this portrays, and it portrays it very well, but that doesn't mean you should make a film about it.

Unknown You should say, do you know what, this would be really, really, really boring, let's make a film that shows just how boring this would really be.

Adam So you think it's like when they get to the mall, so you think it's like lockdown the movie.

Adam I kind of I I kind of go with you on that one.

Adam I think definitely there's that element.

Adam Because it's.

Adam I suppose actually is that the point as well where it's like, so once they lock down the mall and obviously Roger goes off his fucking head and starts acting like a dick and ends up getting killed.

Adam Because that's that's the thing I love about the zombie movies is there is the element of keep your head.

Adam Yeah.

Adam And you can make it.

Adam And okay, there's there's the element of there's certain things like.

Adam You have to sleep, you have to eat and things like that. But in essence, as long as you're not.

Adam Like, as long as you're not using a fucking test your pulse meter in the middle of a zombie fucking crowded mall whilst guns are going off.

Adam You're probably gonna be all right.

Adam And not get ripped in half.

Adam So, and I think but yeah, and but is that the sort of thing where they get to.

Adam Once they've locked everyone out with with once they've locked them all out with the lorries.

Adam Uh.

Adam Sorry, trucks.

Adam There we go.

Adam Uh for our American cousins, um but once they've locked all the zombies out effectively.

Adam This is locked down.

Adam Then it becomes just lockdown.

Adam Because it's like, right.

Adam So we sit in, we've got everything we could have.

Adam Because that's that's the essential thing about lockdown is that it's and again.

Adam It's one of those things where you I've seen.

Adam You know, the memes became style before lockdown finished.

Adam But it would all be things like, you know, your grandparents like waited through mud to fucking.

Adam You know, all your great grandparents waited through mud to fight fascism to prevent the end of civilizations, you know it. Someone's told you to sit in and watch fucking Netflix, deal with it.

Adam And it's.

Adam You know, it's not it's not a hardship.

Adam And that's the thing.

Adam Is they get to that point where they're like they've got everything at their fingertips, but can't actually go out, can we?

Adam And this isn't actually life anymore.

Adam This is.

Adam Waiting.

Adam Yeah, okay, you're waiting with.

Adam I'll make you're waiting with like especially especially if you're a biker, you know, they're sitting in like the bikers.

Chris That is just a perception really, in a way, if if you absolutely have got everything you ever need.

Chris It's that idea that, well, I've got nothing to strive for, I'll just sit here and relax and enjoy it, but actually you sort of want some difficulties and and changes that you've got to deal with and.

Chris And sort of work towards something.

Adam Admittedly, the one thing that always annoys me and it's because I think it's the thing that comes out a lot.

Adam Certainly in terms of like modern thoughts within the workplace of.

Adam Hey, but you know, if you step outside your comfort zone, you know, that's really good. And it's like, yeah.

Adam But say for example, what what would you describe as the comfort zone for a plant?

Adam Being in soil and watered.

Adam But we could take it out of its comfort zone, and you know what happens, it fucking dies.

Adam So, you know, there's something to be said for comfort zones, you can't, but equally, yeah, when you have no challenge or no.

Adam Sort of.

Adam And I think actually it'd be an interesting thing is if because not being funny, imagine if if you'd have got like say the pit ponies escaped the the zombie apocalypse and hold up at PMT and just had all the fucking musical instruments they could have.

Adam They would have recorded like six brilliant albums.

Adam Yeah.

Adam But but equally, you know, but they wouldn't have got bored and and also there's very little likelihood of a gang of bikers breaking into PMT.

Adam Just.

Adam To steal to steal their guitars.

Adam So.

Adam But I think yeah, it's got to be.

Adam It does just become and not only that, but also there's the whole.

Adam Which I'm glad isn't made too much of a deal of, but it is an important fact that Fran is pregnant.

Adam Yeah.

Adam So and and it has to be said, Peter, steady on there, old champ.

Adam When it's just sort of like, well, you know, I have, you know.

Adam I do know how to do an abortion, just saying.

Adam It's like.

Adam How do you know.

Adam What what is going on there, Peter, that's precisely what I said.

Adam I was like, how do you know what equipment have you like, don't get me wrong, I know you're in a mall, but what medical equipment are you going or, you know.

Adam I mean, I just wondered if he's just gonna fire a couple of rounds up there and, you know.

Adam I've come up with my version.

Adam I didn't say.

Adam I've come up with my version, I didn't say I've come up with my version.

Adam I've come up with my version, I didn't say, I've come up with my version.

Adam I've come up with my version, I didn't say.

Dawn of the Dead

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Dawn of the Dead

About

Cast

Transcript

Ep 241 We have been watching

Ep 155 The Return of the Living Dead

Ep 153 We have been Watching

Listen anywhere you get podcasts