This week on the Silver Emulsion Podcast, Stephen and I talk about the zombie classic Dawn of the Dead, directed by George A. Romero! Eat some flesh and enjoy! 🙂
Watch Dawn of the Dead along with us on Blu-ray or DVD (which are both out of print and ridiculously expensive 🙁 )!
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Music NotesIntro:
Outro:
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Dude! This is the one I’ve been secretly waiting for! Dawn of the Dead is probably my favorite movie of all time. I’ve seen it more than any other movie and even when I’m busy doing stuff, I listen to it like a certified nerd. I recently geeked the fuck out and assembled different elements so I could make the original VHS cover that I’ve had since I was a kid, into a full-size movie poster to hang on my wall. I fucking love this movie! And yes, it’s 1,000% a horror movie! What’s magical about Dawn of the Dead is that it seamlessly drifts from a shit hitting the fan movie, to an escape movie, to a siege movie, to a domestic drama, to a full out war movie! And it’s ALL under the umbrella of a horror movie with zombies! Plus, PLUS there’s all of this social commentary throughout! What more can you ask for? There’s really something in it for everyone to enjoy and it’s the ultimate zombie apocalypse daydream played out. I think genre doesn’t matter much necessarily, and it’s mostly just an easy way to sum something up. There’s horror movies that are more hilarious than comedies, and dramas more scary than some horror. Movies always drift through different elements to tell their story best. Genre shit ultimately comes down to intention. Just like a comedian can be shocking and offensive, their intention is to be funny. And horror is ultimately exploring fear, which can involve a number of different things and can simultaneously be hilarious, scary, and fun. They all still have that intention of working with fearful shit. I guess.
As far as running vs. slow zombies, I heard George Romero (I think) explain it really well and it kind of stuck. With running zombies, the primary focus is usually the action and it’s an immediate threat. With slow zombies, it’s usually always about the human characters because it’s a problem that can actually be solved. Genius! The more I thought about it, the more it held up too for the most part. It’s usually always the human element fucking everything up when there’s slow zombies. But with fast zombies, the zombies are the ones fucking everything up. Though there’s this fantastic movie Train to Busan that found a great balance between good characters and running zombies that I highly recommend! I think slow zombies are scarier too. Nobody asked, but I’ll shit it out anyway since I’m on a roll. In my mind I put it this way, what’s more scary, to get eaten by a lion or to know you’re slowly dying? Both are scary as fuck! But one is a quick jolt of fear, and the other is this long, slow dread that you can’t escape from.
Sorry that the Dawn of the Dead song is ruined! Haha! Dude, I think that scene where the zombies have completely taken over, all that work and sacrifice is worthless, now the zombies are right outside of the door, Peter is about to kill himself with a gun to his head, culminates into the most “No! Don’t do it!” scene ever! It’s so drawn out and hopeless too. Then when all is lost, the afro zombie opens the door to let the flood of zombies in and BOOM! Peter fights back and escapes! It’s one of the best FUCK YEAH! scenes ever! And that goddamn champion song kicks in with trumpets and drum rolls! It’s the greatest FUCK YES! champion, warrior, bring it on, fuck it! song ever recorded. I always thought it brought life into a shitty podcast, rather than bringing a shitty podcast into Dawn of the Dead.
Holy shit. I just scrolled up. I’ll shut up now. I only touched on like two things but I can ramble about Dawn of the Dead for way too long. Dude! I lied. Before I shut up, you HAVE TO see this movie One Cut of the Dead! YOU HAVE TO! Don’t look into it and watch it blind. It’s probably my favorite zombie movie that I’ve seen since Shaun of the Dead. It’s a Japanese low-budget zombie movie that’s just absolutely fucking…just watch it. I’ll shut up now.
Peace!
P.S. If you’re doing horror movies for October, may I request Demons? I’ve always liked it since I was a kid, but it’s only recently that I’ve become absolutely obsessed with it! It’s so fun and unintentionally hilarious and so fucking entertaining! It’s become one of my new favorite movies and it’s worth the Silver Emulsion touch. Okay, I’m officially shutting up.
“Werewolves only eat shit by a silver bullet. Silveremulsion.com”