1978 horror, dir. George Romero, David Emge, Ken Foree:
IMDb / allmovie. The dead
are still rising, and they're still hungry.
But by now we know how it all works, so there's no gentle
introduction: we're immediately in the TV station as it goes off the
air, not because the zombies are breaking in, simply because people
are realising how pointless it is to keep broadcasting when there's
noting new to say. We know by now basically how it works: if you don't
destroy a freshly dead body, it'll come back and eat you. (This is
officially a sequel to Night, but there's no continuity beyond the
basic threat.)
And while we don't quite have all the standard zombie elements,
because there's still the actual converting bite to worry about, we do
get bites that are so noxious that you'll probably die of them
anyway – and then rise because all the dead are rising. There's still
that basic environmental, unthinking, zombie threat, and humans are a
problem largely in that they let the zombies have a greater effect
than they otherwise would.
But for me this is a film of three parts, or two half-parts and two
full parts. The TV station satire at the beginning is what I wanted
Network to be; the cops attacking the building are rather muddier
and more confused (I had to rewatch a few times to work out just what
happened to Racist Cop), but this still works pretty well. Those are
the half-parts. Then once the action moves to the mall everything
grinds to a halt: we're in one place, we're no longer reacting to
immediate problems but picking our moment to go out and do a thing,
but more importantly the satire of consumerism is much more
heavy-handed than the earlier satires had been. Yeah, here are the
zombies pawing at the shop windows just the way shoppers do for
Thanksgiving sales, we get it.
And then once the bikers arrive it sharpens up again: the bikers try
to take, and Stephen particularly tries to defend, not the things
useful for survival like guns and food but what would once have been
the valuables, the jewellery and furs and TVs. It's the class war, and
of course the bourgeoisie and the workers really have an enemy in
common… That part works for me, and even without the action the film
seemed to perk up at that point. (The action itself is all right, but
for me watching more than four decades later and having seen lots of
other action really not the point of what's going on.)
Shame about the bright red cartoon-like blood, though.
As usual if you want more of my witterings you should listen to
Ribbon of Memes.
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