Dawn of the Dead (1978)

TOUCHING.

GROSS.

ENGROSSING.

FUN.

There's lots of gratuitous gore in this zombie flick. Chris tipped me off to it. THANKS. My local video store has two copies. Seeing as their versions of Vertigo and The Birds got destroyed from too many viewings, that's probably a good policy.

So yes, it takes place in a mall in suburbia, where the zombies look frighteningly like normal shoppers. Add guns, a motorcycle gang, black-white buddy action, and a helpless female learning to fly a helicopter. Mix for a slightly overlong viewing time, and presto, my favorite zombie flick yet. I've still got to see Night of the Living Dead (available here free), the first in George Romero's pentalogy of Dead films.

I don't feel this movie pillories suburban life all that much. The main characters spend most of their time protecting, enjoying, and living in a mall, and only (spoiler alert) leave because they're chased by the undead. Other than the end, it looked pretty fun. The mall has a massive gun store, and the pregnant lady drinks and smokes the whole time. HOT. Eventually she even learns how to shoot.

The media appears vital in this film, yet, not very connected. There's not any reporting - all the scenes on the TV take place in one studio, as a give-and-take between scientists and unseen angry mobs. There's actually intellectualizing and punditry, which leads to a plea for rationality in response to the crisis. It's so different from your average newscast during a disaster, which focuses on getting what scant details can be found and reporting straight from the scene. I think movies generally stereotype the media as overly dramatic or irrational, though, so it was nice to hear a logical voice from the tele.