Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Shriek Week #1


Well, since it's 5 days to Halloween, I thought I'd offer up my thoughts on 5 of my favorite horror films, beginning with...

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Though the remake was better than I anticipated, this horror classic holds a special place in my heart--mainly because it was the first movie I ever rented because I wasn't old enough to see it in the theater.

Of course, no one would take me. I was sad...kind of like this...

So I remember watching the TV commercial while salivating! I HAD to see this movie.

Now back then, renting a film wasn't like ordering it up from Netflix or heading down to Blockbuster to pick one up.

This membership was $50 and it was $5 per day to rent a film with a minimum of 3 days' rental.

I'm certainly glad that my mom made it up to me for not taking me to the theater to see it and splurged for the membership and movie...I know it was a birthday present or something like that, but that was the best gift I could have ever received at the time!

Another reason I absolutely had to see it was that it was shot in the mall where I went all the time as a kid, so everything they do in the film (sans cannibalizing others or shooting mall walkers in the head), I pretty much did!

Though I just saw it as a really cool horror film at the time, repeated viewings showed me that it was a very prescient look at how consumerism would soon run rampant in America. It also featured great performances and the pacing by director George Romero allowed you to truly care about the characters (something that was missing from the remake).

I remember that I met Romero about 10 years ago (actually, I've met him 4 times over the course of the years) at the video store in which I worked and we talked for about 20 minutes on the future of dvds (which were just being released at the time), movies, etc. He was very outgoing and genuinely interested in my opinion.

Of course I had to tell him the rental story...he just chuckled...I think he understood my passion for horror and movies in general! Lol.

Make sure if you haven't, you see this film!

3 comments:

Fire said...

Ahhhhh a trip down memory lane *smiles softly* GOD i love this movie. You'll excuse me if i don't watch the clip right now, i haven't had breakfast yet.

I rented this one so i never saw it in it's natural habitat, but i DID see Night of the Living Dead in situ so to speak. People kept yelling out appropriate one-liners each time the living dead struck,making it a wonderful introduction to the series.

I agree with you, the original is so much better than the remake, but then that holds true for most movies doesn't it?

Karen

Skitch said...

Oh it is true for almost any movie...though the remake was ok...

Fire said...

Yeah it was "okay" but that's the most that can be said for it.

For more recent cheese, see the remake of House of Wax. Worth it just to see Paris Hilton die a violent death.

Karen