I think it’s safe to say that most people have fears. Some have them to the point of extreme, which would be referred to as phobias. More often than not, these fears are about tangible things like heights, enclosed spaces, snakes, or spiders. Then there are those of us who have irrational fears. Fears about things that will never, ever happen. I’m going to confess to having one of those fears, and up until this point I’ve only admitted it to my wife. I have an irrational fear of being attacked and eaten by the undead. On the surface, this might seem silly, but let me tell you there are times when I find myself driving down country roads in the middle of the night and in my mind’s eye I can see zombies shambling up from the sides of the road. I even start making conscious decisions of what I would do if they in fact DID start shambling towards me. (Speeding up immediately comes to mind…). Sometimes, when I get up in the middle of the night to get a bottle for the baby, I look out through our sliding glass doors to the field behind the house and again, my imagination runs a bit wild.

Now I realize I will never have to deal with real zombies, shambling or otherwise, so the fear does not get so bad as to lose sleep or hide under the bed. Though I will admit to locking the bedroom door from time to time, but this is more to give would be robbers a harder time getting in while I’m sleeping (uh-huh, sure…). The really funny thing is how I’ve dealt with this irrational fear over the years. First and foremost is that I watch any movies that I can on the subject (this way I can learn what to do and what not to do to survive a zombie attack), and have spent a good number of years working as an effects artist in the haunted house business. Yep, that’s right. I surround myself with all manner of creatures, monsters and zombies on nearly a daily basis. Go figure. Of course, if any of the guys I work with read this review and learn of my fear, my life will become a living hell. (So if any of you ARE reading this, I’m just making it up for the sake of this review.)

What all of this has to do with the new DVD release of “Dawn of the Dead” is that by writing about this, it not only allows me a cathartic release of this otherwise secret fear but lets you know that I’m somewhat of an expert on the subject of the undead. When I tell you that “Dawn of the Dead” is one of the greatest zombie movies ever made, there’s a real good chance you’ll lend some credence to my opinion.

I’ve long been a fan of the work of George Romero. His ‘Dead” trilogy still stands as one of the best series of its kind, and makes Romero the undisputed king of horror film fans everywhere. The original 1968 release of “Night of the Living Dead” was a groundbreaking film for the horror genre in that it not only pushed the envelope of what could be shown on camera, but also refrained from having the typical Hollywood ending where the ‘good guys’ win. For the time it was made, it was considered shocking and horrific, and in spite of its age and low budget status still gives some people the willies even to this day. Even more shocking to audiences at the time was it had an African American as the main lead. Long thought to be a bit of a social commentary on Romero’s part, he still claims that he chose the actor for no other reason than he was the best actor he had at the time.

Romero didn’t really set out to be a horror film director, but with the release eleven years later of “Dawn of the Dead”, that pretty much did it. Again Romero went against the Hollywood grain by refusing to make cuts to the film so that it would get an ‘R’ rating. He instead chose to release the film Unrated, which was often a death knell for most movies back in the 1970s as most theatres wouldn’t even play them. As a matter of fact, when I saw the premiere in El Paso (Texas), the theatre would only show it as a midnight movie.

If I can share another little personal side note, I was into the haunted house thing even back then while in high school. I went to the premiere with a friend, both of us dressed up as zombies. We sat outside the theatre box office and fought over and chewed on a couple of fake arms that had been filled with chopped up hot dogs and ketchup. The theatre manager loved it, some of the patrons… didn’t. We of course went into the theatre a little later and watched the movie, much to the discomfort of the couple we sat next to. (Hee Hee).

Though I was already a fan of horror films (and secretly ‘zombie-phobic’), seeing “Dawn of the Dead” made an impact on me with not only it’s visceral imagery, but its underlying social commentary. The special effects by Tom Savini were absolutely the grossest I had seen at the time, and I just ate it all up (both figuratively and literally). I set out to learn as much as I could about the creating these types of effects, and have fortunately had the opportunity to parlay that education into some really fun part time and full time jobs. But what really set the film apart for me, was the social commentary I mentioned. The fact that Romero chose to set the main part of the movie in a mall really brought it home. Whether or not he really meant to, Romero’s vision of zombies lumbering about the mall is an image that I still carry with me every time I walk into one. And thanks to the ‘mall zombies’ I always find there, I don’t have to use much of my imagination to revisit the movie. Seriously, check it out the next time you go to the mall. Just look at all the vacant stares and aimless sense of motion. It’s eerie.

All of Romero’s ‘Dead’ films deserve to have the special edition treatment on DVD, and for the most part now they have. Elite Entertainment did a great job a couple of years ago with “Night of the Living Dead”, and Anchor Bay turned out a terrific set for “Day of the Dead” last year. Now Anchor Bay is at it again with a new Special Edition release of “Dawn of the Dead.” They had previously released a Collector’s Edition Director’s cut, but it didn’t really have much in the way of extras. This new set makes up for that with trailers, posters and the like, but where it really earns its place in your DVD collection is that it has an all-new commentary track.

This commentary track re-unites George and Chris Romero with Tom Savini and is filled with interesting facts and trivia. And where Anchor Bay really made a good decision was in having the commentary moderated by Perry Martin, the DVD producer. By having Martin moderate, it kept the commentary focused and didn’t allow for much meandering off the subject. It’s a very clear, concise and more importantly, interesting commentary.

Unfortunately there aren’t many extras aside from this commentary. I would have really liked to have seen more behind the scenes featurettes. What would have been really perfect would have been the inclusion of “Document of the Dead”, which was a fairly lengthy documentary that produced years ago on the making of the film. I picked up a VHS copy of this documentary several years ago at an old video store, and have longed looked for it to be released on DVD.

Anchor Bay seems to be releasing this DVD to coincide with the new remake of “Dawn of the Dead”, which I was originally vehemently against. I’ve never been a big fan of remakes of classic films, and in this case I would have rather seen the money go to Romero so he could make a fourth ‘Dead’ film. I mean, why turn the franchise over to some hack to do a rehash, when you can have the master turn out an all new and creatively different movie. Admittedly my tune has changed a little over the last few weeks as I’ve seen the trailer for the new movie and have been impressed by it. I’m now getting the feeling its going to be a pretty good zombie movie. However I would have still rather had the producers of that film name it something totally different and not try to ride the coattails of the success of the original. (I actually thought that instead of re-using the original tag line “When there is no more room in Hell, the Dead will walk the Earth”, they should have used “When there is no more creativity in Hollywood, the Hacks will re-write the Classics.”)

Getting back to the new DVD, I do recommend grabbing a copy if you’re so inclined. Anchor Bay did a great job with the transfer, and despite some of the shortcomings of the original film stock, it certainly looks and sounds better than it ever has.

Directed by: George Romero
Starring: David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger, Gaylen Ross
Extras: Audio Commentary with Writer/Director George Romero, Special Make-up Effects Artist Tom Savini, and Assistant Director Chris Romero, Moderated by Perry Martin, Theatrical Trailers, TV Spots, Radio Spots, Poster and Advertising Gallery, George Romero Bio, Comic Book Preview
Specifications: Widescreen (1.85:1) Enhanced for 16X9 Televisions, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, DTS 5.1, 2.0 Dolby Surround, Original Mono
Studio: Anchor Bay
Release Date: 3/9/2004
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Dawn of the Dead: Special Edition an A-.