If you don’t know the plot for Dawn of the Dead because you haven’t seen it, please do me a favour. Stop reading this review, go onto YouTube (it’s free!) and watch the film. It’s a milestone of not just horror cinema, but cinema in general.

I actually researched Dawn as I wrote about it in my uni Film Studies thesis. This involved going to the British Film Institute reading room and wading through archival film magazines and newspapers. This was before such materials were digitised, and so you’d look at lists, make requests and then one of the lovely BFI staff would find these materials and bring them to you.

George A Romero was a huge fan of giallo director Dario Argento and spoke to him about making a sequel to his masterpiece, Night of the Living Dead (again, if you haven’t seen this- WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! Off you go to YouTube…) Dario agreed to help finance the film with his brother, Claudio and Alfredo Cuomo in exchange for international distribution rights. Dario also edited his own version of the film for international distribution, and voila! This is the version I’m reviewing here.

I first got to see this version as Anchor Bay released in 2004 a DVD box set which had the original cut, the extended version (sometimes referred to as the Director’s Cut or Cannes version, which Romero hurriedly assembled for, erm, The Cannes Film Festival) and Dario’s cut.

How is this version different, and is it as good as the others? Thanks for asking.

The Argento Cut is pretty much a lean, mean, horror/action machine. A lot of the scenes of the four lead characters being sucked into a consummerist hell of their own creation in the mall are missing. There are a few other variations and extensions of scenes that aren’t seen in any other version of the film, which is interesting.

Also, all of the library music has been excised from the film, and only the excellent Goblin score is utilised.

Would I choose this version as my go-to version of Dawn? Nope. My preferred version is actually the extended version, which is heavy on the stuff that Argento got rid of from his version. The scariest aspect of Dawn for me is the mall and how alluring it is to the characters, as it deadens their survival instinct. Why keep moving when they can wear real furs and live out some kind of unreal advertising fantasy? This is utterly chilling to me. This is explored more in this version. And whilst I love the Goblin score, the library music is a massive part of the Dawn experience for me. It’s genius, well-suited whilst being utterly ironic.

But, for me, picking my favourite Dawn version is like examining the back catalogue of a band that only produced greatness. It isn’t a case of labelling a version as ‘bad’ but rather as less of a preference for me over other edits. In whatever form, Dawn of the Dead is genius on every level. It also has ingredients that guarantee that I love it- zombies, gore, satire, social commentary, a 70’s shopping mall, guns, bikes…It has a custard pie fight at one point, for crying out loud! There’s a certain point when you’re watching a truly great film, when you see a certain scene and you just know that you are watching a work of genius. Divine bouncing on a trampoline after fellating a fish in Female Trouble, the dead body found in the deep freeze in the back of a meat truck as the piano part of Layla by Derek and the Dominos is playing in GoodFellas, and yes, the custard pie fight in Dawn.

So, every version of Dawn works beautifully and will get full marks from me. It’s just a case of making sure you see each version and choosing your favourite.

5 out of 5 stars