Friday, June 14, 2013

Was Dawn of the Dead the first of it's kind?

I wonder how much blood and gore were in films before this movie. Was Dawn of the Dead a trend setter when it comes to blood and gore in horror? Or maybe was it just like a bunch of other movies in that time since the hays code was gone?

7 comments:

  1. While Dawn was one of the most violent films that I have ever seen, I don't believe it was the 1st. Prior to Dawn the 70s gave us such ultra violent movies as Texas chainsaw Massacre, silent night deadly night, and the very disturbing Salo.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Does anybody know of any comedic horrors that came before this film? Why do you think Romero chose to create such a 'fun' horror film?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah there were other films in the 70's which were more violent such as Last House on the Left which was banned in the UK for awhile. Then you had grindhouse and exploitation films which could get crazy.

    Comedy horror films to come earlier, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Piranha (although not sure if this was intentionally funny, but it was pretty hilarious), and some others.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kiowa makes a good point with the Wes Craven films like Last House on the Left. The Hays Code expired in 1968 so the bit about "brutality and possible gruesomeness" in films became a bit more open. It makes me wonder, if Tom Savini (makeup effects head for Dawn of the Dead) would have been able to makeup for 1969's Night of the Living Dead, being post Hays Code, if it would have been just a graphic as Dawn of the Dead was with it's arguable overuse of blood and gore?
    -Aaron Swaidner

    ReplyDelete
  5. The comedy horror film has been around since the beginning of the horror genre more or less (see Abbot and Costello meet Whoever for early examples, though they aren't the first). What's different about Dawn of the Dead is the line Romero is able to walk between the satiric humor and the horror. I don't think they're any films that quite managed or even attempted it the difficult balance. There aren't even that many later films that work both sides of the line. Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects and Cabin in the Woods might be candidates. There are probably others that might qualify that don't immediately come to mind.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think Funny Games was another one that was able to walk that line

    ReplyDelete
  7. I think of movies like Evil Dead (Bruce Campbell - Army of Darkness) and Fright Night, but those were later. It's funny now to think of the movies or shows that scared me as a kid, but are now just hysterical (and/or sad). When I was a kid, we'd rush home to watch Dark Shadow. We'd grab pillows to hide our eyes for the scary stuff (yep-I'm a wimp). Re-watching it today is laughable (and humiliating ) to think it was so scary. I wonder if it's just growing up, or did I become desensitized to the blood and such. Hmmm?

    ReplyDelete