Dawn Of The Dead - a formative viewing experience

I used to read and love The Darkside magazine in the early 90's. It was a great introduction to the world of horror movies. It introduced me to a whole new world of film, one that rarely got shown on TV. Names like Mario Bava, John Carpenter, Ruggero Deodato, Lucio Fulci, Dario Argento, Joe D'amato, Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper and George A. Romero kept cropping up in every issue and one film appeared constantly throughout.

Dawn Of The Dead.

The world is under attack from the dead. Survivors realised fighting back is futile and go on the run. 4 of them end up in a shopping centre in the suburbs of Pittsburgh and decide to hold up for a while. It's a nothing story when you think about it but the gory stills in the magazine hooked me. I had to see it. But this was the early 90's and actually finding a film was a lot harder than it is now. Roscrea was full of video shops but none of them had this one.

Until the day I found it tucked away on a bottom shelf in Oobie's videos. Oh jesus. The excitement. I'd finally found it. I was finally going to see it. I brought it to the counter. I made sure I had the 1.50 i needed to rent it out. I joined the queue. I was giddy as hell. Fuckin hell this queue is taking forever. I placed the video on the counter. I said "I'd like to rent this please."

"No, you aren't 18. I can't rent this to you."

The disappointment was crushing. Then Oobie the fucker laughed and handed it over after leaving me shamed for a sufficient amount of time. I left the shop red in the face but ran home. The coast was clear. My parents weren't at home. The lads arrived, Shanahans and Fletchers, the partners in crime. We all started our film watching careers together. I had sold them on this film, telling them it was going to be horrific. Blood and guts were manna from heaven to teenage boys. Fags were lit. I popped the video in the machine and pressed play.

"That was a hape of shite."

One of the missing scenes

The film was over. The Gonk was playing over the ending credits of zombies swarming a dead shopping centre. I felt disappointed. The version we'd rented out had been snipped to hell by the British Board of Film Censorship. All the blood and gore that had been promised to us by the Darkside magazine was missing. No exploding heads. No zombie meets machete. No biker evisceration. What a joke. It all felt tame as hell.The lads left grumbling. I knew I'd never hear the end of it.

Then something odd happened. What I'd just been disappointed by wouldn't leave my head. For hours after. Days. Weeks. I rented it again and this time it clicked. A cinematic lightbulb moment. It was cut to hell but the cuts didn't affect the quality. It was good. Then it was great. It was intelligent. It was well made. I actually wanted the characters in it to survive. It made me think. This was new. It's themes of consumerism started to appear. It made sense. I understood it. This wasn't something that usually happened with me. Before that when i watched a movie I enjoyed it and then forgot it. This time that didn't happen. I had a new favourite film.

25 years later it's still a fave and now i'm going to watch it again. Sweet.