Movie Details
| Title: | Dawn of the Dead | |
| Director: | George Romero | |
| Year: | 1978 | |
| Genre: | Zombie | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 10.29.11 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (1)
- Survival of the Dead
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 10.29.11 | Mondo Mystery Movie | So... Big thanks to Jarrette for inviting me along to this. I really had no interest in these Mondo Mystery Movies because the whole poster collector sell-out-in-60-seconds thing kind of rubs me the wrong way. People paying two hundred bucks and flying into town without knowing what the movie is or who the artist doing the poster is seems absurd and a tad insane to me. The amount that mondo posters go for on ebay also seems insane to me. I mean, I'm happy that Justin has managed to cultivate a following for Mondo and therefore the Alamo, but it's just not my crowd anymore I guess. Ultimately, I decided to go because Jarrette asked me and it's been forever since we've hung out and seen a movie. So... it was at a church. The blog said to get there no later than 8:30 and that the doors would close at 9:30 and you wouldn't be allowed in. Jarrette wanted to get there at 7. Again the insanity, but apparently he knows best because when we got there, there was already a line about 20 people deep and right after we took our place in line (right at the front thanks to Neil), a huge line of people walked up behind us. Apparently they had been waiting for a while at the door to the actual church rather than the little table that Mondo had set up. So at 7:15 there was like a hundred people there. Jarrette told me that for some of the Alamo events, people will be waiting for like 4 hours. There are so many movie fans in town now that even AFF Paramount screenings are kind of full. This really blows my mind; was I this crazy when I was in the thick of it? I guess I was... So this line at the church. At like 7:30 they start processing us, taking our ticket receipt and giving us a wristband and having us form a line right next to the first line. We're in the back of the parking lot nowhere near a church. The group behind us is dressed like Team Zissou and all have badges and lanyards. Neil finds out that they all hang out on some art forum and made the Mondo event an excuse to all fly out and hang out together. They're from like, San Diego and shit. A few people bring their own poster tubes. I feel bad joking about this when everyone around me is clearly much more excited to be there than I am, but come on... does the Mondo-provided cardboard tube not offer enough poster protection that you need to bring your own cardoard tube to ensure proper safety precautions? I wanted to see someone with a handcuff attached to their wrist and tube. At this point, I should say that Jarrette told me what the movie was on the ride over. I was really afraid that it would be The Exorcist since I'm not a huge fan of that movie. Jarrette told me that the Alamo was screening it in the theater this week and it would be a huge fuck-up were that the case. He knew what the original plan was but hadn't heard any updates so he wasn't completely positive, although he was pretty sure the church was just being used as parking. he was right. At about 8:30, a line of chartered busses pulls up and we get in. Jarrette and I get on the first bus, which proceeds to pull into the street and park for like an hour. I guess it's better than standing out in the (relative Texas) cold but... still kinda sucks. I guess they waited until 9:30 for everyone to get there and, get this, our police escort to arrive. A cadre of motorcycle cops along with some sleek black sedan pulls up ahead of us and we get to watch cops hang out for like a half hour before we're all finally ready to hit the road. So... it probably doesn't sound very cool on the page, but the feeling of being part of a 13-bus convoy surrounded by police protection, rolling through red lights, watching as the motorcycle cops bully cars to the shoulder to make way as we rolled down 360, over the bridge, and onto 183 was pretty damn cool. One car tried to merge with us and a cop pulled him over right there on the 183 on-ramp. Poor guy. I kept imagining the oncoming traffic seeing us, 13 busses on a mission, and wondering what the fuck was going on. Also, it was great to hear these out-of-towners get so excited without any context for the city. "Sweet, we're taking over 1325 highway!" Uh, no, dude... you just read the Burnet exit sign. Jarrette and I also had a secret joy because as soon as we got on 183 we both knew that we were headed toward the Highland Mall, an all-but-closed ghetto mall really only used for Bike Week race riots every year. All these out-of-towners are super excited, probably super impressed that Mondo rented out an entire mall where the locals really knew better. The Highland probably paid them! Plus the irony of driving all the way out of town just to have a bus take Jarrette and I both back to within 3 miles of our houses tickled us pink. When we turned on airport, the girl behind us realized where we was going and swore. What a huge anti-climax. Goddamn Highland Mall. But then we pull into the mall entrance and I look through the windshield and see a wave of zombies slowly meandering toward us. "That's a nice touch" I think, but then a huge glop of blood hits the windshield and the zombies start banging on the bus as we slowly pass by, smearing blood over the windows. Now everyone's looking out the windows down at the zombies surrounding us. We turn, do a little zigzag and park, the other busses filing in next to us. We can see just how much they've covered the sides of the busses with blood when we see bus #2 beside us. The Mondo coordinator lady's at the front trying to communicate with the other busses. Someone asks her where we're supposed to go and she says "when you exit, run toward the light." Everyone laughs because there's the Alamo Rolling Roadshow van with its foglights on right next to the mall entrance. Then all the busses must be parked because the doors open and the Mondo lady starts yelling at us to get off the bus. Jarrette and I are like the 8th and 9th off the bus. I step out to see a swaud of dudes dressed in para-military uniform all holding rifles and shotguns with flashlights mounted on the barrels, shooting the shit out of the zombies rambling toward us. They're yelling at us to run! run! go to the entrance! And all of a sudden everybody's cynical laugh at running toward the light fades away and we're all running for our lives, protected from the hungry zombies by the men with guns. We outpace them a bit and I see wave #2 heading straight toward us. Way more zombies than I thought at first. I see Lars in a bloody baseball uniform Staggering around. Jarrette and I are half-running half-watching the action go down as the military dudes pop off their blanks or whatever, shooting down zombies. Harry's the first ever zombie in a wheelchair just sitting there. More and more are coming. People are howling. It's mayhem outside the Highland Mall. I all but hear the click as a perfect mental image snaps in my mind. This perfect moment orchestrated for us. It was really really great. We run insde and see something like 400 folding chairs set up in the middle of the mall with a screen up front. Jarrette and I get decent seats (although the chairs themselves are terrible. I suffer through the whole movie) and everybody eventually files in. All the new Alamo people are dressed up. I have no clue how Jarrette didn't know this was happening. He knew the movie and he knew it'd be at a mall but he looked just as surprised as I did with the zombie horde and everything. They have the food court open for shitty pizza and fountain soda and it seems like it takes a long time for the movie to actually start. All the zombies are hanging out on the second floor looking down at us. It's pretty cool and creepy. Justin finally comes out as a burn-headed zombie and they bring out all this edible gross food like eyeballs and brains. They wing it all out in the crowd and I have to dodge a gelatin brain. Justin: "So probably everybody's guessed what the movie is. This isn't the Monroeville mall, you're in the Highland Mall in Austin, Texas and we're about to watch Dawn of the Dead." Then they bring out George Romero to talk for like 90 seconds. He does bring out a fake gun and kill a zombie though which is sweet. Then we watch the movie. I guess this is the first time I've watched this movie since starting this journal? crazy. It seems like I've seen this a bunch of times but I guess not recently. I think the film has an excellent beginning. Romero's editing is so kinetic and energetic. Especially with the way this film starts with all the chaos of a deteriorating tv studio... all the overlapping dialogue and yelling and everything going on is done so well. Then, during the middle and end I feel like sometimes the idea of the film is better than the actual scenes. The goofiness of some of the zombies and the weird randomness of the biker gang kind of get to me, but I love the idea how it all deteriorates and they are left just as they began. I also love the whole idea of trying to survive in a mall. What a fantasy, rght? to have access to anything you want in the whole empty mall? Still, some of the scenes and acting is kind of clunky and it feels maybe 10 minutes too long but whatever. I still love this movie and it's probably the definitive zombie movie for me. I can't think of a better one. After the movie, everyone became zombies as they shuffled toward the entrance to get their poster and get back on the bus. Unfortunately, the bus we got on had problems and we ended up sitting there for like 45 minutes until one of the other busses came and got us. it was like 2:30 by the time we got back to our car, which made for a bit of a silent and tired end to a great event. The poster's ok but I wish it were better. I decided to buy it from Jarrette so I could remember the event. This was like winning at slots you know? Who knows how many other events I'll go to wishing it could be as good as this one. |
