Consumer Culture In George Romero's Dawn Of The Dead

“When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth” (Romero). These words of the main character, Peter, in Dawn of the Dead mirror the situation taking place in the film. With zombies running amok throughout the country, four survivors hijack a traffic helicopter to escape and search for a place to barricade themselves. After landing at a shopping mall, they build themselves a make-shift apartment and overtake the mall, killing all the undead in their path. Homologous with America’s present economic and social culture, consumption is important to the survivors and the zombies. Although George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead is seemingly an apocalyptic-age zombie film, it exposes the true horror of American consumer culture, racism,

When the hunters gather in a field for a barbecue the cinematography and music combined make it seem like a sitcom television show. This lightens the mood and makes the audience believe nothing can go wrong if this is what life is like for the living. The hunters, adorned in full camouflage, heavy boots, and warm hats are having the time of their life with their friends, drinking beer, and shooting zombies. (4) The hunters are a strong symbol for big companies that don’t see the customer but instead just see a paycheck, valuing quantity over quality. Later in the film, Peter and Stephen are seen with guns inside the fake mall shrubbery and topiaries. While this is happening, tribal music can be heard in the background for their time in the “jungle” of a mall (Stout). The scene is clear to understand and has “explicitly tribal drum music playing in the background and taxidermi[z]ed animal heads hanging on the walls” and “the two men fill bandoliers with ammunition, strap on pistols, and load hunting rifles” (Bishop). The music within the film takes the meaning to another level and adds to the allegorical interpretation for the