OMG Horror

Now that fall’s afoot, you can all once again look forward to a steady dose of Frog Baby’s underrated horror gems.  This time out I’m not calling to attention to an esoteric title or film bound to go unnoticed by hardcore horror heads, I’m actually interested in talking about a specific cut of a well known horror outing.  In specific, we’re rockin’ Dario Argento’s version of George A. Romero’s 1978 zombie masterwork Dawn of the Dead.    

After the groundbreaking 1968 film Night of the Living Dead lead to Romero being one of the most recognizable names in the genre, audiences around the globe took interest.  So when his follow up zombie creation, released a decade later, finally came about, it behooved international audiences to exhibit the film and foster artistic support of Romero.  Why wouldn’t it? 

Enter Italian splatter-king Dario Argento.  Known primarily for his blistering Giallo work, Argento rarely worked in the zombie subgenre (that was left to his contemporaries like Fulci, Bava, Lenzi, etc.).  Well, when European film-heads wanted to acquire film prints of Romero’s newest outing, they looked upon Argento to broker the deal.  What resulted was this: Argento physically secured a print of Romero’s master, subtly re-cut the film (most notably in the opening), and not so subtly replaced the score with that of longtime collaborators The Goblins.  

The result is, even if devoid of scathing American social commentary, an undoubtedly harder, gorier, more rock n roll zombie anthem that plays like a best hits montage.  Released as Zombie in Italy, it now makes sense why Lucio Fulci’s seminal undead flick is called Zombie 2 overseas, and simply Zombie here in the states.  Fulci’s 1979 release was abroad deemed a sequel to Argento’s cut of Romero’s film, whereas here in the U.S. the two films are, correctly so, seen as their own entities.  Still, the roiled title fiasco was born out of this whole artistic merger.  Pretty interesting, no?

Best 3 parts:

1. The 10x better soundtrack by the Goblins.  It’s spooky, ethereal, at times shredding, a great improvement over Romero’s original.

2. The greater emphasis on gore and action, even framing some of the graphic violence tighter and more in your face.

3. Not so much distinct to Argento’s cut, bit I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the pimp-ass performance of Ken Foree.  Too cool, too calm, too collected.  The man is certified pimp!