An updated version of Dawn of the Dead is coming to theaters to celebrate Halloween.
Rue-Morgue reports that the newly-minted 3D conversion of the George A. Romero classic, Dawn of the Dead, will see wide release for Halloween 2022. Initially only seen by a handful of rabid fans when it debuted at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (MOMA) and a handful of art houses in June 2022, the prototypical zombie classic will debut on 250 screens during Halloween weekend. The four-day event will begin on Oct. 28, running through to Oct. 31. To satisfy blood-thirsty demand, each theater screening the film has agreed to offer a minimum of six shows daily.
The original edit of Dawn of the Dead has been adapted to the 3D format under the supervision of the film’s producer, Richard P. Rubinstein. In order to stay true to the late Romero’s unique vision, no alterations have been made to the film’s unrated cut. The zombie flick notoriously received an X rating from the Motion Picture Association of America when it first premiered in 1978. As a result, the creative team chose to circumvent the MPAA’s system altogether by releasing the film with no rating.
Dawn of the Dead picks up in the aftermath of a country-wide epidemic that inexplicably reanimates its victims as flesh-eating zombies. While hiding in a suburban Philadelphia shopping mall, two S.W.A.T. team members, a traffic reporter, and his television executive girlfriend (played by David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott Reiniger, and Gaylen Ross, respectively ) struggle to survive the zombie apocalypse amid mass hysteria.
Dawn of the Dead is the second zombie film written and directed by George Romero, following 1968’s Night of the Living Dead. Filmed with a modest budget of only $640,000, Dawn of the Dead went on to gross $66M in its original box office run, spawning four more "Living Dead" sequels between 1985 and 2009; Day of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, Diary of the Dead, and Survival of the Dead. Since their original theatrical runs, both the original movie and its sequel have garnered a large international cult following and are widely credited with inventing the zombie genre.
In 2004, Universal Pictures released its Zack Snyder-helmed remake of Dawn of the Dead. After topping the box office in its opening weekend, Snyder’s version went on to gross over $100M at the box office, reinvigorating the zombie-film genre and effectively launching the filmmaker's career. In 2021, fresh off the long-awaited release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the director helmed another zombie flick in the form of Army of the Dead.
Tickets to Dawn of the Dead 3D will be available directly from box offices where the film is shown or can be ordered online directly from Regal Theaters' website.
Source: Rue-Morgue