Forgotten Frights is back! To celebrate the second anniversary of our annual horror movie roundup, every weekday for the next month we're going to sound off on a scary good sequel (or, if we want some cheese with our corn syrup, a schlocky second), ruminating on the returns of our favorite monsters, murderers, heroes (or heroines), creepies, crawlies, chills and thrills.
What came before it: Night of the Living Dead. I know what you're thinking: isn't Dawn of the Dead the sequel to Night of the Living Dead? Technically, yes. But that was George A. Romero's sequel. This is a darkly comedic adaptation of Night cowriter John Russo's completely separate novel follow-up.
What remains: Just a leftover bin of zombie bod. e in Night of the Living Dead reanimates the late guys and gals that come after the punk rock protagonists of this flick.
Why it deserves a second (and third, and fourth) chance:
- It is the reason "Braaaaaains!" has become the official zombie manifesto. It was the first movie to have the walking dead chow down on gray matter and utter the now famous phrase.
- It's highly self-aware, name dropping Night of the Living Dead right off the bat.
- Unlike some of the Romero sequels, it's really quite funny, intentionally and unintentionally (those costumes!)
- The soundtrack is stellar, featuring an hot mess of pop punk tracks that take the B plot to a whole other out-of-control level.
- There is a wicked cemetery party scene in which one of the spiky-haired hipsters inexplicably strips down to her skivvies and dances atop a tomb. Talk about raising the dead! (Eww. I just wrote that.)
- There are characters named Spider, Trash, Scuz, Suicide and Tarman. Oh, and two characters named Burt and Ernie (no relation to the ones on Sesame Street).
- It was written and directed by Dan O'Bannon, scribe of Alien and the original Total Recall.
- The zombie puppet stuff was done by a former Muppeteer.