When Stories Get Real: How George A. Romero’s ‘Dawn of the Dead’ Finds New Life in a Post-Pandemic World

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Still from ‘Dawn of the Dead’ Courtesy of Laurel Entertainment.

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
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Truly there are few directors and writers out there that have managed to capture the zeitgeist of an era quite the way that George A. Romero was able to. For every single one of his films, spoke to a corner of the Human and American Condition that was of concern, and it did so in a manner that perfectly framed the problem and the concern, all while making the story/commentary timeless in nature. For we still examine the many messages and subtext he added to Night of the Living Dead, regarding civil rights and racism in America, and for that matter, Bruiser is a film that continues to grow in legend thanks to its powerful commentary on toxic masculinity in Modern America. But of course… of the many films he made, there is one that truly showcased his brilliance regarding his understanding our world… the iconic Dawn of the Dead.

For that motion picture truly understood the 1970s and to a certain degree, the excess that awaited us in the 1980s to a tee, and it was put on display by way of a story that saw people fight for possession and control of a shopping mall as the world ended around them. Which is a powerful allegory regarding how we value things and how consumerism means the world to us, and the movie’s message remains so relevant that even in 2023, we can still find moments regarding that commentary that reflect our modern world. Yet what is truly incredible, is that this timeless feature, has suddenly become more relevant and real in recent years, courtesy of some baseline story structure that in a way, was more prophetic than any of us could have imagined. 

Because courtesy of the pandemic, this movie suddenly takes on new life and meaning. Because in many ways… it reflects everything we’ve just been through and that makes for an uncomfortable rewatch that points out… that the living dead in this story could have easily stood in for Covid as well, since everything that went wrong in our world, went wrong in this film. Which may seem to be a statement that is grabbing at straws, but the proof is in the pudding. Take for instance, the news broadcasts in the motion picture, especially the opening credits sequence. For that sequence and it's many intense moments… feel way too familiar.

Courtesy of watching a medical professional be screamed at and over, and told he’s a buffoon by people who believe that facts, don’t matter, and that what he has to say is nothing more than manufactured lies and that the situation isn’t as bad as he’s making it out to be. Which is… everything we experienced from a television and social media standpoint in our own homes. For we watched medical professionals be ‘debunked’ and debased by so-called self-experts who literally knew nothing. They just thought they knew better, and we saw Fox News do something similar and much like in the film, not listening to the experts because some people didn’t like what they heard, only spread the virus further. Much like how the dead grew in number for the same reasons, and the eerie parallels to 2020 don’t end with that sequence.

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David Emge as Stephen ‘Flyboy’ Andrews in ‘Dawn of the Dead’. Photo Courtesy of Laurel Entertainment.

For one of the central themes of the film and of much of Romero’s Dead saga, is that the living dead take over the world because of humanity’s inability to work as a central unit, and through ignorance and political and personal nonsense. All of which has sparked debate over the years as to whether or not the dead could really take over in a real-world scenario and well, the pandemic proved… they would. Because the collective of humanity, couldn’t handle doing something as simple as wearing a mask or shutting down the world and its economies for a few weeks to simply stop the spread dead in its tracks. Instead, there were fights about personal rights, worries about the economy and religious freedoms over bringing down a common foe. Which gives a simple message about disarray through arrogance new gravity and meaning, since Romero correctly predicted that in a crisis… we cannot work together to resolve it.
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Yet while those elements alone are enough to give this film new life and new relevance after all these years, even its visuals… make this motion picture a perfect encapsulation of the pandemic. For seeing empty roads and an abandoned shopping mall… immediately harkens back to the lockdown days of the pandemic. Where the streets were as empty as could be, save for those essential souls and where businesses stood vacant and empty, just like the mall that was home to our heroes. And of course, their being huddled around televisions, radios, and any news source available serves as reminder of our time at home as well. Since we were glued to devices for good news and hope, and heck, even just seizing the mall and having people fight for it… reminds us of those days. Since people went the extra mile to hoard something as simple as toilet paper. 

All of which, are elements that truly gives this nearly fifty-year old horror feature, new life in the 21st Century. For now, it isn’t just about the power of consumerism and its evils… it really is about how humanity… has grown selfish enough to not work together toward common goals. And how we let agendas and policies from people that care little about us, rule our lives, and because of that… elements that shock us and threaten us… can win. For Covid won the day, plain and simple, and that makes this movie painfully real and equally as important. Since seeing our foolishness in action in a story about the end of the world at the hands of living death, can hopefully teach us to change our ways and work as one when the next crisis arrives.   

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