Romero’s Dawn of the Dead to return in 3D

From Friday, October 28 through Monday, October 31, Regal Cinemas will screen a 3D conversion of the late writer-director George A. Romero’s zombie-apocalypse classic Dawn of the Dead (1978) in theatres nationwide. Engagements in the Los Angeles area include Edwards Alhambra Renaissance, Edwards Valencie, Edwards South Gate, Edwards West Covina, Edwards Long Beach, LA Live on Olympic Boulevard, and the Promenade in Rolling Hills Estates. The 3D conversion was supervised by producer Richard P. Rubinstein, using the127-minute cut released theatrically in 1979 (a longer version, screened at film festivals the year before, was later released on home video as the “director’s cut” even though Romero edited both versions). The 3D version has previously screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, but this is its first nationwide exposure.

Dawn of the Dead was a watershed moment (perhaps “bloodshed moment” is more appropriate in this context) for onscreen gore, with makeup effects man Tom Savini providing an onslaught of bullet hits to the head, teeth biting into flesh, machetes and helicopter blades slashing through skulls, and infamously a head blown up by shotgun blast. Beneath the carnage, Romero provided a satirical take on consumer culture by having his quartet of human survivors take refuge inside a large indoor mall (a relatively recent innovation at the time), where there is nothing to do but shop till you drop while the living dead take over the world outside.

Get more information, including showtimes, at Regal Cinemas.