Chapter 1: “Upsetting the Applecart”: Concept and Genre

This chapter examines George A. Romero’s thought processes for Dawn of the Dead. His inspiration – directly or otherwise – for his initial trilogy of Dead films, including Dawn of the Dead, had been the novel I Am Legend, written in 1954 by Richard Matheson. The notion of a story in three parts may have come to Romero as his thinking on the Dead films and his allegorical use of apocalyptic horror developed over time. Romero saw the Dead films as allegory of a revolution coming into being in the form of a zombie society. Romero was working within – and to an extent challenging or subverting – the conventions of the apocalyptic horror film as identified by such critics as Susan Sontag, Charles Derry and Robin Wood. The chapter argues that Dawn of the Dead represents a rare and uncharacteristically optimistic response to social issues within the horror genre. Romero’s solution was to push Dawn of the Dead towards social satire and into areas of excess as he drove the concept to its logical conclusion.