Film/Image analysis DOTD (1979) clip 2

Zobies in Mall
In this scene of inside the mall, the shot shows an establishing shot which sets up, or establishes the context for the scene by showing the relationship between its important figures of the mall (the zombies) and the location (the mall). This shot represents the context in the film with the rise of malls and consumerism in the mid 1970’s in America. The zombies are desperate to get in the mall because, as Peter says earlier, “This was an important place in their lives” and zombies shuffle around the shops after the looters attack. George Romero (as an “auteur”) hated the rise of shopping malls in the mid 1970’s and he talks about this in a documentary called ‘American Nightmare’. Before DOTD (1979) he shows this sort of context in Night of the Living Dead (1969) with Romero challenging the context of America being very heavily affected by racism in the 1960’s, Romero follows this through into his 70’s movies with the opening of shopping malls and consumerism, and his hatred of this kind of obsession with spending money.