10 Greatest Apocalypse Movies Of All Time
3. Dawn Of The Dead (1978)
Anyone who argues that there is a more influential, iconic, and masterful zombie movie out there than George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead is a fool. A damned fool, I tell you!
Unlike the majority of popular zombie movies which confine their undead outbreaks to a small town or tiny farmhouse, Dawn of the Dead lets them loose on the world at large. Yes, much of the story takes place inside a mall, but the third act propels the story outward to show the effects a plague of zombies would have on a wider scale.
It was a groundbreaking genre film, even more so than Romero's first foray into zombie fare, the also excellent Night of the Living Dead. Dawn cemented the overall "look" of zombie movies while also laying out a template for how to effectively comment on social and political issues without sacrificing the gorier bits.
As a satirical allegory for American consumerism, it's brilliant. As a straight-up horror movie, it's a masterpiece. Dawn of the Dead works incredibly well on every level.
And as far as apocalypses go, being trapped inside a Pittsburgh mall while hordes of undead jerks try to make a buffet out of your flesh ranks pretty high on the list of Worst Possible Dystopias.