The zombie epidemic is threatening to engulf the world, forcing a disparate band of survivors to hole up in a Pittsburgh shopping mall, which they turn into their own private paradise. But, with zombies and roving biker gangs trying to get in, their idyll may not remain uninterrupted for long.

Dawn of the Dead is an overt attack on American consumer culture -- not only do the zombies return to a shopping mall, which is described as the place that made them happiest, but it turns our four protagonists into zombies, deadening their souls. In fact, so gripped with avarice are two of the group -- Steven and Roger -- that they perish while trying to protect what they've built, as if material goods are worth a tinker's cuss in Romero's apocalyptic world. Once again, as when a biker gang invades the group's little world and starts pulling it down around them, destroying stores for no good reason, you're reminded that Romero is, more often than not, on the side of the zombies. Traitor.

The hero. Ken Foree's effortlessly cool, iconic Peter is perhaps the most memorable character in each of the five Dead films. A big bear of a man, Peter's a born action hero, but he's not without his compassionate moments, and his genuine affection for his compadre, Roger, hits home in the film's most affecting sequence, when he is forced to blow his newly-zombified buddy's brains out.

Gaylen Ross's Fran, and she's several steps up from the appallingly one-dimensional Barbara, showing Romero's marked dedication to fleshing out his female protagonists. Initially, she seems to be very much the token girlfriend as Roger (Scott H. Reiniger), Steven (David Emge) and Peter run around the mall, but gradually she becomes more assertive. In the end, it's her determination to learn to pilot the group's helicopter that saves her and Peter from a fate worse than death. OK, scratch that -- just death. But as fates go, it's still pretty nasty.

High, and in bright Technicolor red, too. By this point, Romero had hooked up with Tom Savini (who also plays the leader of the biker gang), and the special effects guru runs wild here, splattering the place with bright red blood and some of the best headshots in movie history. Check out the impromptu Jackson Pollock that explodes onto a wall near the movie's end - or, of course, the infamous helicopter gag when rotor blades (actually animated and hand-drawn onto the frame) whip off the top of a zombie's brain. Interestingly, Greg Nicotero, Romero's go-to guy for FX these days, was inspired to get into the business by a flesh-biting gag in the first 20 minutes of the movie.

Ladies and gentlemen, a round of applause, please, for the iconic, "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth." In early drafts, this line actually read, "When there's no more room in the last carriage, please wait. A new train will arrive in two minutes."

This is the first Romero zombie film in which the Z-word is actually uttered.

"When I made the first film I was always concerned about this idea, the reason to do this stuff is to upset the applecart and what everyone seems to do is restore the order at the end of these things, which is what I never want to do. At the end of Dawn in the script, I had everybody die and I realised that I was doing it because it was a sequel. I realised I could save a couple of these individuals without restoring the world!"