Who directed the 1978 zombie film Dawn of the Dead?

George A. Romero directed the 1978 zombie film Dawn of the Dead.

The film was Romero’s second major entry in his Living Dead series, following Night of the Living Dead (1968). Unlike the earlier film’s rural farmhouse setting, Dawn of the Dead places four survivors inside a suburban shopping mall during a widespread zombie outbreak.

Romero co-wrote the screenplay with Italian filmmaker Dario Argento, who also helped finance the production and produced an international version. Makeup artist Tom Savini created the film’s distinctive gore effects, which became highly influential in horror cinema.

Dawn of the Dead is often remembered as both a zombie thriller and a satire of consumer culture. Its mall setting allowed Romero to contrast the survivors’ attempts to shop and survive with the zombies’ instinctive return to a familiar public place. The film is sometimes confused with the 2004 remake, which was directed by Zack Snyder.