Dawn of the Dead: Comparing the novelisation with the film...

[MinionZombie]

I recently read the novelisation of Dawn of the Dead and it was fun to compare it to the film, finding little differences or new tidbits or slight changes. Who else here has read the book and what did you find to be the most interesting differences? For instance, I noticed there was more (even much more) made of an undercurrent of tension between Peter and the rest of the group, Stephen specifically, beyond what we saw in the movie. I wonder if the book was based on an earlier version of the script, too. Certain scenes seem to take a different angle in the film, such as how Fran seems a little more 'hysterical' at times, having bigger break downs, compared to the version of her character that we're used to from the movie.

[Neil]

Oh God... Can hardly remember it now. Which ending does it have? Wasn't there a puppy or something in it too? Or am I having a total brain fart?

[JDP]

Oh God... Can hardly remember it now. Which ending does it have? Wasn't there a puppy or something in it too? Or am I having a total brain fart? Yes, I remember something about that too. She would take care of the animals in the mall's pet shop, if I remember correctly.

[MinionZombie]

Yeah, they end up adopting a puppy called "Andy" or something like that. There's a couple of mentions of the pet store and all the various animals - kittens, puppies, birds in cages etc. The action related to the mall takes a different approach at times - much more focus on gates rather than doors, the locks, even the layout of the mall sounds a bit different. There's focus on the administrative office rooms as well, including the office of the owner who is said to be this grand figure who is found to have killed himself in his big chair overlooking the mall. They also put the bodies of the zombies into the mall's money vault. Indeed, they even do that with Roger, which was quite surprising, considering how much more respect he's treated with in the actual movie. In the book they just sling his body into the vault with a pile of rotting zombies! Neil - the ending is the same as the movie. I'd read somewhere that it was the more bleak ending, but no, it's the one where Peter and Fran fly away in the chopper.

[shootemindehead]

Jesus, I read it in the early 90's Mini. All I can remember is that all of the gore in the middle pages (these pages had pictures from the movie) was missing from my copy on video. As for the bleak ending, I think that was on the table for all of a couple of days and Romero completely changed his mind. Savini made a head for Fran and she was going to stick her noggin in the chopper blades after she heard Peter shoot himself, I'm sure you know all that. But none of that survived basic idea stage and Fran's "head" later became the shotgun casualty during the raid on the projects. Personally, I think I'd have loved that ending. Or at least for it to have been actually shot and included as an alternative on a future Blu. The novel, itself, was released shortly after the film and was probably written using the same shooting script. But Romero deviated from the script when he shot the movie and ended up adding bits and pieces in here and there on the fly. But this is usually the case with novelisations. I remember reading Alan Dean Foster's novelisation of 'Alien' and in a number of ways it's very different to the finished film. The facehugger has an eye which it studies Kane with before launching itself at him. And the cocoon scene that was restored in an alternative cut was present. And Lambert and someone else are getting it on.

[MinionZombie]

The last two chapters kinda rush through everything after Roger's death, I was surprised by how much of the film remained yet the number of pages left in the book was dwindling fast. The biker raid in particular is much more brisk compared to the film, pointing directly to that aspect of Romero shooting all sorts of things not on a whim, but near enough, being a bit 'jazz' about the whole thing. There's a biker dressed like Santa called "Nick" and Blades isn't called Blades at all, it's Hatchet or something like that. Their description is a little bit darker, too, describing how the women in the gang are the ones who are basically either tough enough to fend off all the raping or are 'willing' to ignore it in order to survive ... puts an even more chilling spin on their gang, that's for sure! Even the stuff once they've taken the mall and are now using it is more brisk and less detailed in the book, although one interesting detail was Fran reading a book to basically teach herself how to give birth alone just in case. Another chilling detail. There's a fair bit made of Stephen's masculinity compared to Roger and Peter in particular. You get some of it in the film, but it's not as 'buddy buddy' in the book.