Films set in department stores

"[Walks by coffee shop in New York and notices sign saying "WORLD"S BEST CUP OF COFFEE" and then bursts into the shop] You did it! Congratulations! World's best cup of coffee! Great job, everybody! It's great to meet you! [The shop staff and patrons just stare indifferently]"

"[Walking in a park and comes across a raccoon] Hey! What's your name? My name's Buddy. [Raccoon hisses] Oh...! Does someone need a hug? [He leans in and raccoon leaps onto his neck knocking him to the ground ferociously attacking] Aah, aah! That's not cool! I just wanted a hug!"

"[After Ḅuddy does an all-nighter of hyper decorating the store, he hears Jovie singing "Baby, It's Cold Outside" in the staff room shower, walks in and sits on the sink shelf and sings along] I really can't stay, I've got to go 'way, this evening has been, so very nice, my mother will start to worry, and father will be pacing' the floor, So, really, I'd better scurry, well, may be just a half a drink more, the neighbors might think baby, it's bad out there, say, what's in this drink? No cabs to be had out there I wish I knew how to break the spell, I'll take your hat, your hair looks swell, I ought to say no, no, no, sir, mind if I move in closer? At least I'm gonna say that I tried, what's the sense of hurting? my pride? I really can't stay, ah, but it's cold outside baby, it's cold outside! [Buddy sustains a note and Jovie realizes the presence of Buddy in the room and turns the water off] Get out! Don't look at me! Get out! [Buddy covers his eyes and runs into a locker and knocks himself out]"

"I then proceeded to tell Buddy of how his father had fallen in love when he was very young with a beautiful girl named Susan Wells, and how Buddy was born and put up for adoption by his mother, and how she had later passed away. I... I told him his father had never even known that Buddy was born, and most importantly, I told him where his father was... uh, in a magical land called New York City."

"Before we learn how to build the latest in extreme graphic chipset processors, let's recite the "Code of the Elves," shall we? Number one; "Treat every day like Christmas." Number two; "There's room for everyone on the nice list." Number three; "The best way to spread Christmas Cheer, is singing loud for all to hear.""

"[Buddy is doing Fonzie-esque slavic dances on a table in the mailroom with the whole staff pounding on the table in sync to song beats and fist pumping in unison when Buddy raises his arms]"

"Though your nose get a little chilling Buddy... We'll frolic and play buddy... buddy... the Eskimo way, walking in a winter wonderland, in the meadow we can build a snowman, and pretend that he is Parson Brown. He'll say, are you married, we'll say no, man. But you can do the job when you in town, brother. Later on, we'll conspire, as we dream by the fire to face unafraid the plans That we made (walking in a winter wonderland x2) I really can't stay. But, baby, it's cold outside, I've got to go 'way, but, baby, it's cold outside. This evening has been been hoping that you'd drop in, so very nice. I'll hold your hands, they're just like ice. My mother will start to worry beautiful, what's your hurry? And father will be pacing the floor. Listen to that fireplace roar, so, really, I'd better scurry. Beautiful, please don't hurry. Well, maybe just a half a drink more. Put some records on while I pour. The neighbors might think. Baby, it's bad out there. Say, what's in this drink? No cabs to be had out there. I wish I knew how your eyes are like starlight now. To break the spell. I'll take your hat, your hair looks swell. I ought to say no, no, no, sir. Mind if I move in closer? At least I'm gonna say that I tried. What's the sense of hurting my pride? I really can't stay, baby, don't hold out. Ah, but it's cold outside. I simply must go, but, baby, it's cold outside. The answer is no, but, baby, it's cold outside. This welcome has been, I'm lucky that you dropped in, so nice and warm. Look out the window at that storm, my sister will be suspicious. Gosh, your lips look delicious, my brother will be there at the door. Waves upon tropical shore, my maiden aunt's mind is vicious. Oh, your lips look delicious. Well, maybe just a cigarette more, never such a pleasure before. I've got to get home, but, baby, you'll freeze out there. Say, lend me your comb, it's up to your knees out there. You've really been grand. I thrill when you touch my hand, but don't you see. How can you do this thing to me? There's bound to be talk tomorrow. Think of my lifelong sorrow. At least there will be plenty implied. If you caught pneumonia and died. I really can't stay. Get rid of that hold out. Ah, but it's cold outside"

"Will Ferrell - Buddy"

"James Caan - Walter"

"Zooey Deschanel - Jovie"

"Mary Steenburgen - Emily"

"Daniel Tay - Michael"

"Edward Asner - Santa Claus"

"Bob Newhart - Papa Elf"

"Faizon Love - Gimbel's Manager"

"[To phone getting "busy" signals after her husband got bitten on his throat] Don't do this to me! Please, don't DO this to me!"

"The bites killed her, the bites brought her back."

"[Zombie has slammed itself against a glass door at the mall from the outside] Shatterproof, asshole"

"I feel like I'm here for another reason. I feel like I'm here to bring that baby on this earth, and give it everything that I never had. I just want the opportunity... to change things."

"I don't believe in God. I don't see how anyone could."

"[About the deaths of Luda, Andre and Norma] There's nothing to be said. I been to a lot of funerals, folded the flags, givin' them to mothers, wives, sons, and told them how sorry I was. But that's not what I was really feeling. In the back of my mind, I was always thinking better them than me. But I don't believe that now. And now I know that there are some things worse than death. And one of them is sitting here waiting to die."

"[En route to the marina, zombies swarm against Kenneth's bus] They're trying to turn us over! Hit them with the saw!"

""Andy... I'm sorry brother.."

"I don't want to shit on anyone's riff, but let me see if I grasp this concept, okay? You’re suggesting that we take some fucking parking-shuttles and reinforce them with some aluminum siding, and then just head on over to the gun-store and watch our good friend Andy play some cowboy-movie-jump on the covered wagon-bullshit. Then, we're gonna drive across the ruined city through a welcome-committee of a few hundred-thousand dead cannibals, all so that we can sail off into the sunset on this fuckin' asshole's boat? [The group nods] Alright I'm in."

"[To Steve after he abandoned his post and allowing the zombies overtake the mall] I'll deal with you later you motherfucker!"

"[Just before committing suicide to save the other survivors] Fuckin' Figures!"

"[After Luda asked for a bathroom & Andre says she’s not going anywhere alone] She’s not going anywhere... THIS IS A FUCKING NURSERY SCHOOL!"

"Hell is overflowing! And Satan is sending his dead to us! Why? Because...you have sex out of wedlock. You kill unborn children. You have man-on-man relations; same sex marriage! How do you think your God will judge you? Well, friends, now we know. When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth."

"[on TV] Danny, put another round in that woman over there! Look! She's a twitcher!"

"My fellow Americans, this Republic faces a crisis like no other in its history. While the lights across this great land dim and the darkness of an uncertain future descends, let us not forget the words that led our country through another great challenge: 'We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.' We will endure, we will rebuild, we will drive away the night and warm our children in the dawn of a new day. God bless you all, and god bless the United States of America."

"A state of emergency has been declared in the United States of America, including all overseas dependencies, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. We face- We, uh- For reasons yet to be determined, the bodies of the recently deceased are returning to life and attacking the living. The scope of this eci- epidemic is now reaching global proportions. The President has sent to Congress a package of initiatives which will be explained by the Secretary of Defense, Mr. Martin Emery. Mr. Secretary?"

"When the undead rise, civilization will fall."

"When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth."

"How do you kill what's already dead?"

"36 billion people have died since the reign of humanity. For the new Dawn, there's a reunion..."

"The Walking Dead, Gencarella asserts, “is part of another shift, post-9/11, in which the ghouls fill in for presumed ‘outsiders’ to the nation — but a nation that is limited only to a worthy few.” 9/11 imagery cropped up unintentionally, and largely incidentally, in Danny Boyle’s innovative fast-zombie film 28 Days Later, made before the attacks; its sequel, 28 Weeks Later, was in essence a critique of America’s militaristic overreach in the attacks’ wake. But the opening credits of Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake wed the terror of its depiction of the zombie apocalypse’s first harrowing hours with pointed stock imagery and mockumentary footage of Muslims and Arabs, setting a precedent for the rightward swing of the subgenre’s “us against them” political undertones."

"The contrast between this new version of "Dawn of the Dead" and the 1979 George Romero original is instructive in the ways that Hollywood has grown more skillful and less daring over the years. From a technical point of view, the new "Dawn" is slicker and more polished, and the acting is better, too. But it lacks the mordant humor of the Romero version, and although both films are mostly set inside a shopping mall, only Romero uses that as an occasion for satirical jabs at a consumer society. The 1979 film dug deeper in another way, by showing two groups of healthy humans fighting each other; the new version draws a line between the healthy and the zombies and maintains it. Since the zombies cannot be blamed for their behavior, there's no real conflict between good and evil in Zack Snyder's new version; just humans fighting ghouls. The conflict between the two healthy groups in the Romero film does have a pale shadow in the new one; a hard-nosed security guard (Michael Kelly) likes to wave his gun and order people around and is set up as the bad guy, but his character undergoes an inexplicable change just for the convenience of the plot."

"Unlike the tight little group of survivors in "28 Days Later," this one expands to the point where we don't much care about some of the characters (the blonde with the red lipstick, for example). But we do care about Kenneth (Ving Rhames), a gravel-voiced cop with hard-edged authority. We care about Michael (Jake Weber), a decent guy who tries to make the right decisions. And we care about Andre (Mekhi Phifer), whose wife Luda (Inna Korobkina) is great with child and will give birth at any moment; the way that plot plays out is touching and horrifying. We even work up some feeling for the guy marooned on the roof of the gun shop across the street, who communicates with Kenneth by holding up signs."

"Polley, whose career has found footing in smaller projects outside the studio system (including roles in Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter and Isabelle Coixet's My Life Without Me), explained that she needed a bit of coaxing from the filmmakers before she'd sign onto the film. "I met with Zack [Snyder, the director,] and Eric [Newman, the producer] one night at a restaurant, and they convinced me they were going to make a really sort of daring, sick, twisted movie that was going to be true to the allegory of consumerism that was in the original.""

"Like Polley, the rest of the cast members joined the film for reasons other than fealty to Romero's classic. Rhames looked at the story as a metaphor for tumultuous times rather than a literal interpretation of the source material, which itself is ripe with social commentary. "I didn't see the original, and in general I'm not a fan of the horror genre," admitted Rhames. "But from reading the script, I don't really put this film in that category. To me, it just so happens that our nemeses are zombies, but it could be any life-threatening situation." Rhames observed that the cast of characters reflected a decidedly more multi-cultural slant than in other recent films. "What I liked about it was, I thought it's bringing people from different ethnicities, different cultures together who need each other. So when I look at the world, I really say unfortunately, sometimes it's an atrocity; let's say 9/11; that forces us to come together. When I read the script I had no concept of what the zombies would look like; I just said, it's interesting to find these groups of characters in the situation." As he also acknowledged, it didn't hurt to have a steady hand behind the camera to keep the proceedings organized: "I also looked at Zack's reel, he has a very good commercial reel, and what I did was I turned down the volume, and I just watched how he moved the camera, and how the camera told the story. After that, I said, you know, I think this guy has a lot of potential, and I'd like to be a part of the project.""

"Jake Weber's motives for signing on to a Dead remake were a little less obvious: "I wanted to make an art film." Weber was kidding, but he did go on to reveal that he, like Polley, was convinced by the picture's directing-producing team to take on a role that might not naturally receive; much less deserve; his attention. "I met these guys in New York, and they were talking about Philip Kaufman's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and I loved that movie. I loved the idea of making a smart horror movie, a movie that was a lot of fun and is punk rock and fierce and wild but also is about real people." Having completed the film, Weber set his sights high on the predecessors whose company this new Dawn of the Dead keeps. "I think the bar for this movie is Phil Kaufman's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Halloween, I think 28 Days Later gets in there. I think Alien, which kind of a little more sci-fi, but still has elements of this, [or] The Shining." His comparisons, he clarified, were not so much qualitative as they were examples of effective approaches to a clich-laden genre: "I mean, those are the kinds of movies that are quality films that are in that genre that are terrifying.""

"Polley's taste for horror, somewhat unsurprisingly, ran to more obscure movies than those of her costars, and found that their unconventional pleasures gave her better motivation than if she'd merely researched the endless string of slasher movies that have proliferated over the last two decades. "I love movies like Peeping Tom and those sort of classic movies, and I actually thought of that movie a lot while we were shooting this, about what is the most frightening thing is the look of fear. You realize as an actor you can just sort of wander through a movie like this, but actually you have to work harder in a movie like this than in any small character-driven piece, because your fear sells the audience on being afraid." Polley admitted that she did occasionally lose her way while filming the many scenes of death and dismemberment, but felt confident that the finished film was something George Romero would be proud of. "As we were shooting, I often wondered what was I doing, but I saw the movie last night for the first time, and I was shocked to see that the movie was exactly what they described to me that first time. Completely sick and twisted, and made by incredibly perverse people.""

"Q: You've said somewhere that you felt Zack Snyder”s 'Dawn of the Dead' remake was a bit like a video game in itself? “I thought it was, yeah. I sort of thought it lost its reason for being. I know a lot of people really like it very much – Stephen King, for example. I didnt like it very much. Basically, because I was using the idea for satire. My film needed to be done right when it was done, because that sort of shopping mall was completely new. It was the first one in Pennsylvania that we had ever seen. The heart of the story is based in that. And I didn”t think the remake had it.” – November 2013 interview with the Telegraph"

"The idea of Zack Snyder being a political filmmaker is hilarious in any respect. He is stereotyped more for being so in awe with the art direction, production design and costumes of his films that he never realises how lacking in quality the final products are. But ever since his debut film, his 2004 remake of George A Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, a right-wing political allegory has always been so central to the narratives of his works it can hardly be described as subtext. The time has come for us to now understand that this is more than mere coincidence. As The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin wrote in a recent appraisal of Snyder as a “latter-day Ken Russell”; “Romero’s original was a bleak and timely consumerist satire, in which zombies shamble around a suburban shopping mall on lizard-brain instinct. Snyder’s version abandons that, and instead uses zombies as an allegory for western fears of “otherness” – immigrants, refugees, Muslims, you name them. This time, civilisation is the mall, about to be swamped by a rising tide of subhumans – although as the film’s ultra-bleak finale makes clear, any distinctions between “them” and “us” are ultimately meaningless”. Despite this allegory, the subversive screenplay by Guardians of the Galaxy director w:James Gunn\James Gunn ensures there was an intended satirical bite, that Snyder’s overwrought direction rendered moot. One of the complaints of his remake was the refusal to linger on the faces of the zombies, therefore “dehumanising” them in the eyes of Romero."

"Q: The most common criticism of your film is that it doesn't go as deeply into sociology as Romero's film—I disagree with that read, I don't think the original is all that deep and, in fact, I think that your picture has a broader, subtler, more satirical edge."

"Q: The most effective part of the film is told through a walkie-talkie exchange—no gore at all."

"Snyder's career actually began in controversy, with the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. The original Dawn of the Dead is perhaps the greatest zombie movie ever made, a shambling attack on American consumption that shows zombies staggering around a mall, winking at the way many of us anesthetize our deeper feelings and thoughts through buying crap. It seemed an odd fit for a director whose previous credits were all commercials and music videos. And it's fair to say that Snyder's version largely eschews nuance in favor of being awesome. Instead of stumbling and shuffling, his zombies sprint. Instead of a not-so-veiled attack on consumerism, his movie would be more of a take on post-tragedy community building. It was a horror flick, sure, but without any of the psychological tension that propped up the original. Above all, it was a flat-out thrill ride. In Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, the zombies didn't have to mean anything, because they could run, headlong, after their prey. Somewhat fittingly for the diminishing returns Snyder has yielded throughout his career, the best thing he's ever directed are the first 10 minutes of Dawn of the Dead. I've embedded a portion of them below, as well as the film's terrific opening credits. Watching those two clips will give you a good sense of some of Snyder's strengths. For one thing, he's terrific at casting strong actors. (In Dawn of the Dead, that distinction belongs to Sarah Polley, as a young woman watching her world go to hell.) For another, he's a master of montage editing, where seemingly disconnected moments bump up against each other in ways that create new connections and contrasts. (Those opening credits are a tremendous example.) The clips (particularly the first one) also hint at some key elements of Snyder's aesthetic. For one thing, he uses far fewer medium shots than most directors. He likes alternating between wide shots (as when the protagonist observes the chaos devouring her neighborhood) and shots that zoom in close on his actors, to a variety of different degrees (as when we see her worried expression as she takes it all in). When Snyder does use medium shots, he uses them in weird ways. Take the short moment where our hero talks to the man across the street who's holding a gun. Both characters are filmed in mid-shot, but Snyder puts them both in the same frame exactly once (when we see the man across the street over her shoulder, as if we're standing behind her). Blink and you'd miss this shot. Most directors would give us at least a few lines of dialogue while the two shared the same frame, but not Snyder. They're never in the same frame while talking to each other. The medium shot is the cinema's version of normalcy. Certainly, there are several where something huge happens, but a lot of the time, cinema uses the medium shot to break up the "pay attention to me!" panoramas of the wide shot and the forced intimacy of the close-up. That Snyder doesn't really use them in the first place, let alone typically, gives his work a heightened feel — everything subconsciously feels bigger than it otherwise might. Indeed, you'll note that the scene from Dawn of the Dead I've described above mimics the look of another visual medium: comic books."

"Sarah Polley — Ana"

"Ving Rhames — Kenneth"

"Jake Weber — Michael"

"Michael Kelly — CJ"

"Mekhi Phifer — Andre"

"Ty Burrell — Steve Markus"

"Kevin Zegers — Terry"

"Lindy Booth — Nicole"

"Michael Barry — Bart"

"Boyd Banks — Tucker"

"Inna Kurobkina — Luda"

"Jayne Eastwood — Norma"

"R.D. Reid — Glen"

"Matt Frewer — Frank"

"Kim Poirier — Monica"

"Bruce Bohne — Andy"

"Ken Foree — Televangelist"

"Tom Savini — Sheriff Cahill"

"[to Holden] I was looking at you in the store and I liked how you kept to yourself. I saw in your eyes that you hate the world. I hate it too."

"After living in the dark for so long, a glimpse of the light can make you giddy. Strange thoughts come into your head and you'd better think 'em. Has a special fate been calling you and you're not listening? Is there a secret message right in front of you and you're not reading it? Is this your last best chance? Are you going to take it? Or are you going to the grave with unlived lives in your veins?"

"You're a writer so you have yourself a goal, I guess. I used to, you know, lay in bed and imagine other cities, other jobs I could have; other husbands. Now I don't even know what to imagine anymore."

"As a girl you see the world as a giant candy store filled with sweet candy and such. But one day you look around and you see a prison and you're on death row. You wanna run or scream or cry but something's locking you up. Are the other folks cows chewing cud until the hour comes when their heads roll? Or are they just keeping quiet like you, planning their escape."

"How it all came down to this, only the Devil knows. Retail Rodeo is at the corner on my left. The motel is down the road to my right. I close my eyes and try to peer into the future. On my left, I saw days upon days of lipstick and ticking clocks, dirty looks and quiet whisperings. And burning secrets that just won't ever die away. And on my right, what could I picture? The blue sky, the desert earth, stretching out into the eerie infinity. A beautiful never-ending nothing."

"I thought if I died today what would happen to me? A hateful girl... A selfish girl... An adulteress... A liar."

"[in a letter] Dear Justine, because of you I'll be quitting the Retail Rodeo. The last two days have been the most godawful of my life. I have not been able to get rid of you in my head. I'll never want anything so bad, and I've wanted many things. I'd given up long ago on being 'gotten' by someone else, and then you came along. The idea that I could be gotten because of circumstance, or never get got, is the worst feeling I've ever felt, and I have felt many bad feelings. I'm sorry I can never see you again Justine, forgive me for being so weak, but that's who I am. Goodbye, Holden. If for some reason, you could change your mind and wanna be with me, body and soul, meet me after work. I will be waiting for you at 5pm outside Chuckie Cheese. If you are not there at five, you will never see me again in your lifetime."

"Attention, shoppers. There's a Retail Rodeo special on aisle 3. Liquid Drain Cleaner, 2 12-ounce cans for $5.00. Liquid Drain Cleaner has churning power and it will churn right through your pipes. Ladies, you need female plumbing. Shove something clean and new up your filthy pipes. That's Liquid Drain Cleaner on aisle 3. Have a good day and thank you for shopping at Retail Rodeo."

"Corny: It's a church. You can't make water without bumping your nut on a bible."

"Jack Field: Holden was a thief and a disturbed young man and what happened was a sad thing. Perhaps we can learn a lesson from this tragedy like don't steal and don't be disturbed."

"Jennifer Aniston - Justine Last"

"Jake Gyllenhaal - Thomas "Holden" Worther"

"John C. Reilly - Phil Last"

"John Carroll Lynch - Jack Field"

"Tim Blake Nelson - Bubba"

"Zooey Deschanel - Cheryl"

"Mike White - Corny"

"Deborah Rush - Gwen Jackson"

"Aimee Garcia - Nurse"

"Many have died, last week, on these streets. In the basement of this building, you will find them. I have given them the last rites, now, you do what you will. You are stronger than us... But soon, I think they be stronger than you. When the dead walk, señores, we must stop the killing... or lose the war."

"Every dead body that is not exterminated becomes one of them. It gets up and kills! The people it kills get up and kill!"

"You're not running a talk show here, Mr. Berman! You can forget pitching an audience the moral bullshit they want to hear!"

"The normal question, the first question is always, "Are these cannibals?" No, they are not cannibals. Cannibalism in the true sense of the word implies an intraspecies activity. These creatures cannot be considered human. They prey on humans. They do not prey on each other; that's the difference. They attack and they feed only on warm human flesh. Intelligence? Seemingly little or no reasoning ability, but basic skills remain a more... remembered behaviours of ah, normal life. There are reports of these creatures using tools. But even these actions are the most primitive; the use of tools as bludgeons and so forth. I might point out that even animals will adopt the use of tools in this manner. These creatures are nothing but pure, motorized instinct. We must not be lulled by the concept that these are our family members or our friends. They are not. They will not respond to such emotions."

"They MUST be destroyed ON SIGHT!"

"We are down to the line, people. DOWN TO THE LINE!"

"Dummies. Dummies."

"[After shooting a zombie that almost bit him] You bastards, you bastards! [Turns to Peter] We got 'em, didn't we? We got this, man! We got this by the ass!"

"Wooley's gone apeshit, man!"

"I've seen half-a-dozen guys in my unit get bitten by those things. None of them lasted more than... three days."

"How the Hell come we stick these low-life bastards in these big-ass fancy hotels anyway? Shit, man! This is better than I got!"

"We're still pretty close to Johnstown. Those rednecks are probably enjoying this whole thing."

"[Sarcastically] I would have made you all coffee and breakfast but I don't have my pots and pans."

"[On a TV set, Dr. Millard Rausch argues with a TV reporter about doomsday scenarios] It's really all over...isn't it?"

"[To Peter] I see you, chocolate man!"

"Say goodbye, creep!"

"David Emge - Stephen"

"Ken Foree - Peter"

"Scott H. Reiniger - Roger"

"Gaylen Ross - Francine"

"David Crawford - Dr. Foster"

"David Early - Mr. Berman"

"Richard France - Dr. Milliard Rausch"

"Dawn of the Dead is one of the most prophetic and disturbing films you’ll see, and I challenge you to find anyone who can find another film from that era which provides the same level of social commentary."

"A film critic at the New York Times walked out of "Dawn of the Dead" (1979) after the first 15 minutes, complaining of a pet peeve" against zombies. A film critic at the Dallas Times Herald described the film as "without any doubt the most horrific, brutal, nightmarish descent into Hell ever put on the screen." A film critic at the Village Voice thinks it's one of the most important films of the year. They all have a point. "Dawn of the Dead," which opens here Friday, is an ultimate horror film, one that takes traditional images of zombies and ghouls, makes them uncomfortably real, and treats them with a certain poignant humor."

""Dawn" is a carefully crafted work that shouldn't be confused with run-of-the-mill horror exploitation films. If we can survive the gruesome imagery and see beyond the obligatory scenes of the horror genre, Romero gives us a savagely satiric vision of America that's not easy to forget. This is both a very difficult film and a very good one."

"Some audience members at Dallas complained that the film never offers any rational explanation for the sudden plague of zombies. But of course not. No explanation would be rational, and any explanation would undercut the creepiness of the danger. What the film does do is raise sneaky questions in our minds. It's impossible, for example, to watch the zombies marching through a shopping mall, accompanied by Muzak, and not find a satiric statement on the mildly trance-like state Muzak is supposed to inspire in shoppers. It's disturbing to see images of horror juxtaposed with the gaudy artifacts of a lawn furniture display. And it's difficult to make up our minds about the endless violence inflicted on the zombies. They are shotgunned, run over, hacked to bits, decapitated by helicopter blades . . . and after a while we notice that our reaction to this mayhem is curiously complex. On the one hand, the violence isn't as disturbing as it would be against "real" human beings: Since the victims are without intelligence or personalities (and, for that matter, are already dead), their fates are less compelling. And yet, at the same time, we feel a sympathy for them: It is not their fault that they're zombies, and their activities aren't deliberately anti-social. It's just in their nature to eat human flesh."

"With 'Dawn,' I wanted the slick look, I wanted to bring out the nature of the shopping center, the retail displays, the mannequins. There are times when maybe you reflect that the mannequins are more attractive but less real - less sympathetic, even - than the zombies. Put those kinds of images side by side, and you raise all sorts of questions."

"Hill was carrying a Thompson submachine gun as we walked. A retired Air Force officer, he’s the film’s weapons coordinator, but he really likes being a zombie. “This is supposed to be a horror movie,” he said, “but it’s also an action thriller It’s a whiz-bang. We’ve fired thousands of rounds of blanks; every type of weapon available. “Now, let me tell you about being a zombie, When you go into your zomb, you’re in a fantasy. I go into the role feeling I am the living dead, I can’t focus on things, I can’t get it together. I researched it in books – the wide-open eyes, the clutching hands, the slow movements. Then I made my own zombie. I asked George and he said, ‘Be your own zombie.’ I intend to be the best zombie there ever was. I want people to come away from this movie saying, ‘Wow, he was a good zombie.’ Sharon, the nurse zombie, got into her zomb so heavily the other night, she made herself sick. We’ve got some good zombies. When we were shooting the exteriors and it was zero degrees, there was this 300-pound guy showed up every night in a bathing suit. He said, ‘I’m not cold. I love it.'”"

"“Maybe the bad guys win here,” he said, “and I like the switch – but I’m not sure the zombies are the bad guys because we can’t help being zombies. I love zombies.”"

"As I listened to the dialogue in the scene in front of Penney’s, I caught one line that began to offer an explanation. The four heroes are trying to figure out what’s going on, and one of them says, “It’s something my granddaddy, who used to practice macumba in Trinidad, told me: ‘When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.'” “George,” I asked, “where did you get that line?” He laughed: “I just made that up. Truly. On a drunken night when I was really crashing to finish the script and I thought that was kind of nice. It was from something Dario Argento [the Italian director of Suspiria, who’s doing the sound effects and score for Dawn] told me. My family is Cuban and Dario said, ‘Well you have a Caribbean background and that’s why you’re into the zombie thing; zombies originated in Haiti.’ I said, well, all right, and I just figured that’s something a voodoo priest might say. Whee! I’m just having fun, man.”"

"I stationed myself in the Pup-A-Go-Go stand and the minute Romero yelled “action” something remarkable happened: my eyes went out of focus, my hands clenched grotesquely, and I developed a lurching gait as I went after that motorcycle. I wanted that food and I almost got it. By the time the scene was shot twice – once with a mannequin that is beheaded – I was our of breath and my pulse was pounding."

"Sharon Ceccatti, the nurse zombie, came up to congratulate me as I caught my breath. “Is it always like this?” I asked. “You bet,” she said. “Most mornings I go home and I shake. I can’t sleep.”"

"“This is beginning to feel like Dachau,” a man beside me was saying later as we watched a zombie get his hand – very bloodily – cut off in a door. “This is far beyond Sam Peckinpah.” The man speaking was Gary Zellet, who supplied the weapons for the film and handled explosives and breakaway special effects. Among many other projects, he worked on both Godfather films. He is one of the few crew members not acting in the film. “I didn’t want to,” he said, “this is getting depressing. Twenty gallons of blood used, animal intestines for the zombies to eat – this morning I was eating a corned barf sandwich and somebody said, ‘Hey that’s a prop.’ We use corned beef in some of the artificial arms. Real amputees volunteered, makes it look real. I’ve rigged over 500 bullet squibs. We kill ’em every possible way, burn ’em, shoot ’em blow their heads off. It’s good there’s some comic relief now and then because this movie runs like a machine gun."

"I mentioned to him that I liked the mall better at night, that the zombies seemed to have more purpose than the shoppers. “That’s how I got the idea!” he said. “I know the people who own it and I went through the mall, empty, one time and I said, ‘Holy shit! That’s the perfect place for the fulcral episode where we can show the false security of the whole consumer America trip. That’s why this is in color – Night was black and white – because of the mall. So I wrote a little sketch about it and then put it in a drawer while I did some other things I’m really surprised no one else picked up on the idea, because now there are these shopping developments where you can live on top and work and shop down below and never have to leave the building. That’s a trip. In this film, the mall becomes the cause. The four heroes get in there to get some Civil Defense water and food and then they rack out and this consumerism, it’s too tempting for them to resist. They arm themselves heavily, they become banditos fighting for all that stuff.” Are the bikers then supposed to be an antidote for them or are they actually an exaggeration of that; racing through the mall at l00 miles an hour and scooping up color TVs? “I think they’re the ultimate of what the heroes are becoming, fighting for control of the Mothership. In fact, when they first see the raiders, the bikers coming over the hill, Peter takes off his new watch and all his other shit and that’s a flash toward realization. The raiders are consumerism at its extreme and they just storm in there and go bananas and then of course that causes the downfall. But the heroes, even though Roger is dying at that point, he still has his candies and radios and shit … and that’s why they’re so extreme in their garb during the attack scenes, all the crossed gun belts, fighting over microwave ovens, I mean…” He doubled over with laughter. Romero has a weird slant on the world, to say the least. With Night and Dawn he has filmed some of the most explicit violence imaginable and yet he can argue, convincingly, that it’s detached violence because it’s directed at things rather than people; that the zombies become merely so many insects to be swatted aside. At the same time, he’s starting to make the zombies smarter and more sympathetic because he genuinely likes them. On a set, he resembles a giant, bearded shepherd with his poor dead flock shuffling after him. Sometimes he refers to his zombies as “sharks,” which is a startling but dead-on comparison."

"Despite Romero’s avowal that he’s just making “comic books,” I reminded him, he gets very close to a message when he talks about “human sellouts” and “operatives” versus the “alternate society.”"

"“The sellouts,” he finally continued, “the scientific community is saying, ‘Let’s feed ’em. They’re wasteful. They eat only five percent of a body and then the body’s intact enough to revive and it comes back as a zombie. The government says we should feed them and control that pattern – which seems probably what those cats would do. So if someone has died in your family, cut them into meal-size bits.” He was roaring with laughter and the businessmen at breakfast around us began throwing odd looks toward our table. George wiped tears of laughter from his eyes and went on: “That’s probably the way it would go. My idea to take it further is to actually have human operatives that are trying to preserve their own kind of operative situation and in fact using the zombies initially, training them to serve their own needs. There are beginnings of that in Dawn. I show a few flashes of intelligence or at least a learning capability in the zombies. If there are human sellouts that first start teaching them to do things so that they become really operative, then it’s over. But that is also what’s happening to us, those kinds of monsters, our corporate monsters that prey on us more as we fear them less. I mean, that’s this whole false security concept of the mall, being funneled into it, the temple to consumerism, the mall. And being perfectly happy, you know, absolutely lulled by it and yet eaten by it like that.”"

"A few weeks later, George finally decided which ending to use (we’re keeping it a secret) and he had worked up a beginning, which had worried him greatly. He was criticized in Night for having a deux ex machina – in that case a radioactive satellite – activate the zombies. Dawn will begin with a TV newscast – with the film’s credits over – just announcing that the zombies are out and about. I called him up to suggest that recombinant DNA would be a good cause, but he wouldn’t hear of it. “I want it to be unexplained because the zombies really just come out of to rather than a third party. It just happens.”"

"I found that this film actually did something a lot of modern zombie movies fail to do - surprise me; The characters had been so well established that I found myself saying "They won't kill him, he's too important." I felt this emphasized the point Romero himself says he tries to make in most of these films, which is that they are films about people and how they cope in tough situations, not zombies."

"Mother, there's got to be a better way. Please, gods. Please help me find it."

"[introducing herself] My name is Ema Hesire, but you can call me Emmy."

"[to Jonathan, coming to life] When you were making me, didn't you feel a certain inspiration? Almost like your hands were moved by force not of this world? You made this body so that I could come to life!"

"Tonight, we're gonna do something special, something that this store has never seen before!"

"You've got good hands. I liked the way they felt when you were putting me together."

"[looking at a stereo system playing] Where do they hide all the musicians?"

"[to his boss] I'm fired, pick up my paycheck on the way out, never come back..."

"[seeing Mannequin Emmy in a store window] It's you! I wanted to take you home, but they wouldn't let me. You know you're the first thing I've created in a really long time that made me feel like an artist."

"I must be losing my mind. I guess all artists fall in love with their work, but you just seem so special."

"[on the phone] Mom, lemme ask you, did I ever do anything really strange as a child? Is there any history of insanity in the family?"

"Why don't we stick to good old-fashioned hand tools for the time being, okay?"

"I'm not the same guy I used to be. I finally found a place where I belong."

"[introducing himself] Hollywood. Hollywood Montrose. Ooh! Doesn't it just sing!"

"[to Jonathan] At least, she'll never tell you that your hips are too fat."

"Diets don't work! It's those jelly doughnuts. They call to me in the middle of the night: "Hollywood! Hollywood! Come and get me, Hollywood!" I can't stay away from them. It's like you and women's dressing rooms."

"Rumor Control has it that the board wants to fire your little behind. You let me in there at those so-and-sos. I'll straighten them out, tout de suite. How can they think of firing you?"

"It's obvious to this country girl that you're an A-number one creative freak. Imagine pretending you're a stock boy when you're a major artiste. I am so jealous."

"You know I would never bother you when you're getting a piece of wood, but this is muy importante. Your Hollywood needs help. I need your creative muse."

"[to Jonathan] Please. Listen, I pride myself on being able to size up a job applicant and see just what kind of executive potential he has. I have just the job for you."

"[at the board room] We would all love to know what possessed Switcher to create such a window display. Did you see those crowds gaping on the sidewalks? It's an embarrassment!"

"What arrogance! That worm of a stock boy has created an affront to the dignity of this store. I'll have it taken down immediately and make sure that lunatic never works in this town again."

"Well, you must lead a charmed life. It was all I could do to save your skin in there. No thanks are necessary, Switcher!"

"[to Felix] You people that work at night scare me."

"[to himself] I've put my future in the hands of a vegetable."

"Claire Timkin: Mr. Richards, this store has never been more successful, and it's all due to Jonathan Switcher. I don't care if he puts a rubber glove on his head and runs naked around the store screaming: "Hi, I'm a squid!""

"Roxie Shield: [notices Jonathan with Emmy, suddenly surprised] Jonathan, you're riding around town with a mannequin on the back of your motorcycle! What is wrong with this picture?!"

"Captain Felix Maxwell: [after Emmy, as a mannequin, has flipped off him and Mr. Richards] Enough of this surveillance crap! Captain Felix Maxwell takes this from no mannequin!"

"Jonathan Switcher loved talking to his work, but he never expected it to talk back. Now his life's heading in a different direction."

"Sometimes life is strange and wonderful... he's strange and she's wonderful. She may be a mannequin, but he's no dummy."

"Just because Jonathan Switcher has fallen in love with a piece of wood, it doesn't make him a dummy."

"Some guys have all the luck!"

"When she comes to life, anything can happen!"

"[narrating] I've been to prison once. I've been married twice. I was once drafted by Lyndon Johnson and had to live in shit-ass Mexico for two and a half years for no reason. I've had my eye socket punched in, a kidney taken out, and I got a bone-chip in my ankle that's never gonna heal. I've seen some pretty shitty situations in my life, but nothing has ever sucked more ass than this. If I'd known I was gonna have to put up with screaming brats pissing on my lap for days out of the year, I would have killed myself a long time ago. Come to think of it, I still might."

"I said "next," goddamn it! This is not the DMV, all right? Move it along."

"[while having sex] Yeah, baby! Yeah, baby! You ain't gonna shit right for a WEEK!"

"[to Thurman] Jesus, kid. When I was your age, I didn't need no fucking gorilla. And I wasn't as big as one of your legs. Four kids beat me up one time and I went crying home to my daddy. You know what he did? He kicked my ass. You know why? It's because he was a mean, drunk son of a bitch. And when he wasn't busy busting my ass, he was putting cigarettes out on my neck. The world ain't fair. You've gotta take what you need when you can get it. You've gotta learn to stand up for yourself. You gonna have to quit being a pussy and kick these kids in the balls or something...or don't. Shit. I don't care. Just leave me the hell out of it."

"Wish in one hand, shit in the other and see which one fills up first."

"[to Thurman] Thank you for giving that letter to the cops. I forgot I asked you to do it, but it's a good thing you did, or 'Santa's Little Helper' would have plugged his ass. And now the cops know I wrote it, which is gonna keep my ass out of jail. That, plus everyone agreeing that the Phoenix police department shooting an unarmed Santa was even more fucked up than Rodney King. Cops are treating me like fucking royalty, which is new in my experience. They're making me a sensitivity counselor so that tragedies like this would never again embarrass the department. Meanwhile, I told the cops that you had no one to take the fuck care of you. So they set it up with Mrs. Santa's sister until your dad gets out in one year and three months. They made her a guardian pro-temp. As for my little helper, I'm sorry to tell you that he and his prune faced, mail order wife are going to be exploring mountains with your dad. I just hope your dad doesn't go sucking shit from them like I did."

"[in a letter to Thurman] Dear Kid, I hope that you got my present and that there wasn't too much blood on it, although there was blood on the presents you gave me, which didn't keep me from enjoying it, so maybe the blood doesn't matter so much, I guess. Just in case they took it as evidence, I'm also sending you a T-shirt. I hope it's the right size. I'm healing up good and they tell me that I will soon be 100%, even with eight bullets dug out of me cause they didn't hit any vital organs, just my liver, which is fucked anyway. Hahaha. Anyways, I told the cops you had no one to take the fuck care of you so they set it up with Ms. Santa's Sister to watch you 'til your dad gets back in one year and three months. They made her a guardian pro tem, or some such shit. Anyway, she makes better money than bartending and seems to like you, your house, and Jacuzzi. As for my little helper, I'm sorry to tell you that him and his prune-faced, mail-order wife are gonna be exploring mountains with your dad. I hope your dad doesn't go sucking shit for them like I did. Thank you for giving that letter to the cops, I forgot to ask you to do it, but it's a good thing you did or Santa's little helper would've plugged his ass, and now the cops know I wrote it, which is gonna keep my ass outta jail. That plus everyone agreeing that to Phoenix police department shooting an unarmed Santa was even more fucked up than Rodney King. Cops are treating me like fucking royalty now, which is new in my experience. They're gonna make me the sensitivity counselor, so that tragedies like this will never again embarrass the whole fucking department. Whatever. So I'll be staying in Phoenix now, telling the police how screwed up they are, which is not a bad job as jobs go. They're supposed to let me out of this hospital room soon, so I'll see you when I come over and fuck Ms. Santa's Sister in the jacuzzi. Until then, don't take no shit from nobody, least of all, yourself. Anyway, see you soon. Santa."

"You are by far the dumbest, most pathetic piece of maggot-eatin' shit that has every slid from a human being's hairy ass."

"Jesus Christ! Can you maybe at least keep it together for just 10 minutes?"

"When I look at you, you know what I think? I think America has a sad future ahead of it."

"He's very naughty . . . and not very nice."

"He doesn't care if you're naughty or nice."

"Get Naughty this Holiday Season."

"Billy Bob Thornton — Willie T. Soke"

"Tony Cox — Marcus Skidmore"

"Brett Kelly — Thurman Murman"

"Lauren Graham — Sue"

"Lauren Tom — Lois Skidmore"

"Bernie Mac — Gin Slagel"

"John Ritter — Bob Chipeska"

"No one takes photographs of something they want to forget."

"According to The Oxford English Dictionary, the word "snapshot" was originally a hunting term."

"Pretend this is all pretend."

"[while stalking the Yorkins] What the hell is wrong with these people?"

"Most people don't take snapshots of the little things. The used Band-Aid, the guy at the gas station, the wasp on the Jell-O. But these are the things that make up the true picture of our lives. People don't take pictures of these things."

"I'm sure my customers never think about it, but these snapshots are their little stands against the flow of time. The shutter is clicked, the flash goes off and they've stopped time - just for the blink of an eye. And if these pictures have anything important to say to future generations, it's this: I was here. I existed. I was young, I was happy, and someone cared enough about me in this world to take my picture."

"I've been doing P.O.S. mini-lab work for over 20 years now. I consider it an important job. When people's houses are on fire, what's the first thing they save after their pets and their loved ones are safe? The family photos. Some people think that this is a job for a clerk. They actually believe that any idiot that attends a two-day seminar can master the art of making beautiful prints in less than an hour. Of course, like most things, there's far more to it than meets the eye. I've seen the prints they fop off on people at the Rexall or Fotek, milky washed out prints, too dark prints. There's no sense of reverence for the service they're providing for people. I process these photos as if they were my own."

"He knows your name, He knows your life, He knows where you live"

"Robin Williams as Seymour "Sy" Parrish"

"Michael Varatan as Will Yorkin"

"Connie Nielsen as Nina Yorkin"

"Dylan Smith as Jake Yorkin"

"Gary Cole as Bill Owens, Manager"

"Erin Daniels as Maya Burson"

"Eriq La Salle as Det. James Van Der Zee"

"Clark Gregg as Det. Paul Outerbridge"

"Paul H. Kim as Yoshi Araki"

"Any little fraulein who expects anything more from me than a little bit of pleasure, a little bit of danger, and a great set of pectorals, she's looking for a fall right on her ass."

"[to himself] She's so beautiful. And I'm the town liar."

"He took the job that no one wanted...and got the girl that everyone did."

"Maximum comedy at minimum wage!"

"Frank Whaley - Jim Dodge"

"Jennifer Connelly - Josie McClellan"

"Dermot Mulroney - Nestor Pyle"

"Kieran Mulroney - Gil Kinney"

"John M. Jackson - Bud Dodge"

"Jenny O'Hara - Dotty Dodge"

"Noble Willingham - Roger Roy McClellan"

"William Forsythe - the Store Custodian"

"John Candy (uncredited) - the manager of the Target store"

"Experience the Miracle."

"Discover the Miracle."

"If you really believe, anything can happen."

"Richard Attenborough - Kris Kringle"

"Mara Wilson - Susan Walker"

"Elizabeth Perkins - Dorey Walker"

"Dylan McDermott - Bryan Bedford"

"J. T. Walsh - Ed Collins"

"Simon Jones - Donald Shellhammer"

"James Remar - Jack Duff"

"Jane Leeves - Alberta Leonard"

"Robert Prosky - Judge Henry Harper"

"Allison Janney - Brazen Woman in Cole's Christmas Shopping Center"

"Jack McGee - Tony Falacchi"

"Joss Ackland (uncredited) - Victor Landberg"

"You see, Mrs. Walker, this is quite an opportunity for me. For the past 50 years or so I've been getting more and more worried about Christmas. Seems we're all so busy trying to beat the other fellow in making things go faster and look shinier and cost less that Christmas and I are sort of getting lost in the shuffle."

"Oh, Christmas isn't just a day, it's a frame of mind... and that's what's been changing. That's why I'm glad I'm here, maybe I can do something about it."

"Do you realize that there are thousands of children lining the streets? Children who have waited weeks just to see you? You are a disgrace to the tradition of Christmas! And I shall not allow you to malign me in public!"

"(To Sawyer)--"You have no more right to analyze Alfred than a dentist has to remove a gall bladder!""

"Susan, I speak French but that doesn't make me Joan of Arc!"

"Faith is believing in something when common sense tells you not to. Don't you see? It's not just Kris that's on trial, it's everything he stands for. It's kindness and joy and love and all the other intangibles."

"Look Doris, someday you're going to find that your way of facing this realistic world just doesn't work. And when you do, don't overlook those lovely intangibles. You'll discover those are the only things that are worthwhile."

"Mr. Shellhammer: But... but maybe he's only a little crazy like painters or composers or... or some of those men in Washington."

"Alfred, Macy janitor: Yeah, there's a lot of bad 'isms' floatin' around this world, but one of the worst is commercialism. Make a buck, make a buck. Even in Brooklyn it's the same - don't care what Christmas stands for, just make a buck, make a buck."

"Maureen O'Hara - Doris Walker"

"John Payne - Fred Gailey"

"Edmund Gwenn - Kris Kringle"

"Gene Lockhart - Judge Henry X. Harper"

"Natalie Wood - Susan Walker"

"Porter Hall - Granville Sawyer"

"William Frawley - Charlie Halloran"

"Jerome Cowan - Dist. Atty. Thomas Mara"

"Philip Tonge - Julian Shellhammer"

"It's a gift from a grateful client. They hanged him last year."

"[to Ravelli] Why don't you assist Basil Rathbone and leave me alone?"

"Gorgeous Girls! Uproarious Fun! The Big Musical Show!"

"With gorgeous girls! Cute cut-ups! Lovely lasses!"

"Where everything is a good buy. Goodbye!"

"Song hits galore! 1000 laughs to a customer. Sale on howls! Sensational close-out on roars! Special fun and music bargains. Hurry hurry every laugh must go! No mail or phone orders please! Beauties and cuties!"

"Groucho Marx — Wolf J. Flywheel"

"Harpo Marx — Wacky"

"Chico Marx — Ravelli"

"Tony Martin — Tommy Rogers"

"Virginia Grey — Joan Sutton"

"Margaret Dumont — Martha Phelps"

"Douglas Dumbrille — Mr. Grover"

"William Tannen — Fred Sutton"

"Henry Armetta — Giuseppi"

"Anna Demetrio — Maria"

"Marion Martin — Peggy Arden"

"Virginia O'Brien — Kitty"

"Paul Stanton — Arthur Hastings"

"Russell Hicks — George Hastings"