Remake: Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Dawn of The Dead (2004)

Director: Zack Snyder
Writer: George A. Romero for the 1978 original and James Gunn for this one
Genre: Horror/Thriller/Drama

Story

It is a zombie flick if you didn’t know already; a remake. It starts with Ana (Sarah Polley) in the hospital on her normal shift. People start coming into the hospital that have been attacked by other people, but she doesn’t really notice the trend. When her daughter and husband turn into zombies she is forced to run for her life only to find that seemingly everyone around her has become a zombie. She finally meets up with a group of people that are looking for safety and decide the nearby mall is their best bet. No helicopter involved in this one. Once they make it to the mall they are stuck with nowhere to go and have to fend off the zombies and decide what they are going to do about it. Classic straight forward zombie flick (aside from the running zombies!), but it was a fun ride.


Everything Else

The handful of main characters do well even if their only real emotion is fear or sadness. Maybe there was a little anger mixed in too, but it all runs together. The point is they did well, but there is nothing to make the acting stand out because it is all about a zombie killfest. Here is the list just for good measure: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Ty Burrell, and Lindy Booth. Just to name some of the main actors.


The zombies looked good in Dawn of the Dead (2004) especially when compared to the original. There was a lot of blood and pasty white skin to make them look more dead and terrifying. It was interesting to watch some of the bonus features and see how they made the zombies. They had three stages of zombies: freshly dead, dead for a while, and decomposing to the point of pieces of them simply falling off. The difference between Dawn of the Dead and most zombie flicks before it is that the zombies were not slow; rather they were just as fast as the average person. This made a lot of the scenes more intense as they tried to get away from the zombies. There is an argument for slow zombies, but the fast ones are definitely more exciting. Although I miss the slow zombie with the sudden fast lunge when they get close to you (Resident Evil style). The fast, rabid zombies also makes for less interesting attacks once people are actually caught. I the original it was easy for the people to maneuver around the slow zombies, but once a person got caught it was a much slower death (which provided some great scenes in the originals). There were plenty of zombies and people getting mauled, shot, and blow up so you will get your fair share of gore. One of the best scenes involves thousands of zombies a rifle and a propane tank. Awesome!

The directing actually ended up adding a lot in the end. It seemed pretty straight forward for the most part, but then at the end the movie actually changed into a hand held camera spliced between the credits. This was the first time I remember watching through the entire credits in a long time. The movie is not over until the last part of the credits roll. This was definitely an interesting way to end a movie. The rest of the movie was simply a good string of action and gore tied together with some small slow spots. The flow seemed to work very well and keeps your interest throughout.


The Real Deal

I like zombie flicks a lot. This is why I liked Resident Evil and why I really liked 28 Days Later. Although this movie is a lot of fun and definitely a must watch for those interested in zombie films, I still liked 28 Days Later a lot better. It is just the Danny Boyle style and the large areas of deserted city that really get me on that film. Dawn of the Dead is worthy of my purchase if only so that I can get my zombie fill from time to time. When comparing it to the original it seems like a whole new movie almost. The fast zombies and lack of a helicopter changed the dynamic quite a bit.


The Short Version

Raw Score: 792,093
Sharon Movie? No

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