Dawn of the Dead 2004

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

I have stated on more than one occasion that Romero’s Dawn of the Dead is my favorite movie. So of course when I heard that a remake of that movie was in the works, and that Romero wasn’t to be involved I was ready to write it off. I mean talk about going after one of the classics of the genre, what is next Carpenter’s Halloween? Well never mind that…

So the story here is vastly different from the original film. The movie opens with a nurse named Ana at the end of a long shift at work. She heads home, talks to a cute little neighborhood girl and falls into the arms of her loving husband. After some naughty stuff in the shower they go to sleep. Then all hell breaks loose! The cute kid from before shows up in their bedroom missing part of her face and rips Ana’s husband’s throat out. Before you know it he is now a zombie and is running (we will get to that later) after Ana as well. After making her escape from the house Ana is greeted with complete chaos, as her neighborhood has become a gore filled battleground. Eventually she meets up with Kenneth and together they end up at the mall, which other than the zombies is the only real thing this has in common with the original. Add a few more survivors, some attrition to zombies, and then eventually an escape on a boat and you pretty much have the movie.

I saw this movie on opening night and I have to say that I was pleased. As a fan of the original I hated that they choose to attach the Dawn of the Dead title to this movie, as it is nothing like the original. The story lacks any of the subplot that the has had me revisiting the Romero movie 2 or 3 times a year (it is my favorite movie!) and I think there are too many throw away characters populating the movie. In fact other than the Ana and Michael characters I really couldn’t care less about what happens to anyone in the movie. But then director Zack Snyder wasn’t really trying to make a copy of Romero’s movie and instead just goes for a gory, action filled, zombie movie with a few jump scares.

While not as special or memorable as the original Snyder does manage to make a very good zombie movie. The gore is plentiful (I highly recommend that everyone go get the unrated version), the zombies are cool looking, and the action is almost nonstop. There are a few cringe worthy moments like the zombie baby that I really had wished that they skipped. Though the original idea of the baby dying and eating it’s way out sounds kind of cool, and of course was apparently nixed by the studio as being too much. Now that would have made this a legendary bit of horror I think. But even then the movie does deliver the goods and is an excellent zombie movie. Oh and I suppose I should address the whole fast moving vs. shuffling zombies thing. Initially the fast moving zombies really bugged the hell out of me. But then I started to think about it. How many zombie movies have most of us seen where the zombies shuffle around and aren’t that scary? I would suggest that other than the maestro Romero, Savini in the Night 90 remake, and a few of the Italian directors most fail at making the good old shuffling dead scary. Say what you want, but when the zombies in this movie eyeball and haul ass in your direction they are scary. Still not thrilled by running zombies, but I can understand them and at least they aren’t jumping around and wall crawling like Spiderman (damn you Steve Miner).

What I find very interesting is how many fans have a real dislike for Dawn of the Dead 2004. Personally I think it is a backlash to the fact that the filmmakers were trying to cash in on the original’s following to make a few bucks. But I encourage everyone to do what I did and try to pretend that this movie isn’t called Dawn of the Dead. Judged on it’s own merits I think that it is a good movie and one of the best zombie movies of the last 10 years. Again this is coming from one of the biggest Romero nerds you will ever meet.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer