Overview
Diehard Romero fans are divided: Ripoff? Remake? Homage? It all depends on your point of view, but this diehard is screaming off the rooftops and touting it as the best remake/homage ever to grace the silver screen. With directing that stays true to the original in that there are very low level special effects, and acting that is at times almost unbearable, this one is a twitcher.  

The first time I saw the trailer for Dawn of the Dead was when I went to see the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The beginning of the trailer just showed the inside of a mall and I instantly was jumping out of my seat screaming my head off, knowing instantly what movie it was. My friend and I just looked at each other in awe, knowing it was going to be the most widely anticipated horror film in the last decade. We knew we wouldn’t be disappointed…and we were right. 

George Romero’s horror classic Dawn of the Dead continues to draw in more fans of the original, almost 25 years later. The premise of the film is rather simple, but the stylistic visions of the director are what makes or breaks this type of film: anyone that has ever died is coming back to life to feed on the living. A plague the world has never seen before hits hard and fast as family and friends are waking up dead…and hungry.

Review
Wisconsin suburbia. What a beautiful place to start a family, get a family dog, and work on keeping that grass greener than your neighbors. Ana (Sarah Polley) has the perfect life: an adoring husband, a gorgeous house, and a job she loves as a nurse at the nearby hospital. Life is good, until she wakes up the next morning to see the little girl from next door getting her early snack on, in the form of chomping on her husband’s neck. Being quick witted and fleet of foot, Ana takes off in her car, only to see that the world as she knows it has changed drastically: neighbors attacking and eating other neighbors, cars ablaze, entire buses filled with people eating the innocent. She quickly finds herself in the company of a badass cop Kenneth (Ving Rhames), who on appearances alone is someone I’d want to be around if the world was going to hell in a handbasket. Not long after discovering Ken, they happened upon a small group of people that are looking for the same thing they are: safety. Andre (Mekhi Phifer) and his extremely pregnant girlfriend Luda (Inna Korobkina) are accompanied by Michael (Jake Weber), and decide it would be best for all if they joined forces if they wanted to stay alive.

Before they know it, they see heaven in front of them in the form of the abandoned Crossroads Mall. At first they get a little resistance from three security guards that are hiding in the mall as well, but the group that was originally only two people and then grew added three more. The group continues to grow throughout the movie, with everyone adding another characteristic that could lead them to safety.

After hitting the roof to see a massive wave of zombies flooding towards the mall, the group noticed a man on top of the roof of a gun store. Communicating via dry erase marker boards and binoculars, they group forms a bond with the distressed gunman known as Tucker. In what is probably the best scene of the movie, Tucker picks off zombies with his sniper rifle of people with likeness to every day celebrities, all at the request of the group. I won’t say the names of the ‘zombie celebrities’ but just watch out for it.

After a few days of fighting amongst themselves and planning, they decide to do what no sane person would do: venture outside. They figure they will die in there, so why not make a run for it. They know they can’t survive on mall food and supplies forever, and they seal their own fate (whatever that turns out to be) by preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.

From my perspective it’s a great movie to bring your friends, as it will have you talking long after the credits are done rolling. 

Acting
Casting this movie must have been quite a feat. For the most part, there are names you don’t recognize. Had it been done like Oceans 11 where you have 15 huge names in the business, it could have disrupted the chemistry of the cast…or maybe it wouldn’t have.

My biggest gripe about the entire movie is you don’t get attached to too many characters. That is pretty key when you are talking about a horror movie because that alone sets apart a frightening, white knuckle horror movie from a cheesy slasher flick. Maybe it was the character development, maybe it was the way the screenplay was written, I just don’t know. What I do know is the roles could have definitely been expounded upon, which would have given us a real attachment and caring for the characters if and when they met an untimely demise. For some, this is a dealbreaker, distracting them from what is going on in the movie, while for others it is merely a nuisance. When you’re watching a movie, it’s almost as if you ‘pick sides’ with characters, deciding mentally whether or not you like them, and even would care if they died. That can be said for a select few in DotD, but those characters are definitely what puts the movie on their shoulders and carries it. 

Sarah Polley wasn’t a bad choice at all to play the part of Ana. Polley has been primarily in foreign films and is a relatively unknown actress, and for the most part it looks as if she’ll be keeping true to her roots for the time being. She has a couple films on tap that certainly won’t be blockbusters, but she tends to go after certain roles, not necessarily big summer blockbusters. The first 10 minutes make the movie, and it’s all about Ana here. She is very believable in the way she acts when she realizes the little girl next door just ate her husband and how she reacts to the horrors that await her outside the ‘security’ of her home. I’m pretty pleased with the selection of the main character here, only because I think if they went for someone that was already shaking Hollywood (ie: Charlize Theron, Angelina Jolie, etc.) it would have distracted people too much at a time when the writing of the first few scenes is setting up the entire movie. At the same time, she maybe have been too brave in a film where just about everyone seems like they have a little fear but not enough to hit home. Horror movies need people that are afraid to die, especially the main characters. They could have developed her a bit better I think if she wasn’t as take charge as they made her. There are plenty of people with that attitude in the film already.

Ving Rhames is the perfect person to play the role of Kenneth. In the original, Ken Foree plays the role of Peter Washington, and is a relatively average sized cop. When the world goes to shit, there is nothing more comforting than having a massive physically imposing gun wielding cop by your side. There wasn’t much sense of comfort in the original, but you get an instant sense of that with Rhames. Maybe that’s a bad thing for some people, since the object of a horror movie isn’t to make you feel comfortable, but his character is definitely one that you are worried about and form a connection with. He’s not afraid of what is going on and has a very take charge attitude that brings out the best in everyone, giving them a fighting chance against an entire world of zombies.

When I first saw the preview in theaters I instantly wondered who would play Flyboy. That role seems filled with Jake Weber as Michael, and I can’t say that I can complain too much about it. For the most part he’s the brains of the entire group, especially in the assembly of their transportation to the promise land. He’s a keeper and definitely one of my favorite characters in the film, only because of his strong acting and remarkable resemblance to the original Flyboy. Emotionally he’s very strong and level headed, using logic to determine what event should be left up to them and how they will go about doing them. He’s a bit overshadowed by the almost overbearing character created by the writers of Ana, but he definitely has his moments where he shines brighter than her.

I had no idea what to expect when I learned that Mekhi Phifer would be in the film. He’s one of the younger actors in the film and I like that added dimension. As far as his character goes there is a lot left to be desired. It’s not his fault, he didn’t write the part, but I felt zero connection to him at all and I got the same from my friends that I went to the movie with. His acting is believable, but bad writing always overshadows great acting, not matter how good it is. He plays the role of Andre, who is a highly protective boyfriend of a Russian woman who is about to become the mother of his child. He dotes on her left and right, as a good father to be should, but his character development is atrocious.

Michael Kelly plays the role of CJ to a T. He is takes on the part of head of mall security and orders people around left and right (since when did mall security get handguns?). He’s wonderful in that you hate him instantly, and just as quickly are rooting for him. These are the characters we love, the ones that throw us into a range of emotions and get us feeling, and he does just that. His part was written beautifully and he executed just perfectly. His biting sarcasm and Darwinistic Survival of the Fittest attitude initially makes us want to feed him to the zombies and go on our way…but that changes, and definitely for the benefit of the movie and its viewers.

Cameos are sometimes the best part of any movie, wondering if you will catch any or if you’ll have to have them pointed out to you. The three cameos in this one were done in a way that had diehard original DotD fans smirking as if they knew were little kids and knew what they were getting for Christmas. The best and probably most noticeable is that of gore makeup god Tom Savini who was a biker in the original. You probably have seen him if you’ve seen the trailer on TV as the sheriff giving an interview to a reporter. His part isn’t that long, but he’s pretty memorable regardless. The next most noticeable one is definitely Ken Foree who shows up as a televangelist trying to explain what is going on in the world and what could be the source. Scott Reiniger has an equally small but fitting part as the general. 

Directing
Dawn of the Dead equals George A. Romero, right? Of course it does. But Zack Snyder is onto something, and could quickly turn into the premier horror film director if he stays the course.

What should also be noted is that George Romero is looking for a way to do a fourth installment in the Dead series ( Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead), which is tentatively being called ‘Dead Reckoning’. The script is already written, he’s just trying to get it picked up. If it doesn’t, he should consider doing it on his own, similar to what Mel Gibson did with The Passion of the Christ. The number of $40 million to produce it the way he wants it and the way it needs to be done has been flying around. Hopefully he’ll get the backing of other big time directors and producers, and pull this thing off the ground.  

The main thing Romero fans are glowing about is the fact that Snyder tried to shy away from CGI, to keep it more ‘real’. We applaud the silent homage to the great Romero and couldn’t be happier. The beginning sequence with Ana leaving her house in the car is fantastic, opting for an aerial view of the town and outskirts, showing all of the horror that is going on in one widespread camera view. The camera isn’t herky-jerky, it’s smooth and sudden. When it moves, you know it’s going to stop right where it needs to, giving the viewer no reason to reach for the Dramamine.  

The first thing people notice is that the zombies are hella fast. Carl Lewis in his prime couldn’t keep up with them, and they never get tired. Some people say this is ripping off ’28 Days Later’, calling this film ’29 Days Later’, and I don’t doubt that filmed influenced this project; however, times are changing, and the slow zombie walk worked 25 years ago and frightened people then. This is a fresh look at zombies today, doing things they normally don’t do, and it’s actually quite amusing. Thank God it stopped short of them learning how to do drive. 

The makeup is better than the original, but sometimes people opt for the cheesy effects. Don’t worry, there is more than your fair share of those, and one in particular I won’t talk about. To the common viewer that hasn’t seen the original or followed the series since the beginning, it isn’t a major spoil, and this review is geared towards everyone, but my fellow diehards would feed me to the undead if I let this one out of the bag. 

One of the best aspects (aside from the cameos) of the film is the true reality of it. In the original, the sporting goods store has a giant selection of guns, while Snyder opts to give the movie more credibility by placing a gun store across the street from the mall. Things like this may go unseen by thousands of viewers, but the diehards are happy to see small things like this. Sometimes it can make or break a film, especially one that had the hype this one did. Not only that, but Snyder stayed true to Romero’s adamant feeling that he shouldn’t explain how the plague came to be, which added to Romero’s. Diehards would be calling for Snyder’s head if he went to any length of explaining it. 

I can’t express how pleased I am with Snyder in his directorial debut. I’m looking forward to seeing his next project.

Final Thoughts
The original Dawn of the Dead was in theaters 2 years before I was even born. Regardless, I’ve seen the original countless times and it will have a special place in my heart for years to come. This remake/homage to the widely loved cult classic kicks the bar up a notch as far as new age horror is concerned. The directing makes this movie what it is, and it’s a great one at that.

Final Ratings
I had to throw out two ratings on this one, only because it is very different depending what your history with the movie and/or series is. I’ve heard everything from people that have no prior knowledge about the original or the Dead series giving it a 2 up to a 5, so I went right for the 3.5 average. 

3.5 Planets out of 5 if you are the casual viewer (ie: not a diehard fan) 

4 Planets out of 5 if you are a diehard fan

HYNDSY Rating: 3.5 or 4 out of 5 Planets


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