DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004)
Striek Entertainment / New Amsterdam Entertainment / Universal Pictures
Rating: USA: R |
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It’s confusing, I know. There’s lots of movies with “Dead” in
the title and lots of zombie movies. Unless you’re a fan of the genre
it’s easy for people to get them mixed up. So let me make this really
clear. The three movies that matter are NIGHT
OF THE LIVING DEAD - 1968, DAWN OF
THE DEAD - 1978, and DAY OF THE DEAD - 1985 (the last one, DAY OF THE DEAD, is one of
my all time favorite horror movies).
A remake of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD came out in 1990 and was nothing special.
It didn’t suck like Tim Burton’s re-imagining of PLANET
OF THE APES but it didn’t really add anything either. Other than
being in color it didn’t stray much from the original story. If you’re
going to re-make a movie – especially a really good movie –
you’ve got to have a new twist.
Which brings
me to DAWN OF THE DEAD. The 2004 remake was directed by Zack Snyder and
written by James Gunn (TERROR FIRMER, TROMEO AND JULIET, SCOOBY-DOO). The movie opens in suburban Wisconsin. Ana
(Sarah Polley: eXistenZ)
is a nurse, finishing a long shift at the hospital. There’s just
a tiny hint here and there that something is wrong, like the patient who
came in with a bite from a bar fight and is now unconscious and what sounds
like a news bulletin on the radio that Ana skims past, looking for music.
She gets home, says hello to the little neighbor girl and she and her husband jump
in the shower together, thus missing a news bulletin on the TV. The next
morning…
Okay, enough with the suspense. This is a damn good movie. What happens next is a roller
coaster ride to hell. Ana wakes up to find the whole world coming apart.
As you probably saw in the commercials the zombies here are not the slow,
shambling monsters from the original. They have a horrible vitality and
they move! Running and snarling, eager for your flesh.
Ana and
a variety of survivors make it to the local mall (still locked up – it’s barely 7 in the morning) and here they
hide. The walking dead crowd around outside waiting for a chance to get
in. The survivors wait for help, the government, somebody.
Each person handles the situation (or ignores it) in their own way.
Kenneth the cop (Ving Rhames: JACOB'S LADDER, BRINGING OUT THE DEAD, FINAL
FANTASY),
Andre (Mekhi Phifer: IMPOSTOR)
and his very pregnant girlfriend Luda (Inna Korobkina),
the always reasonable Michael (Jake Weber: THE
CELL),
sarcastic asshole Steve (Ty Burrell: EVOLUTION)
and chief mall security guard CJ (Michael Kelly: UNBREAKABLE) all come across
as very believable people desperately trying to find a way to deal with
it all.
One other
character worth mentioning is Frank. This cameo by Matt Frewer (TAKEN
[TV], LAWNMOWER MAN 2, the one and only MAX HEADROOM himself) is
sad and brief because Frank and his daughter Nicole (Lindy
Booth: WRONG TURN) arrive
just as the group has learned that being bitten by a zombie is quickly
fatal. Frank was bitten.
Other cameos of note include three actors from the original. Scott H. Reiniger (DAWN
OF THE DEAD) and Ken Foree (DAWN
OF THE DEAD, FROM BEYOND),
who were two of the central characters of the original movie, appear on
TV as an Army General and a priest, respectively. It’s fan favorite
Ken Foree who gets to deliver the movie’s tagline: “When
there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth.”
Also seen
on TV (before all stations go off the air)
is a local sheriff who tells everyone to, “Shoot them in the head.”
The sheriff is special effects expert Tom Savini (FRIDAY
THE 13TH, CREEPSHOW 2, INNOCENT BLOOD, FROM
DUSK TIL DAWN), who was also
in the original film.
I’ve seen a few people on the Net make disparaging comparisons between this
movie and 28 DAYS LATER, implying that DAWN OF THE DEAD - 2004 is somehow a rip-off of or was inspired by 28
DAYS LATER. Setting aside the fact that this is a remake of a movie
from 1978 and that 28 DAYS LATER was a plague movie, not a zombie movie
(the creatures in 28 DAYS LATER were infected but
alive – not the walking dead), I will concede that there were
a few shaky, handheld camera type moments that did remind me of 28 DAYS LATER. A minor point.
I’ve
also seen complaints that this film didn’t do the same “send
up” of consumerism as the original. This refers to the most famous
scene from the 1978 version, where a group of zombies manage to get inside
the mall and they’re shown wandering around while that ridiculous,
light-hearted mall muzak plays in the background. Most everyone who ever
reviewed the original points to this scene as Romero’s commentary
on “mindless consumers.” Very insightful but very wrong. The
fact is when Romero was filming that scene the mall’s recorded muzak
came on automatically and no one knew how to turn it off. It wasn’t
planned at all.
The walking dead: Sounds like fantasy but I believe I can work in a
!!!SCIENCE MOMENT!!!:
One of the very cool things about the original three movies is that, in
spite of a lot of scientific hand waving, they never figure out exactly
why this is happening. A virus? A vengeful God? Alien Space Bats? It just
happens and people have to deal with it.
Continued at SCIENCE
MOMENT/DawnoftheDead - 2004.
That's my only quibble. This is a well-done horror flick with a talented cast and
never a dull moment. It feels almost too real, in a way. It feels like
you're really watching the end of the world. I give DAWN OF THE DEAD - 2004 four shriek girls.
This review copyright 2004 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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