Dawn Of The Dead (2004) Movie Information:

Dawn Of The Dead (2004) Directed by: Zack Snyder Dawn Of The Dead (2004) Written by: James Gunn Dawn Of The Dead (2004) Cast: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer, Ty Burrell, Michael Kelly, Kevin Zegers, Michael Barry, Lindy Booth, Jayne Eastwood

Dawn Of The Dead (2004) U.S. Distributor: Universal Pictures Dawn Of The Dead (2004) U.K. Distributor: Entertainment

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Dawn Of The Dead (2004) Synopsis:

A re-envisioning of George Romero's apocalyptic horror classic, "Dawn of the Dead": An unexplained plague has decimated the world's population--and yet, the dead aren't dying. They've become zombies, stalking endlessly in a quest to feed on the flesh and blood of the few remaining living. A ragtag group of desperate survivors in a Wisconsin town seek refuge in a large indoor mall, where they must learn not only to protect themselves from the ever-increasing zombie horde, but also to co-exist with each other as a last bastion of humanity. Sealed off from the rest of what used to be the world, the group uses every available resource, in their against-all-odds fight, to remain alive and human.

Dawn Of The Dead (2004) Movie Review:

One of the recent Hollywood trends is to “re-envision,” not remake, a classic cult horror film for the new generation of moviegoers. The latest entry in this “re-envision” movement is Dawn of the Dead, based off George A. Romero’s 1979 original zombie chiller. Close to the film’s only strength, is the shot selection by first time feature director Zach Snyder. Unfortunately, Dawn of the Dead’s numerous inconsistencies and brusque problems has this film coming nowhere close to being a classic “zombie” flick.

The hinted unleashing of the film’s zombies comes that when hell fills up, the dead will walk the earth. The flesh-hungry zombies move chaotically quick (like the zombies in 28 Days Later) in a raged mode and once a being is bitten, shortly they will join the zombie clan. The film’s first zombies appear in pursuit of a dedicated nurse named Ana (Sarah Polley) in her suburban Wisconsin home. After narrowly escaping her suburb and the apocalyptic chaos of the city, she teams up with a handful of human survivors. The group includes a hard-nosed cop (Ving Rhames), a salesman that continuously comes up with problem-solving ideas (Jake Weber), a street-wise soon to be dad (Mekhi Phifer), and his pregnant wife. The group make their way into an abandoned shopping mall and discover human conflicts from the mall’s security unit headed by CJ (Michael Kelly). The mall is put on lockdown as the survivors attempt to figure out what has happened and what does the future hold. The zombies themselves are huddled around the mall by the thousands and through the last minutes of emergency television broadcasting, the survivors learn that the zombies can only be killed by a shot to the head or fire. After a few more survivors arrive, the group has to fight off occasional zombies that squander into the mall as well as battle zombie transformations among themselves after being bitten. Though disagreement and continuos arguing comprises the survivors, each is driven to cherish their humanity and implement a basis of subsistence if they want to remain alive.

This film is of course driven by continuos jump out moments and gallons of blood and chunky gore. The zombies themselves make roaring sounds as if they are werewolves more than are the undead. As mentioned previously, this film’s zombie movements are reminiscent of Danny Boyle’s athletic and extremely fast choices in 28 Days Later. Director Zack Snyder shows flashes of promise, but the overabuance of inconsistencies and amateurish moments stoops this film down to the depths of monstrous. The editing is really appalling and the script does not fare much better. At first it seems that five seconds after being bitten or dying, that person becomes a zombie. As the film progresses, it seems that the bitten become zombies once the film needs them to be, or if there has been over five minutes without a shot involving gore or blood. One obvious inconsistency is that though the mall is lockdowned by the security unit, Ana and the survivors entrance is never shown. Also, after a initial defeat of many zombies in the mall’s open parking garage, the humans just go back into the garage to build their artillery buses without seeing a single zombie, though thousands are banging on the mall’s outer doors. These are really just nit-picky things that stick out, besides the insipid notions in the screenplay by James Gunn. There is also no balance of being serious or “campy,” with this horror film, it seems that the script goes back and forth. Humorously, some of the dead serious notions deliver the film’s worse dialogue, such as Sarah Polley’s line of “Michael is coming to kill you,” to one of the bitten survivors.

Mostly an independent film actress, Polley herself is suitable as the film’s heroine nurse Ana. Ving Rhames delivers a performance we have seen before, but is still admirable. Most of the cast as well as the characters are wooden, but for a film of this nature, acting is not the top priority. In fact, it is better to have flimsy acting in a zombie film.

Though not as terrible as other recent horror films like Freddy vs. Jason or Jeepers Creepers 2, Dawn of the Dead is still nothing close to pertinent as film of this genre. It seems if the film would have had a little more balance of cheese and serious notions, and a lot more consistency, it could have been a cult classic or at least a fun guilty pleasure.

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Dawn Of The Dead (2004) review written by: Bailey Henderson