Dawn of the Dead (2004)

• Year: 2004
• Released: 19 Mar 2004
• Country: United States, Canada, Japan, France
• Adwords: 1 win & 17 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363547/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/Dawn_of_the_Dead_UNRATED
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/dawn-of-the-dead
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Action, Horror
• Runtime: 101 min
• Writer: George A. Romero, James Gunn
• Director: Zack Snyder
• Cast: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Mekhi Phifer
• Keywords: duringcreditsstinger, remake, death, zombie, dog,

	7.3/10
	59/100
	76% – Critics
	77% – Audience

Dawn of the Dead Storyline

On the hottest day of the summer, a Milwaukee nurse named Ana has just gotten off work to cuddle up with her husband, not paying any attention to an emergency broadcast involving a plague that is sweeping the nation. When her next door neighbor, a little girl, wanders into her bedroom, she sinks her teeth into the neck of Ana’s husband Louis and no sooner does Luis die from blood trauma, he’s back on his feet and trying to bite Ana. Taking off in her car, Ana watches in horror as the city becomes a virtual ‘hellzone’ as people begin to feed upon people, until she crashes her vehicle. Rescued by tough lawman Kenneth, Ana and a group of other survivors decide to hide out at the local Crossroads mall where they begin to learn through news broadcasts that the plague is turning civilians into primal, carnivorous cannibals with an insatiable hunger for human flesh and the only way to take these bad boys down is by shooting them in the head (which should terminate all brain activity). The group decides to hold up at the mall until a rescue team can come back and pick them up, but problems begin to arise when the infected start making their way toward the shopping center in search of more survivors.

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Dawn of the Dead Movie Reviews

Surprisingly great remake

Dawn of the Dead is a great remake that’s funny, tense and emotional whilst also skillfully managing to stand on its own two feet. Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Michael Kelly and Ty Burrell are all great. Zack Snyder’s direction is excellent, really kinetic and visceral. The music by Tyler Bates and the soundtrack are both really good. However, it’s brought down slightly by the ending (after the credits).

Action rather than horror, but worthy remake

As a HUGE fan of the original Dawn of the Dead I was very skeptical of this remake. I wasn’t expecting an Academy Award winning blockbuster or anything, but I did want to see the remake do the original justice. I was impressed with the filming more than anything. This is an action movie rather than horror. The outdoor scenes are filmed with a grainy, hand-held camera which gave the audience the feeling of being disoriented much the same way the characters would have felt. The movie was not made in the MTV-generation style that the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake was. Dawn of the Dead stuck to the same mythology of the first without giving it a complete reimagining. I could imagine the two movies co-existing, but in different parts of the world.

One of the key differences that I did like was the idea of the zombies running. This made them come across as more menacing rather than being the slow clunkers that are seen in the original trilogy. The idea of being able to walk right past them was abandoned. I also feel that the movie did a good job of showing how quickly people would turn on one another and watch out for themselves only.

One of my favorite “realisms” of the movie is how the characters are too attached to their loved ones to shot them when they become zombies. I’m certain that many of us would react in the same manner if something like this were to actually happen (yes, I know it’s impossible). Also, it was interesting to have so many people make it to the mall instead of only four as in the original. Of course some of these characters fit the generic stereotype of a movie such as this, but I’m not surprised considering modern audiences would need such characters to maintain their interest. This was a movie made for film viewers, not film makers. We have the strong and silent male hero, the quick-thinking blond heroine, the official dumb jerk, the official slut, the young and naive girl who loses everything and needs the group’s protection, the angry challenger for group leadership who has a change of heart and becomes heroic, the young trainee who disagrees with the angry challenger yet follows due to a sense of duty, and the stupid follower who gets his comeuppence.

One aspect that was missing from this remake was the original movie’s social commentary on the commercialism of people. Ken Foree’s character of Peter mentioned this in the original whereas Ving Rhames’ Kenneth was more of a silent action hero never having much to say. This was another reason that I saw this as a simple action movie — though I will say that Rhames has more acting ability than Governor Schwarzenegger, Sly, Seagal and Van Damme combined. Rhames also LOOKS like an action hero rather than today’s prettyboy “action heroes” such as Tom Cruise, Ben Affleck, Nicolas Cage and Keanu Reeves — who all look like they couldn’t fight their way out of a cooking class for senior citizens.

All in all this movie was not better than the original and won’t be nominated for any Academy Awards, but if you’re looking for entertainment and can stomach the blood it’s worth checking out. I can’t wait to buy it on DVD someday.

A different enough remake to be a success

When I heard that this loose remake of the Romero classic was scripted by the guy who also did SCOOBY DOO, I cried. Then I went to the cinema to see for myself (no matter what reviews might say, it’s always worth checking out movies for yourself; sometimes you might be pleasantly surprised). As it stands, DAWN OF THE DEAD is an acceptable remake-cum-horror-thriller which uses the original film as a basis for the story and then moves on from there. Luckily, it’s not too similar to the ’70s classic; half the film is set in the mall and the rest is an extended chase between humans and zombies. The zombies here are quite good although, I have to say, I prefer the slow-moving variety to the animalistic killers in this and 28 DAYS LATER. Special effects have progressed to a grimly realistic level and the film is packed with enough grue and gore and spraying blood to please any avid horror fan.

As a plus, the film retains a grip on characterisation and deals with some fleshed-out people. The acting of the leads is great. Sarah Polley (looking uncannily like Gaylen Ross) is a strong-willed heroine, Ving Rhames is the tough, silent, kick-ass cop. Kudos to Jake Weber for his excellent turn as the group’s leader, and especially Michael Kelly, who starts off as an idiot security guard and ends up being the most heroic of them all. Fans of the original will enjoy seeing Ken Foree, Scott Reiniger and Tom Savini in brief cameos on the televisions.

I had mixed feelings about the direction, but for the most part it’s good. The last half an hour employs camera-shaking, jumpy music-style shots to depict a bus chase. I enjoyed it, but I couldn’t have put up with it for that long. There are many enjoyable and surprising moments, like the games played with Andy from the gun store, and the use of a chainsaw which ends in calamity. There’s an ambiguous ending, but if you stay and watch the credits you’ll see that things become a lot more downbeat. Special effects of the decaying, mutilated zombies are disturbingly real and there are some automobile accidents that’ll have you watching with your mouth open. Watch out for the zombies being crushed and mown down by trucks, some of my favourite moments. Particularly good is the first ten minutes, which puts across the hopelessness of the sudden destruction of society in a way I found to be particularly frightening. Strong horror entertainment, hopefully we’ll see more like this.