"When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth."

Dawn of the Dead (2004): 8/10

Poster (c) Universal Studios

I hate remakes, especially unnecessary ones. There's no reason for them to exist, and unless it goes into a completely new direction (kind of like a "re-imagining", like Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes), it's worthless. Yet I found myself going to see the new, ultra-violent version of George A. Romero's classic horror movie Dawn of the Dead. I haven't seen the original (the only movie of the original Dead series I've seen is the first one, Night of the Living Dead), but I can tell that the original was nowhere near as violent and gory, and probably had more social commentary than the thin layer that's in this version, but it's probably not as scary and entertaining as this version.

Ana (Sarah Polley) is forced to take refuge in the local mall after a zombie killed her husband. There, she meets up with other survivors, such as Kenneth (Ving Rhames), Michael (Jake Weber), and Andre (Mekhi Phifer). Along the way (as they have to keep the zombies out of the mall), a baby must be born, dogs have to run through hoards of zombies, and much, much more. Let the fun begin.

Dawn of the Dead could have gone terribly, terribly wrong, like it's half-cousin 28 Days Later. With all of this blood and maiming, freshman director Zack Snyder could have focused too much on making the blood sensible while still having shock value. However, Dawn is actually scary. It's not continuously scary, but many scenes were, and, unlike 28 Days, they didn't last for just five seconds. And even better (compared to other recent horror movies), all of the scares weren't either just "jump" scares, or began by that. One problem I had, though, was that so many characters became involved towards the middle that it was impossible to guess the order in which everyone would die.

There's lots to say about mindless people clamoring to get into a mall in terms of social statements. Is this what we've become? Yes it is, but this takes second podium to the buckets of blood and crazy zombie killing. I don't really consider myself a gorehound, but I expect that when people get killed, there's blood (re: Halloween), but, obviously, this movie is not realistic. This is what a horror movie should be: scary, bloody, funny, and filled with Ving Rhames.

I do have a few qualms with this movie, though. First, I found it annoying how the camera switched from film to handheld, making no connection between the two and making it hard to watch at times. Second, random characters just jump in at inconsequential times. Lastly, it loses track of where it's going towards the third act, but other than that, I would call Dawn of the Dead one of the best horror movies of this millennium so far.

Rated R for pervasive strong horror violence and gore, language and sexuality.

Review Date: April 4, 2004