Dawn of the Dead (2004)

When Dawn of the Dead came out I avoided it like the plague. I really didn’t think it could be any good; remakes in general are usually never worth your time and even though I hadn’t seen George Romero’s original at the time I knew there would be no way that a remake by a then no-name director would be able to hold a candle to the original. Turns out Zack Snyder and James Gunn had the same thoughts as I did.

The remake of Dawn of the Dead is as different from the original as it could possibly be. Snyder and Gunn took the idea of the zombie plague and survivors trapped in the mall and changed everything they could to pay a gentle homage to Romero without being caught in the trap of having to do a literal remake.

In this remake the rules are slightly different than Romero’s; in Romero’s zombie infested world there are several things that remain constant – people are fighting against the undead and the zombie’s populace. For Snyder’s remake no help might be somewhere but it is not an available presence. However, the most memorable change is the zombies.

The Dead trilogy has a very specific style of zombie; when you are bitten it takes days to change, and when you do you are a slow, lumbering, brainless beast. From the first sighting of a zombie in this film the difference is evident – victims are changed as soon as they release their last breath and they are vicious. These are not zombies that will slowly make their way to you and try to tear you apart, these zombies are lighting fast, brutally strong and completely savage. Changing the zombies changes the tone and feel of the piece, taking it from a remake into a film that could have been given a different name and the avid Romero fan would have simply recognized the film as an homage.

What I did love is that Gunn and Snyder take the time to pay homage to Romero. The mall is obviously an homage to the original Dawn of the Dead, to pay tribute to Night of the Living Dead the first zombie that is seen is a little girl and to in reference to Day of the Dead the survivors want to escape to an island where they hope the undead won’t have reached. There are a great deal more subtle nudges to the original films, but these were by far my favorites.

Having seen what is considered Snyder’s first major film it is easy to see that he is capable of much more than comic book adaptations. The man does have a style of his own and it is a very fun one. I just want him to start working with completely original material because he is quickly going to becoming the man who does movies based on graphic novels.

Director: Zack Snyder
Writer: James Gunn
Ana: Sarah Polley
Kenneth: Ving Rhames
Michael: Jake Webber
Andre: Mekhi Phifer
Steve: Ty Burrell
CJ: Michael Kelly
Terry: Kevin Zegers
Bart: Michael Barry
Nicole: Lindy Booth
Norma: Jayne Eastwood
Tucker: Boyd Banks
Luda: Inna Korobkina

Kenneth: Is everyone there dead?
Steve: Well, dead-ish.
Kenneth: Is everyone there dead?
Steve: Yeah, in the sense that they all sort of, uh... fell down... and then got up... and started eating each other.

Dawn of the Dead image from Art of the Title.

Coming Soon: a little behind

Life is catching up with me right now and I am a little behind on my posts. Here's what you have to look forward being reviewed when I catch up.

Day of the Dead

I have now completed the original Dead trilogy with Day of the Dead. My opinion is really mixed on this film because there are some things I really enjoyed about it and some things that kind of disappointed me with it.

Day of the Dead does take place well into the zombie epidemic and there are very few living persons still out and about; basically, people are in shelters or the dead walking the earth. Sarah and a team of scientists are in a shelter with a military team; along with seeking out survivors the scientists are doing research on the epidemic. However, while Sarah wants to find a cure Dr. Logan (a.k.a. – Frankenstein) wants to find a way to control them, and the soldiers merely want to flee. As such the soldiers and the scientists cannot get along and the already tense atmosphere in the shelter begins to rip itself apart until of course the zombies become an even bigger threat once again.

I think where my main issue with the film comes in is that the mere concept of Day of the Dead lends itself to so much possibilities with subtext about science vs. instinct, government vs. citizens, control and power, etc. and yet in Day of the Dead very little is done to explore this merely because it is the surface of the film – you already have a very obvious two groups of people each struggling for power over the situation and beyond the actual trappings of the story there is no way to delve deeper in that than what is shown. The soldiers are obviously bad and the scientists and citizens are obviously good. All the cards are on the table for you and you don’t even have to look at your hand to know what is in it.

It simply makes me sad because of the four Dead films I’ve seen three have very rich, era-transcending subtext and yet Day of the Dead lacks that same finesse. I’ve been told the subtext is about the Regan era military/government but that again strikes me as upsetting because that would mean the subtext isn’t capable of being understood by an audience in any era – at least not like racism, materialism and classism can be.

What I did love was the character of Sarah. George Romero had used a strong female central to the story in Dawn of the Dead but Sarah is pulled straight out of 80’s feminism right down to her tough as nails attitude that remains unafraid of the men in the film. The only time she backs down from a stand is when one of the characters threatens to shoot her, and even then she waits until it becomes obvious that this will actually happen and not be an empty threat.

I also loved that you had a scientist that has crossed the line from research to a twisted fascination with the zombies. His experiments are macabre and inhuman yet no one feels the need to stop him because they are still bewildered by the situation.

I am torn because on one level things like Sarah make Day of the Dead a candidate for my favorite Dead film, but the lack of subtext disappoint me so much that I appreciate Dawn of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead more. Possibly my opinion of this film is colored because I have already seen Land of the Dead and this film seems like a stepping stone to get into the story in Land of the Dead where society has begun to be reestablished. I adore the subtext in Land of the Dead, characters, plot and was gloriously entertained by that film. However, I don’t think Day of the Dead should be missed.

Director & Writer: George A. Romero
Sarah: Lori Cardille
John: Terry Alexander
Capt. Rhodes: Joseph Pilato
William: Jarlath Conroy
Miguel Salazar: Anthony Dileo Jr.
Logan: Richard Liberty

Sarah: Maybe if we tried working together we could ease some of the tensions. We're all pulling in different directions.
John: That's the trouble with the world, Sarah darlin'. People got different ideas concernin' what they want out of life.

Dawn of the Dead

George Romero knows how to take a movie and make it interesting on multiple levels; he may not be revered among the greatest artists of the film cannon but I tend to think filmmakers like Romero and Wes Craven tend to be pigeon holed because of the genre in which they have found their career. Dawn of the Dead is yet another example of a film that remains socially relevant to this day and yet is a dang entertaining horror film.

I know that there are at least two cuts of Dawn of the Dead available, the European and American versions and I watched the American version; I believe the plot is basically the same but I believe the European/international version probably does not stray away from some of the gorier aspects of the film.

While Dawn of the Dead takes place in the same “world” as Night of the Living Dead I believe the two movies are meant to be in about the same timeframe despite the obvious decade jump ahead in the styling of Dawn of the Dead. The film takes place as the zombie invasion is still sweeping the nation only now the government is trying to deal with the problem albeit pretty ineffectively; cities and residences are being evacuated and people are attempting to flee to less populated areas. Stephen, Peter, Roger and Francine flee together via helicopter and decide to take refuge in an abandoned mall where they can find shelter and supplies and hopefully wait out as much of the situation as possible.

However, what Dawn of the Dead is really about is the power of the media and more importantly the obsession with materialism that drives our lives.

While I did enjoy this film it is one that screamed for a remake simply because (in my view) unlike Night of the Living Dead the style of this installment makes the film a bit more dated, and the dialogue was much more heavy handed than I would have liked. On the plus side, the film will hold up over time (as it has) simply because it is based on a universal message rather than something topical like a politics, etc. that changes with the wind.

Director & Writer: George A. Romero
Stephen: David Emge
Peter: Ken Foree
Roger: Scott H. Reiniger
Francine: Gaylen Ross

Francine Parker: They're still here.
Stephen: They're after us. They know we're still in here.
Peter: They're after the place. They don't know why, they just remember. Remember that they want to be in here.
Francine Parker: What the hell are they?
Peter: They're us, that's all, when there's no more room in hell.
Stephen: What?
Peter: Something my granddad used to tell us. You know Macumba? Voodoo. My granddad was a priest in Trinidad. He used to tell us, "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth."