Dawn of the Dead (2004)

DAWN OF THE DEAD
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Ana Clark (Sarah Polley, "My Life Without Me") gets home late one day after a grueling shift in the ER. She leaves just as some mysterious cases are coming in, turns the radio dial away from a news report in her car and misses a television news alert while spending some time with her husband. When she awakens the next day she is unprepared for a world gone mad in a reimagining of the 1978 George Romero classic, "Dawn of the Dead."

Remaking a classic is always a risky venture, but award winning commercial director Jack Snyder shows a love of the horror genre with a sure footed debut featuring a classy cast. Last year's "28 Days Later" was a popular updating of the zombie genre, but not particularly scary. 2004's "Dawn of the Dead" delivers the entire package, gripping you by the throat before the opening credits have run and never letting go.

When the alarm rings, Ana and her husband see the weird sight of a neighbor's child standing in in their bedroom doorway in her nightgown. Within seconds, Ana is trying to save her husband's life after his throat is ripped open, then her own when he turns on her. Scrambling out of an upstairs bedroom window, Ana find her neighborhood engulfed in chaos, gets into her car and flees in sheer terror. She avoids a highway assault on her vehicle, but flies off the road and crashes. She awakens to a high-powered assault rifle being held by Kenneth (Ving Rhames, "Pulp Fiction"), a police officer who demands 'Say something.'

This is the harrowing introduction to the apocalypse. The duo come across three more survivors who have decided to head to the Crossroads Mall. The psychological game of survival tactics begins when they meet C.J. (Michael Kelly, "Black Hawk Down"), a security guard supervisor with a chip on his shoulder. Group dynamics become more complex when a truck driven by Norma (Jayne Eastwood, "Welcome to Mooseport") unloads additional living, including the first bite victims to become undead within their midst. A combination of television news reports from around the globe (featuring a cameo from makeup artist Tom Savini, an alumni of the original film, as the county sheriff) and Ana's medical observations inform the group that the bite of an infected will cause death before reanimating the victim to further spread the disease.

Snyder and screenplay adapter James Gunn ("Tromeo & Juliet") wisely focus on the horror elements, but do allow some black humor to slide into the mix. Kenneth sits on the roof communicating via whiteboard and binoculars with Andy, the proprietor of Andy's Gun World across the mall's parking lot. The duo play long-distance chess (with Kenneth using a Battle of the Alamo chess set) and a game of celebrity sniper (Kenneth holds up names of celebrities and sharpshooter Andy picks off the lookalike zombie). One of the original five, Luda (Inna Korobkina, "The Ladies Man"), is in an advanced stage of pregnancy that just bodes bad news and when it is delivered it is both shocking and tongue-in-cheek tip-of-the-hat to the genre. Soundtrack numbers are cheekily chosen from "All by Myself" for Andre's initial solo check of lower mall space to "People Who Died" over the film's closing credits. Yet the power of the film is in its sheer horror. The film is full of zombie confrontations and all induce heart thumping. Cinematographer Matthew F. Leonetti's ("The Butterfly Effect") overhead shots are used sparingly and edited into the whole with a devastating build, from Ana's car driving into her cookie cutter neighborhood when all is still seemingly well to escape vehicles engulfed in an ocean of undead.

This type of film requires a cast full of 'types,' but they're mostly relegated to support - the original group of five feature four performances which raise "Dawn of the Dead" to the very top of the horror heap. Polley is a strong survivor who retains her humanity. Rhames is the strong silent type who shows a sense of humor with his rooftop bonding. Jake Weber ("Wendigo") is a big plus as Michael, a failed husband who scraped a living from one low-paying job to the next, who shows his true colors under crisis. Polley and Weber have lovely, quiet chemistry together. Mekhi Phifer ("Honey") adds another level of human experience and reaction as a former street thug trying to do right by his expectant Russian bride.

"Dawn of the Dead" is chilling in its explorations of the horrors that can spring from a genericized world. It's an instant classic.

A-

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X-RT-RatingText: A-