Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Dawn Of The Dead
by Ryan Ellis
March 23, 2004

A quarter of a century later and they've finally remade George Romero's walking-dead fright flick, 'Dawn Of The Dead'. That movie was itself a sequel to Romero's benchmark zombie scare-fest, 'Night Of The Living Dead'. The flesh-eating ghouls have been given an overhaul by the new movie's screenwriter and director (James Gunn and Zack Snyder, respectively). The bad guys have become more aggressive and they can even run. In the past, we were sufficiently scared by their shambling spectre of doom. They were taking their unholy time about it, but the zombies were coming to eat you. Getting away to safety for a while only made it more excruciating. Running zombies, huh? Was it not more effective and horrifying to reduce them to shuffling imbeciles, as in past movies about such undead types? I suppose '28 Days Later' upped the ante with its rabidly aggressive zombies and 'Dawn Of The Dead' had to follow suit.

Strange that the stacked deck doesn't make this movie as frightening as what Romero gave us. Maybe Snyder (in his filmmaking debut) never intended to elicit shocks as much as he wanted to rev our hearts with the sort of balls-out action you'd see in 'Aliens'. This is more an action movie than anything else...complete with scares, laughs, and thrills. Gunn (who wrote 'Scooby-Doo' and its upcoming sequel, but that shouldn't be held against him) doesn't find a way to explain this resurrection phenomenon any better than Romero did, although we get a direct lift from the '79 film in the form of the delicious quote: "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth." One of the stars of Romero's 'Dawn Of The Dead' even gets to deliver that line with great relish. Still, you have to say, "Huh?" I guess it would slow the pace if they spent 5 minutes explaining why this epidemic is happening. If the movie is directed and acted with enough craft, you won't spend too much time furrowing your brow about how ludicrous the story really is.

Then again, why DO children and other such virtuous types have to face the same kind of brutal punishment as everyone else? A film like this leaves no way out for anyone, which hardly seems fair. I wouldn't mind seeing a movie about the undead who know by instinct which people deserve to die and which don't, brainy enough to pass up nibbling on the little girls & boys while happily lunching on bonafide sinners. The subtext of how mankind is destined to destroy itself and that animals will rule the earth again is still prescient in 2004. The zombies don't look twice at a dog who plays a major part in the last half of this movie. Are films such as these always intending to play off that notion? We've fucked this planet up so badly that a catastrophic plague is gonna take us all out and, what's more, we'll deserve every hellish bit of it? Maybe so.

There's a little of the Book of Revelation in this story too, although zombie films don't promise that good people won't have to suffer in the afterlife the way the Bible does. Nope, the righteous are coming back to life as blood-thirsty savages too. Movie subtext is often pretty heavy stuff. In teen slasher movies, you will be sliced & diced if you dare to get laid or do drugs. In sci-fi, it's often about how you shouldn't tamper with Mother Nature or she'll bite back. And in zombie movies, there's no escape for anyone. Either you die by your own hand or you die by theirs...and then you become a mindless monster. 'Dawn Of The Dead' isn't oppressive, but the underlying theme sure is. Perhaps that could have been played up better by the filmmakers, who chose to focus on run-n-gun action. No problem, the movie works. It's not as strong as the film that shares its name, but go see this new version anyway. You'll have fun. Just remember: don't ever let them bite you and shoot them in the head to put them out of their frenzied misery.

You're probably saying, "I didn't decide to read this review to hear about the 1979 movie, jackass, so get on with it." Very well...and don't call me jackass. This edition stars Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer, and Michael Kelly. Ana (Polley) has to bust her way out of the house when her fella is attacked and killed by a little girl zombie right in their bedroom. "Isn't that cute, honey? She's snarling and frothing at the mouth! Ow, now she's got my jugular!" [My quote, not the movie's.] After that tension-filled prelude, Ana meets up with policeman Kenneth (Rhames) and 3 other survivors (including Phifer and Weber). They do as the characters did in 1979---head for the mall. They meet three gung-ho wannabe cops who've already established HQ in the electronics store---my kind of guys---and don't take kindly to outsiders. CJ (Kelly) has a power struggle with the newcomers when a half-dozen more desperate people burn rubber to find sanctuary inside the mall. Life continues. Some live, some die, some "zombie up", some don't.

One of the major changes in this remake is the lack of satire. We don't get to enjoy a crowd of lurching humanoids blunder through a shopping mall. It worked over 25 years ago and it's certainly an issue ripe for ridicule today, but the zombies are mostly kept outside. I guess the new breed of ghouls' being faster and craftier means that letting them into the building would indeed end the movie in a big damn hurry. In fact, things grind to a halt when it seems the survivors have matters under control. Rhames delivers a speech of "it's your funeral" proportions, claiming that he'd rather leave the fortified mall and take his chances to get to someplace else. Ah, someplace else, how we missed you. Really, folks, it's weak writing to cover the fact that they really don't have any reason to leave. Their escape is exciting, though, and I felt more genuine apprehension for them in the climax than at any point in the movie. I figured that if this movie had the strength of its convictions, they all could die before they ever get to the marina (which is where they're going in the hope that they can take a boat to a secluded island).

You don't pay your dollars to see Merchant-Ivory acting in this kind of pic, but the cast has nothing to be ashamed of. Nevertheless, you look at an indie gal of Sarah Polley's calibre and wonder what she's doing in this movie. Apart from having grown into quite a sexy young woman, she was okay in this role. Besides, working for Atom Egoyan can't possibly fatten her purse as much as headlining this flick will. Rhames, that supercool badass, looks like he could annihilate the zombies by himself. As much as I've liked watching him play a ferocious tough guy over the years (who could forget his Marcellus in 'Pulp Fiction'?), he really doesn't do anything different here than he usually does in "serious Ving" mode. I enjoyed the rock-solid Jake Weber (a Tim Roth-alike, who's been in many movies I've seen and I don't remember him in a single one of them) and Ty Burrell (who's full of sarcastic wise-cracks; basically the me of this gang). Mekhi Phifer gets to play some nice moments of pathos, leading to an inevitable conclusion for his heartfelt character.

If you're thinking that zombie guts and exploding body parts aren't for you, hey, don't buy tickets for 'Dawn Of The Dead'. The blood and gore factory up here in Ontario must have been completely drained of their supplies when they shot this movie last summer. However, I saw 'Taking Lives' on the same day, and its graphic photos of mangled corpses are probably more disgusting than the silly carnage in 'Dawn Of The Dead'. And that was something I expected from a modern zombie movie---severe gross-out gags. Sure, there are plenty of shootings and stabbings and chainsawings and burnings and gnawings and all that, but you have to take that in stride. I remember being unable to eat macaroni for a month after seeing the original, but the ol' Michelina's frozen pasta will indeed get nuked for lunch tomorrow. I've grown up and, apparently, so have zombie movies.

Last word: Stay in your seat during the end credits because there's more plot to come!

To contact me with good words or bad, write to flickershows@hotmail.com. And check out my website at http://groups.msn.com/TheMovieFiend.

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