Shop til you drop...then have some lunch....

Rating: 8/10 (21 March 2004)

Take a song and remake it, but don't just follow the original note for note. Make it your own. I think this new version of DotD has succeeded in doing just that, and what a lovely song it is. The zombie genre is my absolute favorite type of horror movie and I'm a big fan of the original trilogy (especially #1 - the best horror movie ever made, imo). I don't think this remake is a disappointment at all. It's excellent!!
I've read comments about the movie's lack of plot. I think the plot is very clear, actually. The dead are coming to eat us!!! What more does one need? Seriously - if I may be so whilst discussing a zombie horror movie - I think DotD told it's story quite well. There are unanswered questions because that's the way it's supposed to be. We don't know how this plague of zombies came to be and we never will. What we are left with is the affect on the living and how the living copes with their predicament. Not everything in life - or unlife as it were - is clear cut. It can be unsatisfying and unsettling and that's just that. No happy ending, no ending period. Just trying to make it because that's what we do. The living are running on instinct just as much as the undead here.
I found the soundtrack to be very clever and integral. Really brilliant song choices. For example, I laughed with glee when I heard the Muzak strains of "Don't Worry Be Happy". Then in the next moment appreciated the irony. I don't imagine much joy under the circumstances. The music conjured up such contradiction throughout the movie, and/or in some cases took on a whole new meaning, and really lent itself to the overall mood.
Just sit right back...and enjoy and scream and laugh!!! Suspend belief (it's make-believe, after all....but I STILL think it really could happen!! *snarf*) Good characters, good acting, great special effects. It's also chock full of symbolism if one chooses to zero in on it. I don't worry that this isn't a faithful remake and I didn't want it to be. I'll watch the original when I want to see the original. I think this one stands on its own.