Surprising!

Rating: 7/10 (28 March 2004)

Im not a massive fan of remakes (The Blob and Psycho anyone?). I avoided The Texas Chainsaw Masacre like the plague because the original is one of my favourite horror movies and dont even get me started on The Italian Job. Dont ask me why i went to see this one. The original Dawn of The Dead, even though it was overly long, was still a damn good film! I guess i was curious and i had heard good things about it (unlike Chainsaw).
After watching it i can conclude that other than the fact that it's set in a shopping mall this is a very different beast to the original. There's more characters, more action and the Zombies are a hellovalot more scary! This is a cross between the original and 28 Days Later (which was also a damn good film). The fact that the Zombies can now run makes it more believable that they can take over the planet. They're just so relentless.
The opening ten minutes of this film are possibly the most disturbing i have ever seen. i cant explain why just see the movie and find out.

Like the original though this movie starts to drag in the middle. Although there are the odd moments that are disturbing or disgusting (or both, the Zombie baby is not a pleasent experience) that keep your attention until the final act, which ditches the horror aspect for all out action.
This is where the movies major flaw lies as the end half hour is a mission to make you feel sick and its not because of the gore. Every shot is handheld and after the first five minutes you'll be craving for a break or attempting to keep you pop-corn in. It is very dissorientating and is only for people that dont suffer from motion sickness.
The end of this movie does leave it open for a Day of The Dead remake to follow but how it will be done i dont know. As with every remake these days this is the very definition of the term "re-imagining" and if you're expecting the original walk away coz this is a totally different film and a damn good one at that.
4/5