Dawn of the what?

Rating: Null/10 (27 March 2004)

Yesterday I went to watch Dawn 04 with high hopes after reading good things about the movie. After watching it the first time I must say I was dissapoited with the film. Now I like funny movies and won't hesitate to pay to watch one but I am against calling a comedy "Dawn of the dead" as a comedy horror is what this film really is. Ok, some people say the the new Dawn film was not ment to emulate the original and indeed they haven't done so. For this reason alone it doesn't deserve the title it has got.

In case you have forgotten, the original Dawn is generally classed by most people as one of the greatest horor movies of all times and certainly the best zombie flick by quite a margin. The title of "Dawn of the daed" alarmed not only myself, but many other fanatical zombie fans around the world and indeed we were so excited to see some real Romero style zombie action. True zombie fans have been hungry for a zombie flick to rival Romero's classics for quite some time but sadly our hunger continues and probably always will.
Now I am not saying this is a poor movie as it's actually entertaining. However people with high amounts of zombie knowledge will know this film doesn't do any justice to the title. The frightening thing about the original movie was not only the creepy atmosphere, it was what one had to suffer when captured by zombies. Peoples body's were ripped open and the bites and gore were extremely graphic and disturbing which is surely the whole point of making a good zombie film. Sadly, the new Dawn film doesn't have the same feel and it certainly doesn't show enough gore and graphic detail when people are captured.
When people are caught in the new movie you barely see a bite and they are simply dragged to the floor before you hear screaming. This is simply not acceptable to true zombie fans and this fact alone is a huge dissapointment. Furthermore, they have relied much on comedy to compensate the lack of horror and disturbing scenes which i found extremely insulting to George Romero and zombie fanatics. On the good side, it has some nail biting moments and some tense scenes that will have you on the edge of your seat for short moments.
Go and see the film and expect a thrill and a good giggle. It's more like a comical version of 28 days later however these zombies do infact try to eat people rather than puke on them, even though you don't really see it. Sadly, Dawn of the dead this will never be despite what it is called and this is actually very sad for fanatical zombie fans considering the title of the movie and what we all expected.