Much better than I expected

Rating: Null/10 (11 June 2004)

After the poor "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" remake, I didn't really dare to expect much from this film. In addition, Romero's original is one of the best horror films ever made, so how could any remake hope to come close to matching that?
Well, the answer is, of course, that it simply cannot be done. So director Snyder does the only right thing instead: he doesn't even try. Dawn of the Dead '04 is based only loosely on the original, and it's ditched all the criticism of commercialism and discussions of racism and ignorance from the original (contemporary audiences probably wouldn't be able to understand them anyway). But that doesn't really matter, because this film has its own merits: it's a brilliant throwback to the times when horror movies genuinely were shocking. Dawn of the Dead is bloody, cruel and nihilistic, even genuinely scary at times. The movie moves along at a well developed pace, so that while the story doesn't really make all that much sense at times, one generally feels willing to ignore any minor problems.
The most annoying thing about this movie is that during the first half, there are way too many of those scenes where a character will be creeping down a dark hallway or whatever, then the music swells up towards a climax, and BOO!! out jumps the zombie. I suppose these bits were added just because certain segments of the audience expect them (so they have an excuse to grab their date to cop a feel). Thankfully, the latter half of the film eschews this most cliched of shock effects.
All in all, Dawn of the Dead marks the return of genuine horror movies, so if you're a horror fan, definitely checks this one out. However, if you like the "like Beverly Hills 10210, but somebody's got a big knife" kind of "horror" films, this just might be a bit much for you.