A Masterpiece looked upon as a cheap remake

Rating: 8/10 (24 February 2008)

Just the name "Dawn of the Dead" sends shivers down my spine. As a zombie fanatic, I absolutely love George Romero's movies, especially "Dawn of the Dead". Then, a few years ago, I saw a trailer for this movie and when the title appears on screen, I was immediately excited. After a long wait, I have to say that despite the fact that I've seen it numerous times now, it is still a frighteningly realistic look at a world that may surpass that of George Romero himself.
The story revolves around Ana, an employee at a local hospital, who comes home, spends some 'quality time' with her husband, and as they drift off the sleep, that's when it all begins *chuckles*. When Ana wakes up, she finds herself in a whole different world. A neighbor girl walks into her room, bites and tears a few veins from her husband's neck, and if that wasn't bad enough, after Ana closes the door, locking the little girl out, her own husband gets up and attacks her. Following is the first look at the horrifying image of a zombie SPRINTING after Ana's car. Soon, Ana crashes her car, wakes up with a shotgun aimed at her head by my favorite character, big bad no-holds-barred Kenneth, then they meet up with more survivors and the plot from the classic "Dawn of the Dead" kicks in.
First off, I don't care how many people whine and b**** about the sprinting zombies. Zack Snyder's idea of "If they see you, you're f***ed" when it comes to encounters with zombies makes a lot of tension in the movie. In the classic George Romero film, the survivors harmlessly ran around the shuffling, moaning zombies, which kind of eliminated some of the fear that revolved around them. In the remake, with the sprinting undead, it becomes clear that the threat is extreme and makes for a more tense film.
The acting is superb, with delightful performances by Sarah Polley and Ving Rhames. The zombie make-up? Watching the dead slowly decay over the movie's timespand makes for a realistic feel. There's plenty of jump-out-of-nowhere moments and lots of suspense that will make a zombie fan turn off the DVD feeling extremely satisfied. The clichés that have plagued many horror movies are ABSENT here. The characters are all original, like the redeeming gangster, the TV salesman, the trucker, etc.
Of course, this movie is only getting 9 out of 10 because there isn't a sequel in sight, but then again, maybe I should change that since masterpieces like "300" and soon-to-be "The Watchmen" is bound to be all that is on Zack Snyder's mind. Why this movie isn't on the Top 250, I don't know. Maybe there are just too many uptight zombie fans who can't accept the fact that Zack Snyder did what no other director could do, take George Romero's golden film and perfect it in nearly every aspect. Bravo, Mr. Snyder, bravo!