Mindless Zombie-entertainment

Rating: 7/10 (17 November 2004)

"When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth!"
Before watching Zack Snyder's new zombie-film "Dawn Of The Dead", I was a little bothered by the fact that I haven't seen any of the films in George Romero classic zombie-trilogy (Night Of The Living Dead, Dawn Of The Dead, Day Of The Dead), and as most people know, this film is a remake of one of Romero's films. I'm the kind of person that doesn't like that people is making remakes, and especially not remakes of classic films. I haven't seen "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2004" yet, but the original from 1974 is one of my favorite horror-movies. But since I haven't seen the original "Dawn Of The Dead" (1978), I wasn't THAT skeptical when I decided to watch this film, and after all...I didn't really expect more from this film than great entertainment.
This film takes place in a town where people, one day, wakes up to a invasion by flesh-hungry zombies. We follow a group of people who seeks cover in a mall. The zombies doesn't manage to get into the mall, but the people know that they can't stay there forever and they starts planning what they should do to survive.
Even though I haven't seen too many of them, zombie-films aren't exactly my favorites. Peter Jackson's "Braindead" (1992) is the only one I've seen that I really like, but the "Evil Dead" trilogy is on my "to-be-watched" list. Still, it's a fact that "Dawn Of The Dead" is a very entertaining film with some interesting elements. It doesn't have the deepest story I've ever heard about, but it has just enough of the ingredients that should satisfy someone who would like to watch a zombie-film: lots of gore, thrilling scenes, a little humor and action from beginning to end.
Zack Snyder has done a approved job with this movie, and he has made a very modern-style zombie-film. When it comes to the camera-work and the zombies, he seems to be heavily inspired by British director Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later" (2002). This is not the "good old" zombies that were slow and stupid, and that you could almost have a cup of tea in front of, before they got close enough to grab you. These zombies are just as fast as human beings, and if you don't pay attention, you may have one in your throat before you know it. This makes the zombies more scary, off course.
Among the actors in the cast, there wasn't anyone who impressed me. Ving Rhames is the only one I really know, and he delivered one of the best performances. But I wasn't expecting the actors to be catching the most of my attention, and they're doing a good enough job based on a script with restricted character-portrayal and development.
"Dawn Of The Dead" is popcorn-entertainment. Not much depth or intelligence, just Action from beginning to end. Zack Snyder has made a debut-movie, which is refreshing compared to all the mediocre Hollywood horror-films we have been drowned in for several years now. It has charm and gives the viewers exactly what they want. Yeah, we might see some good films from Snyder in the future.
7.5 out of 10