Dawn of the Remake!

Rating: 9/10 (22 March 2004)

I watched the original Dawn of the Dead then trotted off to watch the remake and I must say the new version is better than expected. The movie is... tense, not quite scary; but I've seen hundreds of horror movies and I don't think I've been 'scared' since I was eleven years old. A moviegoer in the row behind me was trembling so hard he shook both rows of seats, eliciting comments from a number of others in the theater.
Many have compared the opening sequences of the two movies, Dawn1's opening with a chaotic news show is the more disturbing of the two, Dawn2's opening is consistent with modern horror and is above average for the genre. Both movies remain consistent to the themes established in the opening sequences, Dawn1 is slower, has more substance and shock value; Dawn2 is fast paced and goes for the throat. The pace of Dawn2 continues to quicken until the end when it becomes a struggle to comprehend the staccoto of images hammering at your brain. I am still not sure how several events exactly happened, particularly the 'rescue' and the 'escape', only that they did happen.
Several things were distracting in Dawn2, even annoying: The primal cat screams of the zombies for one. I found myself wincing just from the volume of the screaches and my dread of the zombies was more rooted in the sounds they made than their viciousness, which was also distracting. There is no doubt that in real life, the zombies of Dawn2 would be scarier and deadlier. Romero's zombies were a force of nature, chaotic and opportunistic; you could survive if you were quick enough and smart enough. Snyder's zombies are so vicious and fast, it is difficult to imagine surviving on wits and certainly not on speed, maybe with a tank. The one burr that really bucked my horse was the infection angle which seems directly lifted from 28 Days Later. All dead people came to life in the original (except maybe those with brain damage?), but in the remake zombification is spread via bites like rabies. If the zombies are infected with some disease, it makes the tagline, 'When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.' seem superfluous.
It is easy to nitpick, few movies survive close scrutiny. Overall the people in Dawn2 act within the normal range of human behavior, sometimes smart, sometimes stupid. There is the requisite moment when your mind is screaming 'DON'T OPEN THAT DOOR!', but if you've driven on a freeway you understand that people are sometimes inexplicably dumb. Darwin Rules!
I would give it a 7/10 overall, 9/10 for the genre. The remake is a visceral experience. I highly recommend you go experience it.