How Horror was meant to be...

Rating: Null/10 (28 March 2004)

After the hype and revel and scorn that I had seen in review (even those that had not seen the film yet) I went into this flick with little expectation. I left with the most satisfied feeling in recent memory that a horror movie actually delivered.
First of all, I saw the original, and the social commentary that people speak of is ridiculous. The film is stupid. Slow zombies are ridiculous insofar as any attempt at reasonable horror is such an uphill battle that it has yet to be done. The idea of being eaten alive is certainly something to be queamish about, but that is where the plausibility ends.
In this flick, we have been given a pacing of an "Aliens" flick that commands our attention and doesn't release us until the bitter end. The terror is fast and horrific on several levels. This film catches the range of horror like no other has in history.
There are the scenes of taught suspense that have you bracing and begging for release. We see the complete surrealistic apocalypse happening before our eyes. There are scenes of dread for an overzealous hero sending themselves to certain doom. There are plenty of scares that have us jumping in our seats. There are scenes of emotional horror in which we sympathize with the protagonists and reel in pity and repulsion when the inevitable occurs. We see the quintessential scenes that have the audience yelling at characters, "DON'T DO IT!!!" because we don't want to share in that fate. There is that LONG silence that screams and scrapes at our brains because the void inherently terrifies us all at the prospect of the unseen. There are the scenes of complete disgust at the trauma that people (and zombies) sustain. There is desperation in the plights and flights of our characters. Best of all, Dawn induces that horrible sinking feeling in the pit of our stomach at the futility of the situation at hand. We are all doomed.
Now while many horror flicks can pull off a few of these aspects off, none have made use of all of them (though some have futily tried). For some of these you HAVE to be able to pull off SOME character development. Dawn used some very clever things to pull this story off. The fellow across the street atop a tiny gun shop sitting like an island afloat in a sea of ravenous death was elegant genius. Even as the character had almost nothing to SAY in the film we were able to get to know him. We certainly had the cursory kill-off characters, but they were far fewer than I had been led to believe. Even the girl in her tremendous stupid act of the film was understandable in the face of her recent history. In my mind, this was pulled off adequately (though I would have liked to know how she slipped away so quickly).
There are also other little things that this film does to bring a film quality to it all, even if most of it was lost on the audience... the mall music playing "Don't Worry, Be Happy" in the background was GREAT. The coffee shop in the plaza where many "safe" scenes were done was aptly named "Hallowed Grounds". The vanity of the news reporter in his "last report" (playing in the background as the characters resumed their talk in the foreground) was the social commentary that people seemed to have missed.

And since so many on this board seem to put a high price on social commentary, you can take this film to be RIFE with it! Humanity is largely made up of self-preserving creatures with a few unassuming heroes that drag us into honorable and selfless acts. People will do dumb things for a reason.
The original left nothing for me when it was all said and done. This film left my appetite completely satiated. If you are a true fan of horror, you will love this movie.