Surprisingly good filmmaking with minimal plot and some character development

Rating: Null/10 (29 March 2004)

Right off the bat, I will say DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004) was an excellent surprise. This movie had all the potential of sucking off the "teet" of the original 1975 horror classic and last year's well-conceived 28 DAYS LATER: no matter what, DAWN would draw a crowd because the original was such a landmark film. It could have been some retread hack-thing with decayed urban locations, lots of music video quick-cutting close-ups, hot young chicks screwing and getting butchered, and a thrash punk soundtrack of the typical horror fare with good production value and still make 50 million, and the filmmakers had to know this. Well, okay, this movie had the music, the chicks, and the hacking, but it also had great storytelling. DAWN is well crafted with a good set-up, many well-realized sub-plots, and just enough character development to make the people real. DAWN is a respectable reinvention of a movie all horror fans mark on their short list of all-time great horror films. And a step further: as horror remakes go, it was not only a better movie than the lame duck 1990 NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, or the sterile boring PSYCHO with Vince Vaughn, it is the best horror remake ever made!
These are cheap words from an internet stranger, so let me just say I am old enough to have seen THE EXORCIST in the theatre when it first came out. Having said that, I am a pretty obsessive movie watcher with a special place in my heart for the horror genre. I find most horror movies to range from disappointing to down-right insulting because filmmakers just don't care what they put out when it comes to horror. I think they figure as long as good-looking young people get butchered up in viscerally interesting and memorable ways, most of the audience won't care about story or character. (I guess they're right because URBAND LEGEND had how many sequels?)

DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004) sets up really well. The world is normal with normal people, and twice we get a slight hint that something's wrong. There is a radio bulleting we don't hear and a TV newsbreak covered up with a shower scene involving the main character (Ana played by Sarah Polley). Both these hint could easily be an Iraqi war update. No big deal. Within about 18 hours of story time (15 minutes of movie time) a character we me earlier sets into motion a chain of events where Ana is thrust into survival mode, launching herself from location to location, quickly, almost mercilessly watching the entire world around her decay into utter chaos, confusion, and destruction with no clear path to safety or a logical explanation as to what the hell is going on.
She meets up rather quickly with the rest of the non-zombie cast and makes it into a shopping mall (the memorable location for the cannibalistic climax of the George Romero 1975 original), and it is here that the movie slows down quite a bit. The pace slows way down and the story stalls as the unbelievably horrible chain of events that disintegrate the world and all the implications grind almost to a halt. What follows is a 90 battle between zombie and humans where casualties are suffered on both sides with each new encounter. So much more could have been done here: most DAWN reviews said the movie should have made more commentary about the state of consumerism in our society with the mall as a metaphor, much like the original did. I would modernize that theme and explore how the rise of consumerism, obsession with youth, and societies polarized and fractured religious beliefs have set into motion a sudden collapse of the world more as a result of a slow degradation of the world over the last 50 years.
Don't get me wrong, the bulk of the movie is still good. I especially like how Ana is given a human moment to emotionally collapse and realize all the craziness and loss around her when she gets a breather in a mall restroom. I also like the development of the relationship between Michael and gun shop owner trapped across the street from the mall and their communications on dry erase boards. The filmmakers show a lot of thoughtful reserve here where we only see the story from the point of view of the mall survivors, never getting the gun shop owner's perspective until they finally meet. This means we never see him speak unless it's coming through a walkie-talkie, and we only witness the horrible results of an excursion to get him food through the same. To me, it takes a mature vision NOT to show it all to an audience (mostly a young, attention deficit one at that) when the moment calls for it. Especially funny is a scene where the mall survivors and the gun shop owner pass the time playing a sniper killing game with the zombies that involves picking off celebrity look-a-likes.
The third act of this movie is the weakest part. An underdeveloped plot thread leads the survivors to leave their shelter at the mall for in hopes of sanctuary on one character's boat and some off-shore island many miles away. This is pretty much a transparent attempt to set up some gory death scenes, especially some really good ones with a chain saw. It is predictable, but also memorable fare. And don't leave during the credits. There is a Blair Witch Project-like video production sequence inner-cut with the credits which shows the fate of the surviving characters. It is what Blair Witch should have been in terms of reality horror.
DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004) is not a perfect movie, but it is really very good. I would almost advise people to see last years very well done 28 DAYS LATER and look at this as an almost sequel to that. It surprisingly follows along very well with it as in both movies, the zombies are fairly smart and obsessively attack any non-zombie human with both speed and agility (unlike George Romero's hobbling stupid living dead). The really great thing about this movie is the filmmakers give the audience what they want with lots of creative gore and some sex, but they also step back at times and let the story unfold with a more minimalist approach. It's been a week since I saw it, and I'm still thinking about it. That says volumes. Can't wait for DAY OF THE DEAD, which is sure to follow real soon.