More evidence of horror going back to its roots

Rating: 7/10 (22 January 2005)

Dawn of the Dead features no survivors, no happy endings, no self-aware dialogue, just straight forward action and horror, and after roughly 8 years of Scream imitations-it's a welcome change. This movie didn't necessarily chill me like George Romero's original Night Of The Living Dead, but that was a bit of a different scenario. Where that one was a few people holed up in a house with dozens of zombies outside, Dawn features an army of hundreds of zombies waiting outside a suburban mall for our dozen or so survivors inside. There are plenty of good old 80's horror movie situations, where you say to yourself "Why is this idiot doing this?", but director Zack Snyder doesn't let things get too out of hand, and keeps things as realistic as possible. Michael Kelly (CJ) and Ty Burrell (Steve) offer some funny lines, and Mekhi Phifer (Andre) gives a performance that steadily becomes creepier as the movie goes on. Dawn of the Dead and 28 Days Later have cemented the return of the zombie film after a long absence.