What Richard Matheson by way of George Romero has wrought...

Rating: 10/10 (8 February 2005)

Filmmaker George Romero has often cited Richard Matheson's classic SF shocker I AM LEGEND as the inspiration for his chiller NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. In Matheson's short story, DANCE OF THE DEAD, a "loopy" comes twitching to life before a crowd of onlookers ("loopy" being a play on "Lifeless Undead Phenomenon"). Unlike the vampires in I AM LEGEND, the zombie in DANCE OF THE DEAD is slow-moving and uncoordinated. Like the walking dead in Romero's classic(s). (Or perhaps Romero found inspiration in the first feature based on Matheson's I AM LEGEND, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH; certainly the living dead in Romero's movie mimic the ponderous, slow-moving vampires therein- not to mention the undead in INVISIBLE INVADERS.)
In the "remake" of DAWN OF THE DEAD (a remake in name only), the zombies are even closer to the vampires that originally inspired them. They are no longer the lumbering, slow-moving creatures that we've all come to know and love. Like the zombies in RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, the reflexes haven't slowed since death. This makes for an even bleaker scenario than in the Romero films (in which there often seems to be, somewhere in the gloom, a faint ray of hope, however dim): not only do you need to be faster than the guy next to you, you need to be able to outrun creatures impervious to pain; creatures dying, if you will, to taste your very flesh...
The film starts off well, but begins to lose focus as characters crowd in on one another, with "throwaway" victims introduced just minutes, in some cases, prior to their deaths. (It's hard- if not impossible- to feel for these "throwaways," as we learn very little about them.) The interplay between the principals, however, more than makes up for the shortcomings of the diversionary deaths. (In all frankness, the gratuitous gore is a given in these movies- it's part of their allure-, but makeup fx alone do not a worthwhile feature make.) All in all, a topnotch entry in the (sub-)genre.