VERY Well Done!

Rating: 10/10 (20 March 2004)

I've seen the original "Dawn of the Dead." I loved the original "Dawn of the Dead." I loved this one too, probably because I didn't see it as a remake, I simply accepted it as an updated retelling. I can also accept the fact that both of these movies ARE JUST MOVIES! So, I'm going to skip the purist arguments and just review the damn film.
In the first five minutes of "Dawn of the Dead" we are introduced to the blase, perfectly normal ho-hum life of a nurse named Ana, who just wants to go home after a long shift and see her man. They have a nice, quiet evening together and fall asleep in each others arms without a care in the world. The next five minutes that follow Ana into the next morning are a violent, brutal shock. Instant carnage erupts as the little girl next door attacks Ana's man. Infected and mortally wounded, he turns on Ana. Within two minutes of awakening from a peaceful sleep, Ana is blood drenched and in shock, hurling herself out of the bathroom window only to see a world gone mad. Her peaceful neighborhood is in ruins, her neighbors are the undead insane, feasting on the few living left. As she escapes the burning ruin of her safe little world, the camera pulls back and gives us a glorious crane shot of apocalypse. The distant city is ablaze, the roads are overrun with ghouls. There is nowhere to go. It is indeed an awe inspiring, overwhelming sight. There is no safe place left. The feeling of isolation and growing fear is enormous.
From there, the movie centers on the refuge of a local shopping mall, which is littered with clever in-jokes that are never pointed out or lingered on too long. (The Gaylen Ross store? Nice...) The survivors gather together hesitantly, each eyeing the other with suspicion. There is no time to grieve for the dead with survivors straggling in, some injured, some not...and some on the way to ZombieLand. No one knows who to trust, and not everyone is what they seem. They still manage to forge hesitant friendships and there are some genuinely comic moments involving a long-distance chess game, the bored mallers taking target practice on some appropriately nicknamed zombies, and a great rendition of Disturbed's "The Sickness" performed Lounge Style. Finally, after a horrific quadruple death scene which wipes out an entire family, the survivors can take no more. They have a plan to escape and make for the ocean, and from there to a distant and unoccupied island far away from the overrun mainland.
This movie certainly owes much to the original "Dawn of the Dead" but there are also touches of "Day of the Dead" and Fulci's "Zombi 2" here as well. All in all, this film succeeds. It is strong enough to stand apart from the original. It may not bypass it, but it is a powerful entry in the zombie genre. The gore is understated, though brutally shocking when it does make its appearance. The real drive of the story here are the characters. These are not meat-for-the- grinder disposable heroes at all; they are very real, and very sympathetic. I found it very easy to imagine myself in their situation, and this is the films strength. The performances are wonderful, totally believable and the sorrow very genuine when one of the cast falls. There ARE truly fates worse than death, and this films shows you every last one. This is NOT a film about zombies. This is a film about staying sane in a world gone mad.
Despite a downbeat ending (for anyone who sat through the end credits, that is...) this is a film I would see again and again....just like the original.