Hell's Full. Get Ready.

Rating: 8/10 (25 October 2009)

Horror goes in cycles, and as all circles, you always end up where you started. At times, they bombard us with Zombies, then Psychos, then demons, then haunted houses/spirits, etc and back. A few years ago, they did rejuvenate the zombie lore, and none pleased/scared me as much as the 2004 remake 'Dawn of the Dead.' Yes, I loved 'Shaun of the Dead' as well, but that was more dark-humor. 'Dawn' follows very closely the Romero original: All hell breaks loose, literally, one "dawn" and a group of survivors hold up in a shopping mall to figure out what to do, how to escape, survive and/or get rescued. Gone is the social commentary that had a lot of fans disappointed. Though I am a fan of the original, I wasn't one that was let down. I liked this one for the acting and realistic fear-factor. (In reality, I'd rather be up against Romero's zombies; you could all-but walk past them whereas here, if they see you, it's probably too late.) Polley: I love her! ('Go' is one of my favorites.) She is an excellent actress. Rhames was powerful. But probably the key element was Weber, whose very screen presence was astonishing. The rest of the group wasn't bad, but I think they did try their own social commentary by coincidentally putting all walks of life together, no two alike. It wasn't a perfect movie, but it's one I've seen at least a half-dozen times. Gore, soundtrack (this one introduced me to one of my now all-time-favorite songs: 'The Man Comes Around'), realism and tension all worked for me. Word to the wise: I didn't like to see the epilogue, so if you don't want to know what happens in the aftermath, stop the film when the credits roll.