Dawn of the Dead

2004 "When there's no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth."
7.3| 1h41m| R| en| More Info
Released: 19 March 2004 Released
Producted By: Universal Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.dawnofthedeadmovie.net/
Synopsis

A group of survivors take refuge in a shopping mall after the world is taken over by aggressive, flesh-eating zombies.

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alanshills Dawn of the Dead is a remake of an older zombie film by the same name but in my opinion, it is a superior effort- which is strange as most remakes are inferior in quality. The major change here is that Snyder has decided to make the zombies have the capacity to run, which is a scary thought indeed. As creepy as the slow undead were there was always the chance to outmaneuver them, but things are not so simple this time around. The usual zombie trope of a bunch of characters clustered together and hiding away is how the film goes about it but it manages to characterize the survivors instead of just using them as zombie fodder. Some scenes are terrifying and there is a palpable sense of tension. This is a great horror movie and a great zombie one also. Go watch it.
jeankhwt Writing's really stupid. Their major decisions were incredibly dumb and made no sense at all. Why on earth would they go to a mall to escape? There would be so many ways the zombies could get in. And shatterproof glass? Seriously? What were the odds? The mall's too big a place with different levels - what made them think that they could cover every single exit? And going to a boat was their best way out? Seriously? It could've been a concrete plan if it was explained to us clearly. But no all we know was that Steve had this boat and they were going to reinforce two buses as if they were all suddenly handymen and drive out to it to go to some random island they didn't even know exist.Then there's the zombies. My god were they almost hilarious. I had no idea if the movie was going for a comedic direction because it sure as hell seemed like it. I guess it was still quite entertaining, although for the wrong reasons. I could've stopped watching but I didn't. Probably wouldn't watch it again.
FlashCallahan Ana goes home to her husband, after a difficult night shift, but is shocked in the morning when he is brutally attacked by her neighbour. In the chaos of her neighbourhood, Ana flees and comes into contact with a police officer named Kenneth, along with more survivors who decide that their best chances of survival would be found in the deserted Crossroads Shopping Mall. When supplies begin to run low and other trapped survivors need help, the group come to realise that they cannot stay there forever, and plan to escape......To say now that Snyder made a film that would stand proud in the serious Zombie horror genre, would be met with guffaws, seeing that since this film, his output has been mediocre to say the least. But in 2004, one film changed the way people would perceive the 'Zombie' genre, and the way most 'zombie' films are made today.But that's enough of Shaun Of The Dead.DOTD doesn't try anything new, aside from the fast zombies that we would all hate to be stuck with, and although it never reaches the height's of the original, it still entertaining and shocking in equal doses, thanks to a wonderful script, and very good performances from all the cast.There is nothing special about this group of people, and they wood be just as nameless as the dead outside, if you were to pass them on a normal day.The film does follow the tropes you would expect from a film like this. You get the leader of the pack, who is just a simple mane with common sense, the people who were there first, thinking they are the kings of the castle. The obligatory yuppie, who whines throughout the movie, until he comes good. We get the tough cop with a heart of gold, and of course, because we have to be all PC, the main protagonist is a woman, who adapts to everything really, really quickly (see also The River Wild).It never lets up, there are some truly disturbing scenes, but foe a remake of one of the most cherished zombie films of all times, it's a pretty solid film.
Ben Featherston It is impossible to evaluate the success of this movie without comparing it to the original. The fantasy element of living in the mall which drove the classic film, of having all the creature comforts of civilization amid the apocalypse, is missing entirely. The social commentary of the original, that consumerism has become so instinctive that even zombies would gravitate towards the mall, is missing entirely. This isn't "Dawn of the Dead"; this is just a movie that has a mall in it. Also absent are any compelling characters. While the original focused on no more than four survivors, the number is more than tripled in the remake to diminished effect. There are no nuanced portrayals here; the cast never transcends flat character descriptions like "the tough nurse", "the pregnant woman", or "the jerk security guard". As we see them dispatched with the indifference we might reserve for reality show contestants, none of these characters make much of an impression. Original film actor Ken Foret has a brief cameo as a fundamentalist preacher, and in his less than two minutes of screen time he provides a more powerful performance than any of the main cast.The fast zombies are more comedic than scary. Whether they're sprinting after cars like cartoon dogs, bashing their heads through doors, or squealing like pigs as they are picked off by gunfire, the undead never seem to present a credible threat. For all its enhanced budget and updated special effects, this "Dawn of the Dead" does not offer anything that cannot be found in the previous four decades of zombie horror. Once again we have to sit through the usual bickering between survivors over who will lead, the standard "bit by a zombie and waiting to turn" play for our sympathies, the predictable ill- advised trip to the basement. All this and more has been done before, and executed more effectively.Zack Snyder has always been an amazing visualist, and this is one way in which the film redeems itself. The full scope of a neighborhood descending into chaos is revealed through a camera mounted on an escaping vehicle. Two characters saying a tearful goodbye is broken into multiple cuts from several perspectives, distorting time and drawing us into the moment. The daylight scenes appear overexposed, amplifying the idea that this catastrophe is happening in our real world. Sadly, no amount of skillful cinematography can help this mashup of worn out horror movie banalities.