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Mini Review
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| Director |
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Zack Snyder
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| Cast |
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Sarah Polley
Ving Rhames
Jake Weber
Mekhi Phifer
Ty Burrell
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| Distributor |
| Universal Pictures |
| Running Time |
| 100 |
| Certification |
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18 / R
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Reviewed By
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Alex Ballard
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Buy this film
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DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004)
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Last year with the release of the ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ remake, I experienced a cold, foreboding sense of dread. Sure, upon its conclusion I was suitably gratified by the piece, but lurking in the back of my mind like a pending lawsuit was the thought that, sooner or later, Hollywood would remake another of my favourite movies but this time, totally screw it up. It’s clear that the lawyers and businessmen calling the shots in movie land care nothing for producing a film that’s gonna grace the artistic role call, but instead simply wish to rehash what people already enjoy and spoon feed it to them again. In the case of ‘Chainsaw’ however, the film was remade in a tone and style consistent to the original and thus felt like a companion to Hooper’s infamous masterpiece, rather than a commercially driven, unemotive hatchet job. I had hoped that director Zack Snyder would do the same with ‘Dawn of the Dead’, and waited for the release of this film in a state of manic excitement. How wrong can a zombie fan be?
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As Dawn of the Dead begins, you could be forgiven for thinking you were watching an American adaptation of the excellent British film ’28 Days Later’. Indeed, the opening montage depicting the advent of zombie apocalypse is nothing more than blatant, unapologetic plagiarism. Also, annoyingly, throughout this introduction the viewer is given no indication as to the cause of the crisis, or do we ever receive
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one. We are then introduced to Ana (Sarah Polley) the femme fatale of the picture, who has her life torn apart when her daughter and husband become zombies. As she flees from the clutches of suburbia and her undead spouse, she witnesses utter chaos unleashed in her
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formerly tranquil neighbourhood, as zombies attack everything in sight. This sequence is one of the highpoints of the movie as both the cinematography and CGI are breathtaking, especially in one shot that features Ana’s car racing through the streets against a backdrop of a smoking cityscape in total anarchy. If the film would have given us more of such splendid eye candy, perhaps its complete lack of substance or respect for the original could have been excused.
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Predictably, she crashes, and encounters other shell-shocked survivors including the hulking police officer Kenneth (Ving Rhames) and soon-to-be-love-interest Michael (Jake Weber) who band together and head for the mall. Once there, it’s disappointing that they find very few zombies inside the mall, and have more to worry about from a group of security guards who impound their weapons and lock them up. Apparently Snyder intended to focus more on the development and interaction of the main characters, rather than running battles with zombies through the shopping mall. This wouldn’t have been unacceptable, except that the characters in question are wooden, uninteresting and inspire little emotion or empathy. Even when confronted by a zombie birth sequence (Peter Jackson did it better ten years ago in ‘Braindead’) or the death of the lone sniper stuck to the roof of his gun shop, it all happens in a graphic yet bland manner compared to some of the scenes from the original, such as the frantic, hopeless battle Steven fights in the lift with a gang of Tom Savini’s authentic flesh eaters.
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The climax of the film sees the survivors fighting the hordes to rescue a dog (or was it something else?) before, in perhaps a subtle homage to ‘The A-Team’, they reinforce a pair of shuttle buses with armour plating and head out into the midst of thousands of zombies surrounding the mall. Some of the camera shots used here are breathtaking, as the zombies, in a manner more akin to an angry mob than a rabble of decaying corpses, attempt to overturn the buses as though they housed cowering riot police. Yet despite the frenetic battle
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that Ana and co fight against the legions of the undead which includes the stylish yet unwitting use of a chainsaw, the preceding hour or so of teen dialogue and utterly abysmal soundtrack (worse even, than that of ‘Equilibrium’ and 'House of 1000 Corpses’ combined) left
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me eager for nothing but the film’s conclusion. And although ‘Dawn…’ is clearly intended to be judged along different lines than its predecessor, the lack of decent humour in the film also leaves a lot to be desired. If Snyder thinks he can substitute the comedic value of doddering, clumsy hordes of flesh eating automatons stumbling around to the quirky ditties of the Goblins for childish American sitcom humour set to third rate generic horror music, then frankly he can stick it.
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Yet perhaps the main problem of this film is its title. If it were released with a different name, I might have enjoyed it. However, to package a mix of sublime special effects sequences with such unmitigated rubbish, and to name it after one of the greatest horror films of all time just as a selling point, is unforgivable heresy. Romero’s original Dawn of the Dead was released in 1978 as part two of his ‘Dead Trilogy’ (with suggestions that a fourth part, ‘Dead Reckoning’ is on the way!) and although many people simply watched for the gore and zombies (and why not?) the film was also an attack on the consumer culture of the West. How ironic then, that it would be remade to satiate this very culture, highlighted by its current number one seating at the US box office. As for me, I’m going to wait for ‘Undead’ and ‘Shaun of the Dead’ for a real zombie fix.
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Score
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4 / 10
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