Dawn of the Dead (2004) HD DVD Review

Once again, the dead have risen at the cineplex, but this time out, there’s not a whiff of controversy surrounding their arrival.

"Dawn of the Dead," Zack Snyder’s excellent, often darkly hilarious remake of George Romero’s 1978 classic horror movie of the same name, is exactly the movie it should it have been.

It respects the first film, it builds upon what was there, it takes elements of the story and makes them its own. It works so well, it stands—or, in this case—it slithers, bleeds and crawls--as one of the best horror movies to hit theaters in years.

The film, which screenwriter James Gunn based on Romero’s own screenplay, is an art-house shocker that strikes just the right seriocomic tone.

Snyder and Gunn have fun with their homage, but they also take it seriously enough to make sharp observations on our own zombie culture, which is rarely more apparent than when shopping at a mall. Twenty-six years ago, Romero himself took note of the blank-faced, shuffling, herd mentality associated with consumerism at big box stores, and he lampooned them, turning Americans into the walking dead as no one had before.

The remake of “Dawn” follows suit and the good news is that it isn’t the joke it could have been in less-careful hands. It’s spot on, well-crafted and brisk, absurdly gory but cartoonishly so.

In it, nurse Ana (Sarah Polley) wakes one morning to find her husband being mauled by the girl next door, whose bloody mouth and wild eyes suggest something is wrong with the little darling that goes beyond consuming too much sugar. This kid is an undead wreck and her bite, which sinks deep into Ana’s husband’s neck, turns him into a savage, blood-craving zombie who lusts for a kill of his own.

Racing from her home in what proves to be a genuinely thrilling escape scene, Ana quickly discovers that overnight, the world went belly up thanks to a virus that gives the dead a new leash on life. All around her, zombies are rushing for their next meal. Stealing into her car, Ana flees from her once serene slice of suburbia, connects with a beefy cop played by Ving Rhames, and then meets up with Michael (Jake Weber), Andre (Mekhi Pfifer) and his pregnant wife, Luda (Inna Korobkina).

Together, this core group joins a handful of others at the Cross Roads Mall in Milwaukee, where the Muzak plays a numbing rendition of “Don’t Worry Be Happy” while the dead hammer on the doors in a scrambling effort to get inside.

As the movie unfolds, so do the entrails, which spill in such great red tonnage, this mall will never see another white sale.

As a few dozen readers have pointed out via e-mail, there’s an unfortunate lack of intestines and brains being eaten here, which was hardly the case in Romero’s gorier version. Still, no one has complained that there’s a shortage of zombies being gunned down in the teaming masses lumbering outside the mall. Since only a bullet to the head can kill these poor beasts, their heads periodically pop--and the zombie movie, revitalized after last year’s “28 Days Later,” continues its nasty high.

Grade: A-