Dawn of the Dead Remake April 24th, 2010
Originally Written 03/28/04
I went to see the remake of Dawn of the Dead. The film was quite good. It updated Romero’s work, but stayed true to a lot of the source material, from what I could remember from it. The feel of the movie was also reminiscent to the recent film 28 Days Later. Romero’s zombies were slow and rambling. They were much easier to get away from but had some pathos to them. These new breed of zombies are much meaner, faster and more scary. A couple of scenes made you realize they were lost souls as well though.
What makes a zombie film interesting for me is not just the horror and the gore though. It’s a perfect setting to show how people handle the end of the world. It gives the filmmaker a chance to bring together a small group of people who are a microcosm of society. Yes the characters tend to be archetypes, but it still gives a chance for some interesting interaction.
This film was solid on that front. It’s not high drama, but it was still interesting and gave the writer a chance to deal with things like racism, classism, people fighting for control of the group, etc. The story was simple, but it kept my attention. There were some clever bits of dark humor too.
There were some failings with the film, like how the credits were amped up with MTV quick cuts that threatened to give you a seizure and how it seemed like there were two or three sets of credits at the end because they kept on showing more of the ending. However, they did choose some great music, like Johnny Cash’s recent song, “When the Man Comes Around” using Revelations imagery, and “People Who Have Died” by the Jim Carol band. Anyway, for fans of the genre, I’d say it’s definitely worth checking out.