Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Director:

Zack Snyder

Writers (WGA):

George A. Romero (1978 screenplay)
James Gunn (screenplay)

Release Date:

19 March 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

When the undead rise, civilization will fall.

Plot:

A nurse, a policeman, a young married couple, a salesman, and other survivors of a worldwide plague that is producing aggressive, flesh-eating zombies, take refuge in a mega Midwestern shopping mall.

Plot Keywords:

Mall | Nurse | Shopping Mall | Boat | Police

Awards:

1 win & 6 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Sarah Polley	...	Ana
Ving Rhames	...	Kenneth
Jake Weber	...	Michael
Mekhi Phifer	...	Andre
Ty Burrell	...	Steve
Michael Kelly	...	CJ
Kevin Zegers	...	Terry
Michael Barry	...	Bart
Lindy Booth	...	Nicole
Jayne Eastwood	...	Norma
Boyd Banks	...	Tucker
Inna Korobkina	...	Luda
R.D. Reid	...	Glen
Kim Poirier	...	Monica
Matt Frewer	...	Frank

Also Known As:

"Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead" - USA (long title)

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive strong horror violence and gore, language and sexuality.

Runtime:

101 min | 110 min (unrated director's cut)

Country:

USA | Canada | Japan | France

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Zurich) | Malaysia:18SG | Sweden:15 | Germany:18 (also director's cut) | South Korea:18 | Austria:16 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Brazil:18 | Canada:13+ (Québec) | Canada:18A (Ontario) | Chile:14 | Czech Republic:18 | Finland:K-18 | France:-16 | Hong Kong:III (director's cut) | Ireland:18 | Israel:16 | Italy:VM14 | Japan:R-15 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:18 | Philippines:R-13 | Portugal:M/18 | Singapore:R21 | Spain:18 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:18 | USA:R | USA:Unrated (director's cut)

Filming Locations:

Ashbridge's Bay, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Strike Entertainment

Trivia:

Visible in Luda's room is a can of something called "Smeat" - a takeoff on Spam. Smeat had previously appeared in Waterworld (1995). The Smeat can here is circular, however - in Waterworld, the cans were rectangular, like Spam cans.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: As pointed out on the DVD commentary, there are no mountainous islands in the Great Lakes like those shown during the closing credit sequence which is supposed to take place on Lake Michigan.

Quotes:

Televangelist:Hell is overflowing, and Satan is sending his dead to us. Why? Because, you have sex out of wedlock, you kill unborn children, you have man on man relations, same sex marriage. How do you think your God will judge you? Well friends, now we know. When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Dead & Deader (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

People Who Died

As good as the original, with exciting new directions and room for a sequel!

Shortly after a number of strange cases begin to appear at the hospital where Ana (Sarah Polley) works, a bizarre zombie "epidemic" hits the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area full force. Sarah escapes her immediate threats and meets a number of other humans who decide to seek shelter inside a large shopping mall. As they learn that the zombie outbreak is much more widespread than anyone could have imagined, their chances of survival grow increasingly dim.

I know an awful lot of genre fans rail against remakes, but like the update of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), this version of Dawn of the Dead is so good that we should instead be clamoring for more.

Writer James Gunn and director Zack Snyder knew that they had to come into the remake with both barrels blasting. Hardly five minutes into the film we're already into hardcore, high tension, gore-filled horror material. In lesser films, our introduction to full-fledged zombie activity would have been dream material as a kind of teaser. Gunn and Snyder dispense with such weak-willed tactics and immediately launch into Armageddon. We quickly move to a wide shot of explosions, brutal car crashes and other mayhem.

We do finally get a breather while we're learning our cast of characters at the mall in nicely written scenes that bring out personality and depth to the relatively large cast, but horror fanatics need not fret that the film will evolve into a drama--tension and gore are never far removed from the film.

Gunn and Snyder earn credit for both paying homage to their source material and taking off into other interesting directions. This remake is just as intense and titillating as Romeo's original, but with a different spin.

The cast is excellent, the cinematography and editing exciting and innovative, and the makeup and "creature" effects are top notch.

Even though I've seen greater quantities, the DVD for Dawn of the Dead also has some of the best extras I've seen on a disc in terms of quality. You get two excellent short films that effectively extend the feature. In one, a new character from the remake, Andy (Bruce Bohne), who runs a gun shop across the street from the mall, gives us a 15-minute video diary of his last 15 days. It's similar in some ways to the feel of The Blair Witch Project (1999), but for my money, it's much better than that film. In the other, we get a 30-minute condensation of the news broadcasts following the outbreak of the zombie "epidemic". This also easily beats any mock horror documentary (such as The Last Broadcast (1998)) with its hands tied behind its back. Make sure you at least rent the DVD to check out these extras.