“Dawn of the Dead” (1978) was ripe for a remake. The premise of zombie-plague survivors holed up in a mall and learning to work together is great, but George Romero’s film is on the slow side at 139 minutes.
Director Zack Snyder’s “Dawn of the Dead” (2004) is better in concept and broad strokes. It’s a tight (maybe too tight) 109 minutes, it features a more robust assortment of characters and conflicts, and the survivors use more of the mall, rather than merely turning a storage area into living quarters.
Fast times with Fast Zombies
“Dawn” 2004 capitalizes on the Fast Zombie resurgence that started a year prior with “28 Days Later,” making this a rare entry in the wider Romero-verse to not use Slow Zombies. This is appropriate for a brisker-paced film. Unfortunately, it also stands as an Aughts time capsule, using the popular action style of the time driven by jittery camera movement (and jittery movement within the camera, and edits that make it even more jittery).
“Dawn of the Dead” (2004)
Director: Zack Snyder
Writers: James Gunn (screenplay), George A. Romero (1978 screenplay)
Stars: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Mekhi Phifer
That’s not to say you can never tell what’s going on, as Snyder makes sure to hold still for some ’splosions – of makeshift propane bombs and shotgun-blasted zombie heads.
This is also an early effort from screenwriter James Gunn. His characters held my attention, partly because of likeable Everywomen and Everymen such as nurse Sarah Polley, reliable police officer Ving Rhames, and guy-who-finds-his-self-worth Jake Weber. These are types you want to on your side in an apocalypse.
Gunn also creates people we immediately dislike, such as Michael Kelly’s mall security guard and Ty Burrell’s sarcastic jerk. The sprawling cast is there mostly for shock-value and gross-out set pieces that ask how certain things would play out if zombies reigned. Notably, a woman dies in childbirth, and you can perhaps guess the fate of her baby too.
Gunn would go on to become an excellent writer of ragtag groups – see “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “The Suicide Squad” – and also deliver sharp social commentary in “Super” and a plain-ole fun monster mash in “Slither.” The 2004 “Dawn” bookends the shopping-mall era of American culture with the 1978 version, yet has absolutely nothing to say about mall culture. It’s a respectable monster mash, though.
This time, the action is the point
Surprisingly short on biting one-liners, “Dawn of the Dead” falls flat for a Gunn screenplay. For a good chunk of the film, it seems like Gunn and Snyder aim to do more with the mall setting and situation than Romero did, but all they really do is visually show it off.
Romero’s film – though too plodding overall — ends strong with a big mall battle. Snyder’s film has additional intriguing things going on – like the fate of the gun-store owner separated from the mall by a zombie horde – but it doesn’t end strongly.
This “Dawn’s” survivors want to break free of the mall – for reasons so shakily explained that it could simply be everyone’s stir-craziness. In terms of action, the film doesn’t end with a whimper. It’s neat to see the group work together to create two reinforced buses, just a notch less impressive than the Dead Reckoning tank from the following year’s “Land of the Dead.”
Even so, Gunn and Snyder for some bizarre reason aren’t interested in pursuing an epic and fateful outside-the-mall final act. Key events happen amid the closing credits as if they are an afterthought. Even with those bonus scenes, the story is not over when the movie ends. It’s like zombie-action spectacle is so much the point of this movie that the fates of the last of the survivors are superfluous.
“Dawn of the Dead” 2004 hits us with Aughts butt rock over the closing credits, and the music choice is appropriate. As far as butt-rock movies go, this is a pretty good one, with big character types and engaging action. But there’s a reason why style-dominated shaky-camera actioners fell out of popularity.