In 2004, one creative duo mastered what an uncompromising remake should look like. George A. Romero will always remain the master behind the modern zombie, but the remake of Dawn of the Dead had some teeth. This was because of Zack Snyder and James Gunn, who would go on to be forces in different ways for the DC universe. Before their respective Superman films, the two delivered an off-the-wall update to Romero’s classic. Snyder directed the film with his trademark style, and Gunn wrote the sharp screenplay.
The new Dawn of the Dead takes place in Wisconsin during the initial outbreak of the undead. Starring Sarah Polley, the film follows her character Ana, who wakes up one day to find that her devoted husband was trying to eat her. Ana does the only rational thing and hightails it out of there to find her entire suburban neighborhood is full of the undead. Eventually, she meets up with a group of other survivors who all find refuge at an abandoned mall. Dawn of the Dead pays homage to the original while incorporating dark humor that has come to be expected from the Slither director. Gunn and Snyder never found a project to collaborate on again, which is a travesty because the high-octane and ultimately bleak story has become a modern classic.
‘Dawn of the Dead’ Was a Remake Perfect For the New Millennium
Social commentary has always been prevalent in George A. Romero’s horror films, a trend that the genre has tended to stick with for the most part. When Dawn of the Dead was updated for a new generation, it turned things up a notch. Romero’s original film was an indictment of consumerism when his characters hid in a mall.
These ideas were still present in the remake as half a dozen survivors lived off amenities in the mall, but each one of them was picked off one by one nonetheless. Steve (Ty Burrell), the most capitalistic of them all, died as much as the most innocent of the cast. Instead, Dawn of the Dead focused on the selfishness of people and the idea that death is inevitable. Despite everyone’s best efforts, death comes for everyone with no hopeful outlook.
The choices in Dawn of the Dead are more extreme as the characters learn the rules of the world. After communicating with a gun store owner from across the mall, the survivors formed a kinship with him. As Andy (Bruce Bohne) slowly runs out of food, Ana and her cohorts agree to rescue him. This decision leads to devastating consequences as their rescue mission is too little too late. Dawn of the Dead also features one of the more horrifying scenes where a pregnant Luda (Inna Korobkina) gets infected, which transfers to her baby. The baby is born a zombie, as its father, Andre (Mekhi Phifer), is tragically unable to see it for what it is and dies in the process.
These little decisions hit critical mass until the end of the film, when not even the protagonist gets out of Wisconsin alive. Zombies that were fast and rose quickly from the dead were the precursor to current zombie tales and set Snyder and Gunn up for a prolific future, making their own films. The Dawn of the Dead remake is a supplementary material to the original, but it is always worth a watch.
- Release Date
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March 19, 2004
- Runtime
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101 minutes
- Director
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Zack Synder
