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| Dawn of the Dead 2004 |
Snyder's Living Dead Mall Horror film, sorta-remake of the classic Romero '78 "Dawn of the Dead" certainly has its fans. I look at it mostly as an action film with the heavies snarling, diseased speed-freaks. The bite infects. Where it started is up for debate. Snyder's film more or less just drops us in the middle of it, much like Romero does in his film. Polley (not the actress you'd ever see in a film like this) is a nurse whose husband is bitten by a little girl she meets returning from work in some Milwaukee suburb. How the little girl was bitten or who brought it to Milwaukee is up for debate. What matters is the collection of different people who congregate at a mall and what they decide to do with the zombie outbreak outside. Snyder gives us a lot of news in the opening credits as to the global scale of the zombie outbreak and how it has turned the world into an apocalyptic maelstrom. Some of the folks at the mall are rather disposable and not entirely developed but they are background support. It is funny seeing Phil Dunphy as a self-absorbed prick but Burrell isn't in the film but here and there, mostly to quip and leave a bad taste. He records himself fucking this juicy blond (Kim Poirier) who had been shown trying on lingerie in front of a mirror. She gets it bad with a rough turn in a van after a chainsaw held by an organist (RD Reid) goes right into her shoulder. The film definitely decides to go in a rather horrific (many consider just a bit much) direction with the pregnancy angle from the original by having Phifer's partner (Korobkina) infected and giving birth to a zombie baby...I'm sure this did land for many viewers and was shocking, but I can also hear a collective groan at the attempt to go full-throat melodramatic with the audacious twist. Poirier seemed to be a character suffering from "shave minutes from the overall running time" because I could see critics pointing at her as pointless. The elevator scene is certainly inspired...imagine running from a horde into the elevator and waiting to get to the next floor! But the opening with Polley enjoying some time with her husband after a difficult shift, making plans, and then a bite to the throat causing this unexpected horror show. The gunstore owner across from the mall communicating with cop, Ving Rhames, on the top of their structures is a cool addition...these are the little additions I think can make a remake or separate film in same-name feel somewhat different. Rhames doesn't break from oh-so-serious, but I don't think anyone really wanted him to be anything but *badass with a shotgun who is imposing at closeup so don't fuck with him*. Weber's part, for me when I saw it at a peculiar night during its first week in 2004, stood out. Very calm, cool, together, with his wits about him; Weber was legit a leader badly needed but so many zombies and just not enough still alive to combat the sheer number. Kelly is the early antagonist, sort of the leader of security guards of the mall who took "ownership" of the location; an asshole dictating rules and orders, eventually he's outsmarted and disarmed but not before making life difficult for the likes of Polley, Rhames, and Weber. Eventually, Kelly's character finds redemption, if just because he's needed as another person to fire guns at zombies. I mean Zegers and Booth become young kids in love after Booth's father (Frewer) dies thanks to a zombie bite. I was a bit disappointed that Frewer is given so little to do, except die with Rhames preparing to shoot him in the head...he gets the departing dramatic music. The ending credits is a bummer, as intended. I could say more but maybe some other time I might be a bit more detailed. The zombies are an acquired taste. I totally get why the speed zombies are terrifying to folks. Little room to stop and think, to breathe, to get away; if you are alive, the zombies won't allow you much time to contemplate the next move. And I get why there are those who choose this over Romero's film. It is juiced up, fast-paced, goes for the jugular. I'm just a Romero Living Dead guy. It's always about what each prefers. 3/5
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