Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Just about every single horror buff that has lived through the past century has seen Dawn of the Dead, but for those that haven’t,I will describe it for you. Dawn of the Dead is a survive-the-mass-zombie-outbreak-in-which-you-happen-to-be-one-of-the-1%-of-the-known-world-left-alive genre movie. The original took place almost exclusively in a mall while zombies swarm around and inside the said mall. The survivors are forced to avoid or outwit the zombies to retrieve items they require for sustenance while devising a plan to escape the mall and flee to safety. Overall in my opinion, this is one of the best zombie flicks created to date.

The 2004 remake of DOTD follows relatively closely with the storyline of the original with some satisfying revisions. First of all, the beginning of the film goes into much greater detail as to how the outbreak started and progressed. It then follows to how the individuals find themselves into the mall. Within the mall, differences are added with the interaction between the characters and the number of characters as well. More characters are added with a group of people who flee to the mall in a big rig. More depth is added as with family relations and having to deal with the birth of a “child”. Near the end it changes with the group of survivors flee the mall to escape to an island where they should be safe. Secondly, the zombies can HAUL ASS! Unlike the original version or basically every other zombie movie in existence, the zombies in this movie can run. In my opinion, this adds to the scary and freaky values of this movie and makes the zombies ever more human.To me it also added the question of what is next? Zombies that can operate tools and machines? Perhaps firearm wielding zombies?! Only time will answer, but for now, this is a very solid and fun-to-watch film.

Review by Tyler Zimmer

I really don’t have much to add that my son did not cover above. I will say that I know there has been a controversy since this film came out about the running zombies. Some hate that they have changed the classic zombie while others love that it adds a new dimension to the fright. I am firmly on the love them side of the line. As hard as it is to say, this film offered me more fright (well as much as someone who has seen as many horror movies as i have can feel) than any Romero film ever has. This is one of the best zombie movies i have seen in a long while.

My rating 8.5 out of 10

Review by Elvis Lawson

Here is the trailer.