Right after the success of the classic Night of the Living Dead, George A. Romero worked on another zombie movie classic, Dawn of the Dead, where survivors stay in a mall and are, themselves, zombies to American consumerism. It was a pretty violent, but entertaining movie. So naturally, with a successful horror movie, Hollywood, being Hollywood, felt that the nostalgia for this movie had finally set in, and they decided to work on a remake of the film. That remake resulting in the 2004 remake known as Dawn of the Dead, which we will be looking at. Not the 1978 Dawn of the Dead…. I’m disappointed too.



So, I am pretty mixed about this film. There are some scenes in it that I love, there are some scenes in it that I hate, and there is one specific scene that I absolutely despise. But we’ll get to that when we get to it. So, the movie follows a nurse named Ana. She’s female and has blonde hair, so I’m sure she’ll be one of the survivors at the end of the movie. After her husband is killed par a zombie girl, she makes her escape, where she runs into other survivors. A police officer named Kenneth, a salesman named Michael, a criminal named Andre, and his pregnant wife, Luda. Together, they hide out inside of a mall, as they try to avoid the zombie apocalypse outside, and try to deal with the overbearing mall officers (And once again, mall cops try to take charge of everything) while having background musique such as Down With the Sickness par Disturbed, ou how about Down With the Sickness… But this time par comedic lounge musician, Richard Cheese. The music’s pretty good, and I gotta admit, Richard Cheese’s lounge edition of a rather disturbing song is pretty silly.



There are some things I like about this movie. It’s another zombie that doesn’t take itself seriously, which is already a good thing. Everyone is just screwing around, enjoying what they can find inside the mall, and just Kenneth playing chess with Andy, the gun store owner from across the street, who communicate through whiteboards. It still manages to give the sort of social commentary that Romero’s Dawn of the Dead had. It really does make toi think that this could be an honest and a pretty perfect remake to the original Dawn of the Dead, right. Ha, ha, ha… I thought that too.



Now, before I rip this movie apart, I still want to talk about one plus positive. And I think it’s probably my favori thing about this movie. The zombies in it. Sure, toi can say that their just your typical flesh-eating zombies, and your right. They are flesh-eating zombies, only these zombies are special in there own way… And it’s because they're fast as hell. These zombies are incredibly fast, and sprint right towards their prey. This was the first zombie movie I watched involving zombies that could run instead of slowly lumber about, and I gotta admit, as a child watching this, I was terrified. Of course, now looking at them, the spriting doesn’t really impress me now, but the make up on them looks amazing. They look dismembered, bloodied, yet still look human if toi look far away. Watching them déplacer about is pretty scary, and they even can infect people with a scratch instead of just a bite, which most zombie films seem to forget they can do that. I gotta admit, the zombies in this movie were pretty impressive.



Okay, enough with the positives. Now let’s talk about some negatives with the movie. Like the characters for instance. Not all of them are bad. Kenneth and Andy are pretty entertaining, but the majority of them (And the majority of what we’re stuck with), Ana especially, all seem to be just angry, and swearing all the time. I mean, I can understand Ana being all angry and upset, she did watch her husband get eaten and turned into a zombie. I wouldn’t exactly be happy if my spouse got turned into a zombie… And then all my understanding of why she does this goes out the window, because she immediately wants to be with Michael when they meet. Like, why? Why would toi want to go with someone after your husband hasn’t been dead for that long. Maybe I’m just stupid and this all takes place over the span of a few days… ou maybe the movie’s écriture just sucks.



Okay, so maybe I can only find two negatives, but I can assure you, there’s one BIG negative in this movie. One that just made me grown at how stupid the idea was. toi could say that it isn’t that bad, but for a fan of the original Dawn of the Dead, this is pretty bad. So anyway, (Spoilers), Luda gets infected and is tied to the bed, as she is giving birth in her zombie form. So, Andre, being batshit crazy, kills one of the survivors at the same time he is killed. But wait, as Luda is giving birth, we see that she has donné birth to… A zombie baby…. Oh my god, WHY!? This has to be the dumbest thing toi could have possibly done, and they did it. I’m supposed to be scared of… fucking THIS! toi could have done way plus with this. Keep the baby alive (AND HUMAN), and have the survivors try to keep it alive so that there can be a slight glimmer of hope in the apocalypse, or, have the group mercifully kill it because they can’t care for the child and montrer how damned humanity was. Anything but zombie baby! Just saying that outloud sounds stupid! Say it outloud and tell me the idea isn’t crazy (And not in a good way).



Okay, so as much as terrible as some of the characters are and as… Completely idiotic the zombie baby idea was, I do have somewhat of a soft spot for this movie. It manages to have a very creative kind of zombie, the special effects and make up on the zombies are pretty impressive, and I do like that the movie isn’t totally 100% serious…. And if I had to give a pointless praise, Richard Cheese’s Down with the Sickness is pretty good. The movie also gained some praise par critics and has gained a following. It was one of the main inspirations of Dead Rising, and even Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park, loved the movie and parodied it with their episode Night of the Living Homeless. It’s probably never going to make “Best horror movie” lists, mine included, but I think it’s worth a watch… Just keep that scene skip button close for the baby scene. Take care.

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