Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Director:

Zack Snyder

Writers (WGA):

George A. Romero (1978 screenplay)
James Gunn (screenplay)

Release Date:

19 March 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

When the undead rise, civilization will fall.

Plot:

A nurse, a policeman, a young married couple, a salesman, and other survivors of a worldwide plague that is producing aggressive, flesh-eating zombies, take refuge in a mega Midwestern shopping mall.

Plot Keywords:

Mall | Nurse | Shopping Mall | Police | Boat

Awards:

1 win & 6 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sun. Dec. 13	3:00 AM	MTV
Sun. Dec. 13	10:00 PM	MTV

Cast

Sarah Polley	...	Ana
Ving Rhames	...	Kenneth
Jake Weber	...	Michael
Mekhi Phifer	...	Andre
Ty Burrell	...	Steve
Michael Kelly	...	CJ
Kevin Zegers	...	Terry
Michael Barry	...	Bart
Lindy Booth	...	Nicole
Jayne Eastwood	...	Norma
Boyd Banks	...	Tucker
Inna Korobkina	...	Luda
R.D. Reid	...	Glen
Kim Poirier	...	Monica
Matt Frewer	...	Frank

Also Known As:

L'armée des morts (France)
L'aube des morts (Canada: French title)
Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead (USA) (long title)
Die Nacht der Zombies (Austria) (Germany) [de]
Zora zivih mrtvaca (Bosnia and Herzegovina: Croatian title) (Croatia) [hr]
Ölülerin safagi (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Amanecer de los muertos (Spain) [es]
El amanecer de los muertos (Argentina) [es]
Kuolleiden aamunkoitto (Finland) [fi]
L'alba dei morti viventi (Italy) [it]
Madrugada dos Mortos (Brazil) [pt]
O Renascer dos Mortos (Portugal) (working title) [pt]
To xypnima ton nekron (Greece) [el]
Zora zivih mrtvaca (Serbia) [sr]
Zora zivih mrtvecev (Slovenia) [sl]

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive strong horror violence and gore, language and sexuality.

Runtime:

101 min | 110 min (unrated director's cut)

Country:

USA | Canada | Japan | France

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Zurich) | Malaysia:18SG | Sweden:15 | Germany:18 (also director's cut) | South Korea:18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Brazil:18 | Canada:13+ (Québec) | Canada:18A (Ontario) | Chile:14 | Czech Republic:18 | Finland:K-18 | France:-16 | Hong Kong:III (director's cut) | Ireland:18 | Israel:16 | Italy:VM14 | Japan:R-15 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:18 | Philippines:R-13 | Portugal:M/18 | Singapore:R21 | Spain:18 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:18 | USA:R | USA:Unrated (director's cut)

Filming Locations:

Ashbridge's Bay, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Strike Entertainment

Trivia:

This is the first movie to broadcast the first ten minutes uncut on network TV, five days before its nationwide release. The showing was broadcast on the USA network, and on Channel 4 in the UK with a special introduction by film critic (and major horror fan) Mark Kermode.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Ana is pulling up to her home, you can see Vivian skating through the curve in the overhead shot. However, when she stopped at her driveway, the layout of the neighborhood shown in the overhead is different than in the level shot, and the cars in their neighbor's driveways are different.

Quotes:

Terry: [as Nicole is dragged into the other truck] Hey, wait... NICOLE!

Movie Connections:

Features Animal House (1978)

Soundtrack:

You Light Up My Life

Why I gave Dawn a 10 (well, maybe it should have been a9).

I've been to thousands of movies in my lifetime and own hundreds of videos and DVDs, so I am a fan but not a bona fide film critic. This is my first online review.

My wife and I saw the original Dawn of the Dead 25 years ago at a midnight show and left wired enough to talk each other down till the morning. Perhaps a quarter of a century has inured us to the violence a bit since we just watched it again (rental video) last week prior to yesterday's venture to the local multiplex to see the remake/"reimagining" and were mostly unperturbed by the revisit.

For some reason, I was hooked on the new Dawn months ago from the teaser and, subsequently, the actual trailer. The Sparklehorse song in the former fit perfectly and the suburban shot followed by killer Vivian and closing with the burned projector film of the latter was intriguing in its own way. So I was primed to see the movie, usually a recipe for disaster since preview expectations are rarely fulfilled by the finished product. This time, however, they were.

The cast was uniformly believable and, more important, empathizable (at least with the good guys who got sorted out along the way). Even the playboy jerk had several relevant lines. Polley was a good, strong female lead (with another great rebuttal -- "No, I'm a * nurse" to a query about her medical skills) and Rhames a cheerable, if reluctant, hero. The camaraderie, such as it was, worked, and visceral me-first survival gave way more often to self-sacrifice.

So, what's not to like? The fundamental premise that a classic got remade? Doesn't wash. These are two different movies with the same name and similar premises but very different attitudes. (Better special effects didn't hurt, either, although this new version was oddly less disturbing sans zombies munching on dismembered body parts.) Speedy zombies (except for the "twitchers")? No problem; hey, they're hungry and, as always, persistent. My attention was held for the better part of two hours; the story was interesting; the outcome ambivalent; the characters arisen to the task at hand, becoming coldly rational to the divisions between life and death and zombiedom; the music weirdly appropriate; the black humor welcome respite. No, Dawn of the Dead isn't Citizen Kane nor is it a sacrilegious assault on the horror genre. It's solid filmmaking that's entertaining and thought-provoking. Otherwise, I suspect Romero would never have put his imprimatur on the remake.