...after watching this remarkable Director's Cut of the film, I slept on the couch with the lights on and left my television tuned to the Comedy Central channel.
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The Film According to Tim:
Back when I was a very young lad, I remembered hearing radio advertisements for George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead" playing at a local theater in downtown Portland. The theater would play these films as a double feature all through the month of October. I can never forget the tagline in the advertisement: "Just remind yourself, it's only a movie...it's only a movie." They had always been advertised as some of the most frightening films known to mankind. And probably for good reason because, after all, what could be more frightening than the dead walking the earth and eating the living?
It wouldn't be until the time I was in high school that I finally had the chance to see Romero's 1978 version of "Dawn of the Dead." Back then, I had a friend whose father bought a laser-disc player, and a bunch of us kids got together on a Saturday night to watch Romero's classic. I remember the film scared the living crap out of me, and I ended up sleeping with the lights on for weeks. Of course, as a youngster, it was easy to be frightened over a simple horror movie. However, as I've grown older I find very few films in this genre actually scare me. I'm pleased to report that Zack Snyder's remake of "Dawn of the Dead" frightened me almost as much as the original classic of 1978. In fact, after watching this remarkable Director's Cut of the film, I slept on the couch with the lights on and left my television tuned to the Comedy Central channel.
I'm honestly ecstatic and very pleased to finally see a film that actually scared me. It's been so many years since I've seen a film of this genre that was that effective. My hat is off to Zack Snyder for actually getting in touch with what a real horror film should be. The atmosphere, pacing, gore, and tension were everything that I would ever want or demand in a decent zombie movie. The thrills were relentless in every degree, and that alone makes this film worth the price of admission. I honestly can't think of a horror film that has been this effective in years. Gore Verbinski's "The Ring" from 2003 came close, but nothing like this movie delivered.
As in Danny Boyle's 2002 film, "28 Days Later," our zombies are faster, stronger, more aggressive and far more wicked than we've seen in any zombie movie of its kind. What's even more remarkable is the outstanding makeup job done on the walking dead. At the start of the film, they appear more as people with horrific flesh wounds. By mid section of the film, they begin to pale and look as though something you might see in the city morgue. And by the end, our zombies have finally begun to decay with a substantial amount of grotesque flesh falling from their bones. However, compared to Danny Boyle's version of the walking dead, we are able to get much closer to the zombies of "Dawn of the Dead." Granted, I liked "28 Days Later," but I never found Boyle's camera work or his distance from the cosmetics of the terrorizing creatures to be that effective. Zack Snyder's version of a zombie is everything that I would expect, and he does it with precision.
In the original "Dawn of the Dead," we follow a cast of living characters who find refuge in a local shopping mall. Not much has changed from the original as we find a new cast of survivors in an updated, more elaborate mall than in the original film. They are lead by a cast that includes Ana (Sarah Polley), a hospital nurse left widowed by her husband who was freakishly bitten by a zombie in the beginning of the film. Kenneth (Ving Rhames), a police officer who is bold, yet strangely distant from the events going on around him. Michael (Jake Webber), a young adult who seems to be in charge of his surroundings but is not as accepted as a leader due to his lowly station as a television salesman at Best Buy. Then there's Andre (Mekhi Phifer), who is a soon-to-be father of his first child.
There are several other characters who join the cast, and what's interesting is how each of them becomes so important to the film. Within each character, we are able to find a unique connection that easily relates to us all as an audience. Unlike Romero's version, we have a lot more people to care about and who are far more diverse in nature. Each person brings an honest sense of reality to the film and is able to make such a keen sense of connection that you can't help rooting for them, even if you don't like them. Now, as with any film with a multiple number of characters, I would usually complain that there are far too many people to keep track of. However, we need to remember this is a zombie movie, and some people have to die.
As with any zombie movie, there are common rules. You can only kill zombies by shooting them in the head, or at least crushing their skull with whatever object you can find. What's fun about this film is our characters have no clue about this rule, at least in the beginning, and it is as if they are learning it for their first time. As for myself, I was sitting there screaming, "Shoot 'em in the head!" Fortunately, Zack Snyder directed this film as if it were the first time we have ever experienced zombies. And, of course, there's always the question of what caused the dead to walk upon the earth. The answer is simply unknown. I generally like a film that at least gives me an answer to why things are happening. Not that I need to be spoon-fed; I just demand a sense of logic in films. However, with "Dawn of the Dead" it is actually far more effective that you know very little about why the dead are all-of-a-sudden cannibalistic man-eaters. To me, it makes the film feel much more realistic, and it makes it that much more frightening. I mean, after all, if the dead actually did start walking the earth, how would it be explained? In this film, the answers are left up to the supernatural, the spiritual, or the simply unexplainable. In some ways, I found it absolutely creepy that the entire premise had no answers, and it made the film that much more effective.
Overall, "Dawn of the Dead" is a film that grabs you by the seat of your pants and never lets go. It is a relentless ride of thrills and chills and is likely to be one of the best remakes of its genre ever. Zack Snyder obviously did his homework on Romero's classic, and it shows. Snyder did an outstanding job adding a few updated touches of his own, which added to the film and gave it a far more realistic feel than we've found in most zombie movies of the past thirty years. It is certainly a must-see movie for those who have enjoyed the zombie culture since the time of its birth.
Video:
The video is presented in anamorphic widescreen, 2.35:1 ratio. The picture does have a saturated contrast of color, and the dark areas appear very black, yet not murky or heavily grained. It appears that the film could have been shot digitally to give it the creepy, atmospheric feel it had, but it was done in 35mm. It isn't that the image is flawed in any way; it just that it's obvious the picture was shot in a way to give in an artistic touch. For whatever reason, it works remarkably well the way it is. For the most part, it is sharp and has acceptable clarity.
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[release]12370[/release]