(Setting aside the fact that it's impossible for a corpse to come back to life, why the hell are they running?)
CAST: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Omar Epps, Michael Kelly, Lindy Booth, Ty Burrell, Kevin Zegers, Kim Poirier, Michael Barry, Jayne Eastwood, Boyd Banks, Irina Korobkina, Bruce Bohne, R.D. Reid,
DIRECTOR: Zack Snyder
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and Jackie Joyner Kersey-level zombies straight ahead...
The original DAWN OF THE DEAD (1979) is widely-recognized to be one of the best horror films ever. Chronicling the attempts of four desperate people to survive in the aftermath of the events of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968), which saw the dead coming back to life and attacking the living, DAWN OF THE DEAD was that rare fright-fest that worked on so many different levels: as a psychological study of people under pressure; as a commentary on our materialistic and consumerist society; and as simply a terrifying and visceral thrill ride. In short, it was a triumph.
Even though 28 DAYS LATER is technically not a zombie film, it was clearly influenced by DAWN OF THE DEAD, and its worldwide success in 2002 reawakened interest in the dormant Zombie genre. Much like SCREAM reinvigorated the Slasher genre in 1996. Whether or not 28 DAYS LATER sparked the idea for a remake of DAWN OF THE DEAD - or simply revved up existing plans to do so - is not clear. What is certain, though, is that 28 DAYS LATER influenced the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake in very much the same way that the original influenced 28 DAYS LATER. Two words: Running. Zombies. More on that later.
DAWN OF THE DEAD 2004 starts just before the zombie crisis explodes, unlike the original which opened with the world already chest-deep in the crap that started with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD - and rapidly sinking. We meet our heroine, Ana (Sarah Polley), an overworked ER nurse who leaves a 13-hour shift to head home to date night with hubby, Luis (Justin Louis). With the exception of a few people admitted for, ahem, "bite wounds" it was just another long day for her.
Unfortunately, this is the first sign that a massive shit-storm is coming. The second one is the news report on the car radio that Ana innocently switches away from during her drive home from the hospital. The third sign is the Emergency Broadcast Bulletin that interrupts the endless marathon of brainless sit-comes and even more brainless reality shows. Unfortunately, Luis and Ana miss this last clue due to the fact that they are fucking each other's brains out in the shower. Hope it's worth it.
The next day Ana wakes up to a ear-splitting screech. When she fumbles around for the alarm clock, she discovers it's actually Louis screaming - as a neighborhood kid tears a chunk out of his throat. How's that to get your weekend started? Luis manages to throw the little brat out into the hallway - before croaking on the bed. Thinking quick, Ana slams the bedroom door shut just as the rabid little tyke slams into the door from outside. Unforunately, Ana has problems on her side, as well. As in, Luis jumping back on his feet and trying to take a bite out of her.
Ana manages to escape via a bathroom window and hightails it for the car up-front. To her horror and confusion, the whole neighborhood is tearing itself apart. People are launching themselves at one another. Houses are burning. Pedestrians are being mowed over by the emergency vehicles and personnel sent to rescue them. You'd think it was New Year's Eve in Manila.
Jumping into her car, Ana books it for... well, anywhere but there. It quickly becomes apparent that whatever the hell is going on is happening everywhere - and not just her neighborhood. Evidently, some sort of virus is spreading which kills the victims, then reanimates them as flesh-eating, sprinting zombies whose bites are enough to kill and create more zombies. Soon, Ana hooks up with the following fellow would-be survivors: (1) Kenneth (Ving Rhames), surly and stoic brotha cop who couldn't give a fuck about anything except trying to find his brother; (2) Michael (Jake Weber), gentle and diplomatic Best Buy TV salesman who is also inexplicably a bad-ass when the script requires him to be; (3) Andre (Omar Epps), combative and trigger-happy brotha just trying to find a safe place for him and his pregnant Russian wife; and (4) Luda (Irina Korobkina), Andre's aforementioned pregnant Russian wife whose association with Andre is definitive proof that love is indeed blind.
Anyhow, these five eventually seek sanctuary in a nearby shopping mall and barricade themselves in. But are they really safe there? And how will they handle the hostile security guards led by the asshole CJ (Michael Kelly)? And how will they deal with even more survivors who show up later seeking shelter? Will the running zombies eventually find their way in? And if so, who will survive? And - last but most significantly - why the hell do those zombies run faster than a road runner with a firecracker shoved up its ass?
Inquiring minds want to know.
BUT, SERIOUSLY: Taken on its own, DAWN OF THE DEAD 2004 is a reasonably kinetic, creepy, and entertaining horror thriller. Comparing it with DAWN OF THE DEAD 1979, however, magnifies all of its flaws. To wit, they are: (1) too much action, (2) too many characters, (3) not enough characterization, and (4) illogical character decisions. Let's break down each flaw and discuss...
(1) Too Much Action: While the original DAWN had a lot of action, it also had a lot of mood-building scenes that got under your skin and helped create a hypnotic and claustrophobic sense of building dread. In DAWN the remake, the very little mood that is created is sacrificed to too much slam-bang action. The result is virtually no atmosphere. We never get any true sense that the world outside has fallen to the zombies. And this dampens the fear factor.
(2) Too Many Characters: While the original DAWN had only four characters that were fully-realized and fleshed out as three-dimensional human beings, DAWN the remake thrusts a total of fifteen - fifteen! - main characters on us. The result is not a single one of them is adequately explored. Not even Ana, who had the potential to rival Gaylen Ross' Fran from the original as a tough, capable, complex, but also relatably human heroine. Example: Ana has just lost her husband in the most horrifying way - and saw the whole thing. But with the exception of one very brief crying jag, we never revisit her loss again. Indeed, she seems almost cheerful until close to the end.
You might argue that Ana is the type who hides her feelings and keeps her own counsel, but that is just conjecture since the script doesn't give us any hints of this. This is very much unlike the original DAWN which planted sufficient clues and displayed enough scenes of character traits for us to deduce what kind of people we were dealing with. Ana never comes across as full human being the way Fran, Peter, Roger, and Stephen did in the original. Same thing with Michael - who conveniently shifts from meek Every-Guy to resolute bad-ass whenever it suits the script.
The only characters who are even remotely interesting are: (1) Andre, the criminal who just wants his child to be born into a good world; and (2) Andy, the gunshop owner across the way from the mall who strikes up a friendship with Kenneth from afar. But they, too, are short-shrifted by the half-baked script. Bottom line: had the creators of the remake decided to whittle down the characters, they would've had the opportunity to create complicated and layered people we could deeply sympathize with - as in the original. Instead, we get cardboard cut-outs that we barely care about.
(3) Not Enough Characterization. This item is a direct result of # 1 and # 2. Because of the sheer volume of action and the large number of characters, there's barely any time for any of the quieter one-on-one scenes that made the original DAWN so memorable. Those scenes allowed the characters to deepen from being a surface mix of traits - to become actual complicated human beings with inner lives. The remake has none of that, and so all we're left with are cliches, stereotypes, and ciphers that are really nothing but zombie-fodder.
(4) Illogical Character Decisions. This is a result of the three flaws that preceded it. Because we have no background on the characters due to their sheer number, and all that distracting action, their decisions often make no sense. I already mentioned earlier some examples about Ana and Michael. Another, and much more significant one, is the collective decision of the group to abandon the safety of the mall for some nebulous islands on Lake Michigan that, for all they know, are zombie infested. Now, to be fair, this thread echoes the one from the original wherein Fran felt they should leave the mall and continue flying into the mountains of Canada, where they could be truly safe. The difference, though, is that the original adequately tracked Fran's feelings about the mall and her fear that it would ultimately hurt the group. In the remake, this decision comes out of the blue and makes no sense. One minute, they're loving life in the mall. And the next minute, they're bitching and moaning like a bunch of pathetic drama queens.
And don't get me started about the decision of Nicole (Lindy Booth) to go after that dog - which leads to some very bad things happening to the group. She should've been shot by the others for that. Ostensibly, her emotional connection to the dog was so great that she'd be willing to risk not only her life, but also everyone else's, to save it. Fine. Whatever. But that is never built up sufficiently in the script. In the end, it's just another irrational plot device to push the story forward.
Bottom line: while DAWN OF THE DEAD 2004 is a solid action horror/thriller on its own, as a remake (on which grounds it should be judged), it is sorely lacking and merely average. Overall, a disappointment. And this is never more telling than in the film's box office: it opened with around $28 million, but then dropped steeply over the next few weeks - resulting in a total domestic box-office of barely $60 million.
With an opening like $28 million, it should have gone further. But without the strong emotional core that DAWN OF THE DEAD 1979 had, how could it?
