Movie of the Day – Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Ah yes, the main staple of any horror movie fan and a favorite genre of many movie goers.  Zombies are mainstream in a big way and it’s no surprise as to why their popularity is so big.  We have AMC’s The Walking Dead on prime time cable, numerous movies, George Romero, Zombie Walks, and a general infestation of pop culture relevant zombie inclusions.  You can’t escape it, it will surround you like a swarm of, well, zombies.  I love zombies and zombie culture.  Hell I want to take part in the Zombie Dash (kind of like the Warrior Dash but with zombies of course) and I own all the current issues of The Walking Dead and some.  So naturally I want to enjoy a zombie movie from time to time, but there are just so many of them out there that the good ones get mixed in with the bad crowd of zombie flicks.  Well I could go original and choose a classic Romero flick or one of the new-wave “zombie” movies like 28 Days Laters, but I decided on one that is truly terrifying and that is the one that has….ZOMBIES THAT RUN!

Sarah Polley and Ving Rhames star as two of the last remaining people on an earth that has been ravaged by flesh-eating zombies. After escaping to a shopping mall with a handful of other survivors, they decide that they only way to truly elude the approaching throng of undead is to somehow make their way to an island that is supposedly zombie-free. Jake Weber and Mekhi Phifer also star. – Matthew Tobey, Rovi

Yeah that’s right, zombies that fucking run.  I am sorry but if the world does go to the zombies and they run, humanity is doomed.  I don’t care if you are Usian Bolt or some other equally fast human being, unless you can run forever, we are all doomed.  While I am a purist and think that running zombies is just weird and impossible from the numerous literature I have read about zombies, the fact that this remake is really refreshing and honestly, equal to the original.  The thing about zombies and why they are menacing is that they never tire and their are thousands of the them.  Their numbers is what makes them frightening.  Their slow speed is our safety and this remake takes that little bit of safety and throws it out the window.  In the trailer and movie, you see these undead peeps going at you in full sprint, chasing down cars.  How do you defend against that?!

Compared to the original, there is a greater sense of urgency and dread in the film.  Yes they are holed up in a mall and have supplies, but with thousands of zombies out there all waiting for the starting gun to go off, the fear of death and being eaten alive by the zombies is just much more foreboding.  Zack Snyder did an amazing job putting together a remake of a classic that didn’t really spit on the original as so many other movies have.  There are a lot of tense moments in the movie and a constant push towards the edge of fear that you think at any moments the zombies will just get up some speed and smash through the mall doors.  Although that won’t happen since they made a point of telling the audience that the doors are shatter-proof.  Smart move Zack Snyder, smart move.

Dawn of the Dead is one of those zombies movies that brought something new to the table instead of just rehashing the same old remake treads.  The inclusion of fast zombies brings a whole new “WHAT THE FUCK” element to the movie and makes them just a that much more frightening.  There are plenty of scares and headshots galore that give us that nice little splatter gore we all enjoy.