Reviewed by: Kris

Directed by: Zack Snyder

Produced by: Richard P. Rubinstein, Marc Abraham, & Eric Newman

Cast: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Mekhi Phifer, Michael Barry, & Lindy Booth

Suspense/Horror 1 hr. 40 min. As the United States is turned upside-down by a strange plague-like event in which millions of corpses walk the earth as blood-thirsty zombies (with the recently-deceased that the zombies kill usually returning as zombies themselves, multiplying their number), a small group of survivors of the onslaught, which include a nurse (Polley) and a police officer (Rhames), try to find shelter and protection within a massive shopping mall in the mid-sized city of Everett, WA. What they don't reckon on is that the zombies still have some sort of residual memory, and *everyone* loves going to the mall, right? Realizing that their time is running out, they decide to make another attempt at flight, to a presumably un-zombie-infested island, but to do so, they'll have to get past thousands of zombies in-between...

I am not a huge fan of the horror genre. I usually find most of the horror movies to be tasteless and unnecessarily gruesome. However, I do like the zombie flicks. I enjoyed Resident Evil and 28 Days Later. When I saw previews of Dawn of the Dead, I told myself it would be just like 28 Days Later. Then I remembered that it is a remake of a 1978 horror flick and decided that it could at least come close to being as good as 28 Days Later, so I went to see it.

I did like this film. I thought that the cinematography was erratic enough for a horror flick, and it was quite suspenseful. This is a very bloody film though. The beginning is probably the worst part of the goriness, but when the zombies attack it is always bloody. I would say that this isn’t a film for the kiddies; they will probably end up having many nightmares.

The most interesting thing about this film was the soundtrack. I think whoever put the music together did a great job. I never would have expected to hear a Johnny Cash song in a horror movie, and yet I did in this one, and it was absolutely perfect. There were some other interesting selections throughout, but I will allow you to discover those on your own.

If you liked 28 Days Later you will definitely like this one. It’s the same sort of concept, but done with a little better camera work. Make sure you are ready for the gore, and for some language and one minor quick sex scene. Check it out if you want a night of fun.