Starring: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Mekhi Phifer
Directed by: Zack Snyder

From almost the moment it stars, Dawn of the Dead is intense. From beginning to literally the end (stay through the credits), is non-stop zombie-killing excitement. In a recent craze of zombie movies, this one is easily the best, being both well-made and fun. And super-violent/gross.

The plot isn't too complex, which is a plus for a zombie flick, I think. A small group of people flee to a mall to withstand the onslaught of zombies. When people get bit, they turn to zombies soon after "dying" themselves. Standard zombie rules apply here. Our survivors lock down the mall and have some weapons with which to defend themselves (i.e. crazy gats to blow the heads off zombies). But they can't stay there forever, so they plan to take one guy's boat to a nearby island where they reason would be zombie-free. The question is, how will they get out of this mall that's surrounded by flesh-eating undead?

One criticism levelled on this movie is that we don't get an explanation as to where the zombies come from. But think about that, first. The movie's strong point is the non-stop action. If there was a lull to explain why they're zombies and what happened to them, it would break the movie's flow. Also, I feel it would make them less threatening and (somewhat) sympathetic. Instead of mindless creatures without reason, we'd have tragic figures who were wronged by so-and-so into being zombies. I prefer my zombies origin-less. It scarier if you don't know why they want to eat your brains, just that they do. In addition, we follow the characters exclusively throughout the movies. We never learn more than they know. Therefore, they don't know where the zombies are coming from, so neither do we. It makes the audience just as scared as the characters.

The new trend in zombie movies is to shy away from the traditional slow zombies and move towards fast zombies. I enjoy this paradigm shift (that's right, paradigm). It makes them scarier. I can only hope this trend continues.

While I'm told the original Dawn of the Dead held some social commentary along the lines of 'consumerism makes zombies of us all' (hence, taking place in a mall), this new version (while devoid of such commentary, as well as humour, to lighten the mood) makes for one hell of a good time. Not for the faint of heart, though.

DroopyMcC
Queen