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“Dawn of the Dead (2004) directed by Zack Snyder.
(MF Title: “its about freakin Time!”)
Starring Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer, Ty Burrell and Michael Kelly.
Zombie Film Rating:

Summary: Loosely based on the 1978 Romero film of the same name, the remake takes place in Everett, Washington and immediately introduces us to Anna, an Emergency nurse at a local hospital. Anna has been on a 12 hour shift, and is running into overtime. She is asked by one of the doctors to track down a patient that had been admitted for a bite wound, after a bar brawl, and we discover the patient has been moved to ICU (which is a little unusual).

Anna finishes her shift and heads home, with subtle warning signs (radio announcements that she flips past, the busy Paramedics as she leaves the hospital) that all is not well in Everett. Oblivious to this (as we would all be at the end of a long day) she arrives home for a romantic evening with her husband, and as the camera fades from a blurred shower scene we notice the Emergency notice on the television.

Anna and her husband are woken up by their neighbors child (Vivian) entering the bedroom (does no one lock their doors in Everett?), Annas husband notices Vivian has blood down the front of her nightdress, and some sort of facial wound, and as he leans down to her to see if she’s ok, he is attacked and bit on the neck.

Anna throws the child down the hallway, and locks the bedroom door, desperately trying to stem the flow of blood from her husbands neck. She trys 911, but gets an “all circuits are busy” recorded message.

Her husband succumbs to his wounds and moments later leaps up and attacks Anna who flees through the bathroom, and runs to their car. Pausing by the car she notices the entire neighborhood is in chaos, neighbors with guns, packs of people attacking others, and emergency vehicles racing through around the streets with no regard to the safety of the residents.

Anna flees, while the radio in the car warns of civil unrest, and as Anna approaches a breakdown (cool overhead POV on these scenes), she looses control of her car and crashes down an embankment. She wakes up staring into the Muzzle of Sergent Kenneths shotgun, as he demands she “Say something!” (clearly having learnt that the dead don’t talk). Anna response, only the single word “Please”, is enough to convince Kenneth, and they proceed together.They run across more survivors, who indicate that the path chosen by Kenneth is not a safe one (”we tried it, back when there were eight of us”) and they decide to go to the Crossroads mall, which is located nearby, instead.

(here the DVD version differs from the movie, as the DVD shows them forcing their way into the loading dock, and the movie left this detail out - this is the only difference that immediately struck me). On entering the mall, closely pursued by zombies, they take a break to explore their surroundings and discover the interior of the mall is not zombie-free either.

Fleeing to the second level of the mall, they encounter the onsite security guys, who tell them succintly to “Find somewhere else”. A short argument follows, and the security guys allow the party in, on the condition that they disarm.

What follows is a series of news segments, and a slight power struggle between the party and the securiy staff, which eventually culminates in the security staff being overpowered, and the party taking control when another group of survivors trys to find its way in and CJ (the lead security guy) refuses to offer any help.

We now introduce some stablility to the mix, and a few new characters among the new survivors, and the gun store owner across the street. The party then fortifies some mall shuttle buses, and tries to rescue the gun store owner, without success and then flees to the cities marina, to escape by boat.

(I’ve trimmed the blow-by-blow description so you can enjoy the movie too… don’t want to do a complete walkthrough)

Critique: Taken on its own merits this film is excellent. The first 15 minutes are chaotic, and drag you right into the collapse of society. The film suffers from some pacing problems in the middle, but thats to be expected after such a rapid start.

Overall this film is an excellent zombie movie, and while I’ve some complaints with the tactics and details, I still enjoy watching the film. I can’t rate it as high as some of the other zombie movies, but its a dead lock for runner-up.

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