For many people the routine
of everyday life is something that is often taken for
granted. Today, the demands on a person’s time are at al
all time high, as there is often less time to relax and
enjoy the many finer things in life.
In the film “Dawn of the Dead” audiences are shown a
horrific vision of a world turned upside down where the
routines and securities of life are but a distant memory.
For Ana (Sarah Polley), her life is a busy but comfortable
existence. When Ana is not working as a nurse at a local
Hospital, she is a loving wife to her adoring Husband and is
very much the model of suburban tranquility as she has a
routine and is very happy in it. That all changes one
morning when Ana awakens and finds a neighbor attacking her
husband who in turn attacks Ana forcing her to flee. Her
once peaceful and comfortable suburb has now become a mass
of blood and carnage as an army of bloodthirsty crazies has
descended upon her town leaving a path of death and
destruction in their wake. Ana soon encounters survivors who
tell her that the roads and access points to the town are
filled with the walking dead who are unstoppable as they are
voracious. The survivors are lead by Officer Kenneth (Ving
Rhames), who has lost his family in the recent events and
wants to locate his brother at a nearby military base. The
need for shelter is accelerated by the late term pregnancy
of a survivor named Luda (Inna Korobkina), so her husband
Andre (Mekhi Phifer), leads the group into a nearby mall
where they plan to secure themselves until help can arrive.
Once in the mall, the group encounters three security guards
whose leader CJ (Michael Kelly) is less than happy to be
including strangers into their sanctuary. The groups
eventually combine and suspicions and power struggles soon
arise and are exacerbated when more survivors arrive.
The group stays in touch with the happenings in the world
around them by watching televisions and soon realizes that
help is not coming anytime soon if at all. Thanks to a
well-stocked food court, the group is able to stay in the
mall for the long term but with more and more of the living
dead arriving outside the mall the options are becoming
fewer and fewer.
It is soon learned that the bite of the living dead is fatal
and that those who die without being consumed by the horde,
soon emerge as a member of the horde allowing the zombies to
reproduce at an amazing rate. This is not good news for the
survivors as they are soon faced to take on the zombies for
their very survival and in the process descend into the very
depths of hell itself.
Based on a script by James Gunn and directed by first time
film director Zack Snyder, “Dawn of the Dead” is a
surprisingly entertaining update of the 1975 classic that
mixes dark humor and action to create a mostly satisfying
film.
Gunn wisely avoided copying the original films events, as
the only real similarity is the survivors taking refuge in a
mall. Instead the film is an interesting look at consumerism
and suburban routine and the madness that ensues when order
and society come undone. Like last years “28 Days
Later”, the film stresses how quickly society can be
disrupted by unforeseen events and how many of us take the
comforts and securities we have for granted.
The ensemble cast works well with the script though many are
simply in the film as fodder. The story uses the characters
to represent a society, as there are examples from all walks
of life and backgrounds. Emphasis is not put into developing
the characters; it is placed on developing the action and
maintaining the story and setting. In this regard the film
succeeds well as it is entertaining and action filled. The
story does drag towards the middle of the film but concludes
with a rousing finale that had the audience cheering loudly
at my press screening. I especially liked the cameos from
three of the people involved with the original and some of
the references to the original. If you are a fan of the
original or like horror then "Dawn of the Dead" is
what you have been waiting for.
