It takes a certain amount of ambition to remake a film from a director whose contributions are highly regarded among many. In 2004, Zack Snyder set out to do this with a remake of Dawn of the Dead. George Romero's 1978 film, a follow-up to 1968's Night of the Living Dead, is considered by many to be the zenith of what's sometimes referred to as the zombie apocalypse genre. Snyder certainly had his work cut out for him. Romero, who had written Dawn of the Dead alongside Italian horror maestro Dario Argento, brought zombies to the forefront in a commentary on consumerism.
What audiences got in 2004 was a film that was fast-paced with plenty of audacious gore effects and action sequences that provided a roller-coaster ride of entertainment. Praised by many critics and audiences, Snyder's 2004 remake didn't once let up on the gas when it came to providing an unmitigated frenzy of action that was certainly comparable to other modern zombie films such as 28 Days Later. Behind the flesh-devouring fiends and blood-soaked celluloid, a lack of quality makes Snyder's effort disappointing, especially when compared to Romero's original vision.
Dawn of the Dead (2004) R
Release Date March 19, 2004 Director Zack Snyder Cast Sarah Polley , Ving Rhames , Mekhi Phifer , Jake Weber , Ty Burrell , Michael Kelly Runtime 1hr 41min Main Genre Horror Writers George A. Romero , James Gunn Expand Too Much Familiarity to Stand Out
An observation that can be made about any subgenre of horror is that the success of one entry means several others will follow in its wake. Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Deadarrived just two years after 28 Days Later, a film that sometimes gets credit for reinvigorating the zombie apocalypse film, with the slow, lumbering zombies being replaced with predatory beings that move with a swiftness that matches their ferocity. Credit for this shift in how zombies were presented should really be bestowed to Italian director Umberto Lenzi, who introduced this aspect in Nightmare City, itself a wild, fast-paced film that the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead and 28 Days Later owe a great deal to.
Both films also emerged during an age when video games were quickly becoming more challenging and visually stimulating. Titles such as Resident Evil certainly made the zombie apocalypse more familiar to a new generation who might have otherwise been unfamiliar with the films of Romero and Lucio Fulci. Because the entertainment industry tends to be guided by trends and familiarity, it only makes sense that the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead would use these variables in its overall presentation, which is an aspect that hinders it significantly. If the original Dawn of the Dead was like reading a graphic novel with clever subtext, Snyder's remake was akin to watching someone playing a video game at its most challenging level of difficulty.
Romero's previous experience in the media allowed him to present Night of the Living Dead in such a way that there was an almost documentary approach to the events as they unfolded within the narrative. By the time he had gotten around to Dawn of the Dead in 1978, he had the advantage of working with former combat medic and effects maestro Tom Savini, whose skills allowed a comic book-like approach with much of the carnage, balancing color and chaos together to weave an engaging look at a world where, as the trailer for the original Dawn of the Dead alluded to "something has gone terribly wrong." With a bigger focus on entertainment than subversive commentary, Snyder's effort might stimulate the senses but feed into audience expectations rather than challenge them.
Both of Romero's films provide an in-depth character study of how different people might react in the face of a crisis. Placing ordinary people in extraordinary events is part and parcel of some of the most engaging stories in film. While attempting to recapture this vital aspect of Romero's previous entries, Snyder's effort doesn't quite work. The characters that Snyder places in the crisis are more or less one dimensional and there's very little to remember about any of them. In fact, they more or less become afterthoughts as order breaks down and the dead prey on the living.
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2 A Lack of Commentary and a Pointless Cameo
Not every horror film needs to be satirical or provide a running commentary on socio-political issues. After all, many audiences enjoy the thrills of being sacred and fast-paced action that provides a form of escape from the stresses and pressures of reality. The shopping mall is an essential character in both versions of Dawn of the Dead. A bastion of mindless consumerism and a location that, at one point, had become a phenomenon for the masses. Romero's use of the mall highlights the need for consumer goods among the masses, the zombies themselves taking the form of the consumers driven to the location by instinct. One has to look no further than the trailer of Romero's version to make note of this commentary, especially with the line: "We have spawned our own savagery."
Snyder's version fails to provide any commentary addressing the drive for mass consumerism. It uses the mall as a location for the siege from the zombie hordes and provides a cavalcade of clever killing scenarios, but regrettably, not much else. If the remake fails to see the significance of highlighting the frenzy and dependence on consumer culture, there's a cameo from one of the original cast from Romero's film, whose line of dialogue is rehashed in such a way that diminishes its impact in the original.
Ken Foree's line in the original Dawn of the Dead: "When there's no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth," is accompanied by additional dialogue about the true origins of the zombie, which exists in Voodoo. In a scene that's not even two minutes in length, Romero can link the modern zombie, a symbol of the modern consumer, to its roots in mythology and folklore. Foree's cameo in the 2004 remake as a televangelist equating the zombie apocalypse to a divine punishment for the immorality of man, certainly reflects the puritanical thought that's been present in the US for several generations. Despite the effort to link both films together with one another, it serves no purpose other than to have a cameo and recite one of the most memorable lines of dialogue from the original.
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An Ambitious but Disappointing Effort
One of the most cynical things a member of the viewing audience can do is dismiss any remake or new adaption of pre-existing source material without considering the ambition or effort it takes to do so. Zack Snyder's 2004 update on George Romero's seminal classic shows a director having the ambition to offer an updated version of a film that's beloved by many.
Ultimately, the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead is a roller-coaster ride of entertainment that many audiences gravitate toward but offers nothing in the way of tone or commentary, something that the original Dawn of the Dead had more than its fair share of. With the agony and dread that was present in the US following 9/11 and the escalating conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, there was a potential for many of these topics to be addressed in a subversive manner.
As a means of escapism and a page in the ever-developing history of the zombie apocalypse subgenre, it's one of many that overcompensated visual presentation rather than exploring the human reaction in a crisis, something that The Battery did a much better job of doing less than a decade later. If George Romero's films use the zombie as a means of exploring the human condition and a vehicle for social commentary, Zack Snyder's effort can best be described as a by-product of a vision that didn't quite grasp the larger picture. Stream on Peacock.