As zombie week comes to a close, I reflect upon where our spooky, undead journey has taken us. From cinematic revolutions to mediocre effort video adaptations, from foreign films to British wisecracks, zombies truly touch every area of horror-themed life. But, at the center of all of this Halloween spirit is the fact that this stuff is fun. So, to honor that tradition of fun, I picked a movie that really embraces the fun badassery that zombie movies can be: the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake.
This movie, a remake of Romero’s 1978 sequel to Night of the Living Dead, could not be more different in tone from its original source material. Dawn of the Dead focuses on a group of survivors in the recent zombie apocalypse who hole up together in an abandoned mall. This movie offers some of my favorite zombie movie tropes and crazy visuals while paying homage to its predecessors with several references to older Romero movies and other horror entries that helped create the opportunity for this beautifully crazy movie to be made. It’s directed by Zack Snyder and James Gunn who have respectively come to represent polar opposites of the superhero movie spectrum, but together they have gifted us a totally wild ride through zombie gore and action.
I just love the craziness. You’ve got people exploding zombie heads with shotguns, gas tanks exploding scores of zombies in a beautifully unrealistic way, undead babies, and chainsaw-wielding buses. None of what I described are hyperbole. Throw in Ving Rhames acting like himself in a zombie apocalypse and you’ve got a hell of a movie. This one is way more action than horror-oriented, and that’s ok. Sometimes, you need the crazy factor turned up to 11.
Tonight begins Slasher Week! Join me in enjoying the kills of your favorite psychopaths.
