Originally published on Set The Tape
The early 2000s was the beginning of a large resurgence of interest in the zombie genre. The ‘not a zombie movie but really a zombie movie’ 28 Days Later hit in 2002, with Shaun of the Dead taking a more comedic spin on the genre two years later, alongside a bloody and brutal remake of the George A. Romero classic Dawn of the Dead, putting zombies back on the big screen.
Meanwhile, The Walking Dead landed on comic shelves in 2003, sparking an avid interest in zombies in that medium. Pretty soon you would be able to find the rotting corpses of the dead in many low budget movies, independent comics, and as video game antagonists in ever increasing numbers. And whilst the zombie genre definitely feels like it went on a bit too long and had ever decreasing returns, the Dawn of the Dead remake was a pretty decent high point of the era.
When it was first announced that Dawn of the Dead would get remade, fans of the original film were less than pleased. The Romero version was – rightfully so – cited as an all time classic, one of the best examples of the zombie genre, and one of the best horror films ever made. Having created the zombie genre as we know it, moving away from voodoo slaves made with magic to the flesh eating infected that most people know zombies to be, Romero was an authority on the genre by virtue of having made it. As such, any change to his classic works would be seen as a blasphemy. The creators of the new version knew this, and began to make it clear to both the public and the people they were getting involved in the production that this new version should be seen more as a ‘re-envisioning’ rather than a remake.
Producers Eric Newman and Marc Abraham used examples of other all time great horror films that were heavily changed remakes, such as the John Carpenter version of The Thing or the 1979 Invasion of the Body Snatchers to demonstrate what they wanted to do with Dawn of the Dead. And it was this approach that netted the involvement of writer James Gunn in the project. Having only worked on low budget comedy movies and Scooby-Doo up till this point, Gunn was seen by many as a risky, if not downright foolish pick for the project. Equally, the production would worry fans even more when an unknown music video director named Zack Snyder was selected to head up the project. It feels unusual that there was a time when seeing both James Gunn and Zack Snyder on a project was seen as a dangerous and risky move, though with the manufactured online culture wars that ‘fans’ have made around these two men perhaps people would still be outraged if they worked together even today.
Much like the original film, the remake would tell the story of a group of disparate survivors during the zombie apocalypse as they come together and seek shelter inside a shopping mall. Other than that, however, the film remains largely distinct. One of the biggest changes is the fact that the zombies in this version are fast. Until their bodies rot to the point where they break down, the undead can move just as fast as they could when alive; a revelation that is used spectacularly in the film’s shocking opening scene in which lead character Ana (Sarah Polley) watches as her husband is killed by a neighbour child, before he himself comes charging towards her, intent on feeding on her. For those who went into the film without having seen that piece of information this moment in the movie became a game changer, and showed that whilst the film was definitely taking inspiration from the original it wasn’t afraid to do its own thing.
Alongside Polley, the film included Ving Rhames as a calm and competent cop who takes on a leadership position within the group, Jake Webber and Ty Burrell who play almost polar opposites as a nice everyman and a rich douchebag, Mekhi Phifer as an expectant father looking after his wife, played by Inna Korobkina, and Michael Kelly, Kevin Zegers, and Michael Barry as some mall security guards amongst other survivors. The film also included a few members of the original cast, such as Scott Reiniger, Tom Savini, and Ken Foree, the latter of whom got to say the iconic line of “When there’s no more room in hell, the dead shall walk the Earth”. The cast featured a decent mix of new up and coming actors, and recognisable faces at the time. The movie was also unafraid to have some of the more well known actors fall victim to the rampaging undead, meaning that the audience could never be sure which character would make it to the final credits. And even then, survival still wasn’t guaranteed.
When the film released it was met with rather favourable reactions, something that was never guaranteed during its turbulent pre-release reactions. It sold incredibly well, going above expectations, and ended up stealing the US top spot from The Passion of the Christ (sorry Jesus). Snyder was instantly praised as a first time feature film director, with his eye for action being pointed out across a number of reviews at the time.
Equally, the success of the movie would put to bed people’s ideas that James Gunn could only write more comedic and family friendly features; something he would prove again with his first directorial project, Slither. Whilst some criticism for the film was made in regards to the lack of focus on the mall setting as a metaphor used to critique American consumerism as the original film did, it would launch a number of interesting discussions around whether or not the US’s relationship to shopping and consumerism had changed over the intervening decades, and whether re-treading that same ground would in fact be redundant more than anything else.
Over the years since Dawn of the Dead, Zack Snyder has gone on to direct several other movies, most of which have been high profile comic book films. Whether that be adapting the ‘unadaptable’ Watchmen, or the conversations sparked by a dark and nihilistic view on the DC heroes in his movies, his works since have seemed to have divided audiences more than anything else. But Dawn of the Dead is fairly different. It’s a film that is generally received well, one that fans of horror and the zombie genre enjoy, and that has aged very well over the last two decades, perhaps in part to the slew of sub-par zombie content helping to showcase why Dawn of the Dead is so good. You could even make a strong case that Dawn of the Dead is perhaps the best film in Snyder’s tumultuous career.
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