Dawn of the Dead (unrated version) DVD Review:

In 1978 George A. Romero made his follow up film to the low budget zombie classic, Night of the Living Dead. Although Dawn of the Dead was a sequel, there was no shortage of originality in the script and execution. It was a stark film commenting on consumerism and the human reaction to tragedy, while scaring audiences in the process. There were so many levels to the film that it could be looked at as more than just a quick scare. Although extremely entertaining, and well made in many aspects, the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead contains none of the elements which made the original worthy of being remade in the first place.

While the 1978 version plays off the fact that the zombies have been around for quite some time, the new version starts the film before the epidemic has
spread. This is an effective decision, allowing for a kind of quiet before the storm. The film slowly builds tension, and what follows is possibly the most intense first ten minutes seen in theaters in years. We watch the world crash into chaos as the zombies take over, through the eyes of one woman,
and all of this is before the title card has even come up.

Soon a group of people look to a shopping mall for safe haven, possibly the only key element taken from the original Dawn of the Dead script. Aside from the power hungry security guards inside, it seems to be the perfect spot to hole up. There is plenty of food, and the zombies are easily barricaded out, but escape inevitably becomes important to move the plot along. Add in the
element of zombies hiding within areas of the mall, and characters who have been bitten and there are enough twists to keep the story moving.

There is virtually no plot aside from the zombie element that is even worth talking about, which is unfortunate considering the talent involved. Jake
Weber pulls of some of the best character related dialogue in the film, and as a result I felt more drawn to his character than any other. Mekhi Phifer,
Ving Rhames, and Sarah Polley all do what they can with their characters, but none of them are given much to work with. In the hands of lesser actors the film may have fallen into a B-film quality, and yet they pull most scenes off with as much believability as can be expected.

Where the film excels is not in the plot or in its characters, but instead in the visuals. It is shot in a slightly overexposed way, giving many scenes a stark and bizarre feeling. In contrast are the scenes in mall which are perfectly sharp and clear. Every shot looks beautiful, with fantastic production values, all giving platform to the excruciatingly explicit make-up of the zombies. The look of the film is more a star than any actor in the film, and that isn’t for lack of talent by the actors.

There were many changes to the film aside from merely plot. Zombies run in this version, something that wasn’t always done, but seems to be the norm
lately, after 28 Days Later. Audiences just don’t seem to want the same monsters that have been around. Adjustments must be made in order for the
intensity to remain. So the theme seems to be taking a film which was intense and scary in it’s time (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dawn of the Dead) and revamping it in a way that audiences today will be scared. The only problem with this method is that often the substance of what made the original great is lost in order to make it flashier for an impatient generation. The classics will still remain when the smoke has cleared, and soon the remake will be replaced by the next blockbuster.

The DVD boasts its unrated version, which is difficult to compare to the theatrical version because both are so graphic and disturbing. The selling point for me, however, was the special features which are only on the unrated disc. These features include three exclusive featurettes on the
make-up and special effects. It is graphic and mesmerizing to find out how they make the heads explode, and how they killed off certain zombies. The most interesting part was seeing how they hired stunt men with certain attributes in order to complete fight sequences properly. These are the only special features even worth watching, and they can only be seen on the unrated disc. The R-rated disc has a few B-film quality “extra footage” films to further advance the plot, but I wouldn’t bother watching more than the first five minutes of each to see how bad they really are.

It really is a great buy for any horror film fan, especially ones with a strong stomach. The DVD is put together well, and Universal has spent time
filling the disc with special features, some of which probably should have been left off.

Ryan Izay

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