Sunday, March 21, 2004
Dawn Of The Dead (2004)
Hey, I'm a big fan of nostalgia. I'm a very loyal person, especially when it comes to the movies that I grew up with. To me, the late 70's to mid 80's were some of the most influencial times of my life. I have a great devotion and loyalty to the pop and cult icons of that era.
I have to say, though, that I was pretty impressed with Zack Snyder's remake of Romero's "Dawn of the Dead". Sure, it was full of completely overdone explosions and I found it annoying that Ving Rhames cannot get passed his Marcellus Wallace character, but I thought that there were some aspects to the film that stayed true to some of the basic fundamentals of 70's/80's horror movies.
For one, they kept close to the hierarchy among the "survivors". Reminiscent of "Night of the Living Dead" and "Lord of the Flies", each character in "Dawn of the Dead" represented personality types in society. You could almost tell from the beginning who would make it, and who wouldn't. You could tell who the silent hero was, who the bimbo was, who the strong female was, etc. Not to say that it was predictable, but zombie movies (as well as other horror movies) seem to follow a pattern of up-front predictability.
Another thing that saved it from the "shitty remake pile" was (and don't read any further if you don't want to know the ending) the fact that it lead you to believe that there would be a resolution at the end. You saw these people fight off the zombies for about an hour and a half and you wanted them to live, right? I mean, they beat the odds and they deserve to live, right? WRONG. In a world full of pretty package endings and pro-American idiology bashed into our skulls, it was nice to see our heros die. It keeps us all humble, I think.
And perhaps the most endearing part of the movie is the fact that they did not throw out the whole "let's seek refuge at the mall" plan. The mall fortress was BRILLIANTLY conceived in the original "Dawn of the Dead" and seemed to fit in again just as well 26 years later. As I stood outside the movie theater after the show, I drove home through Irvine passing strip mall after strip mall, watching people wander aimlessly out of the stores and into another one, pushing shopping carts and baby strollers, filling baskets and bags, expressionless faces, the undying need to spend, consume, breed....and I smiled just knowing that zombies were indeed alive and kicking in Orange County.
