DAWN OF THE DEAD: Unrated Director's Cut

When I went to see Tom Savini's 1990 remake of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, I tried to do so without a chip on my shoulder, and I came away without being disappointed by what is a reasonably entertaining zombie movie with a few fresh twists that doesn't insult the original. My experience with Zack Snyder's 2004 remake of DAWN OF THE DEAD went pretty much the same - maybe even better.

James Gunn (SCOOBY-DOO, TERROR FIRMER) contributes his best screenplay so far, wisely replacing all but the basic idea of the original to create an almost entirely new story. The first act draws us beautifully into the end-of-the-world scenario through the eyes of nurse Ana (Sarah Polley) as she and her husband miss all news reports of the crisis and awake to the Dawn in which their world has gone mad. Not that hubby sees much of it before getting bit by a zombie neighbor, which immediately turns him into one of the walking dead. Fleeing her suburban Milwaukee neighborhood in a panic, Ana collides with a small group of refugees, and they all hold up in a local mall. After a short time spent trying to avoid boredom and the growing danger outside, the group decides to make a run for the lake in customized armored buses, in the hope that they can find an uninhabited island - or at least an island uninhabited by flesh-hungry ghouls.

While Romero's original is famous for its editorial themes of class relations and consumer culture, Snyder (yet another young director handed a major genre film for his debut based only on his music video experience) doesn't keep his players in the (much smaller) mall any longer than he has to, and he aspires to nothing deeper than the basic material already holds. His aim is to keep the action rolling throughout, and his DAWN doesn't hold still for more than a minute at a time. Gunn, Snyder, and the cast succeed in creating some solid characters for viewers to latch onto. One character seems a sure villain from the outset, but later we learn that his earlier behavior was a reaction to his fear, and he turns out to be one of the heroes. And then there's the Best Buy salesman (Jake Weber) whose leadership abilities blossom under pressure. Universal Pictures is not as brave as Romero, and stocks the cast with some familiar faces, including Ving Rhames (CON AIR) as a strong cop, and Mekhi Phifer (SHAFT) as a criminal/expectant father. Some actors were clearly cast because they'd make great-looking zombies, especially Matt Frewer (immortal as MAX HEADROOM).

Snyder also makes clever use of advances in f/x techniques. As expected, CGI helps out with some exploding heads, but a filmmaker's new favorite trick may have become using it to run digital people over with vehicles. Even so, he doesn't overuse his digital toolbox to the point that it becomes intrusive. Another nice touch comes in the form of some added characters midway through, with a friendly gun shop owner (Bruce Bohne of FARGO) communicating with our group from a nearby rooftop.

And now, the quibbles. Snyder is apparently one of those that think Romero's zombies are too slow to be scary, and makes his ghouls fast and athletic. Also, the zombie plague is over-explained somewhat, as it's clear that it's only spread by fluid transfer (bites, blood). All this actually works against him - Romero's zombies are scary because they are the living dead. They're stiff, awkward, slow moving, and all messed up, but relentless, untiring, unfeeling, corpses that want to eat you. With all their running and howling, Snyder's ghouls (like those in 28 DAYS LATER) aren't much different from a bunch of rabid psychos. And as Romero's plague is apparently airborne, lying dormant within everyone, the threat is more terrifying. In Romero's world, anybody who dies will walk again.

Another thing: modern studio horror movies have the annoying habit of being all about the mission. Snyder's escape plan by battle wagon is highly entertaining, but by focusing on this plan of action it's easy to forget about the army of dead people at the gates.

However, despite these missteps, it all comes together in a thrilling whole, much better than some other recent horror remakes I could name. Snyder and Gunn give us enough new twists for their DAWN to stand on its own. Plus, in a refreshing change of pace, they give the audience a false ending. Those that hang on during the end credits are rewarded by a suspenseful continuation to the true ending, which is a chiller.

Universal has chosen to release the film on DVD in four different editions (so far). The theatrical release version is available in both widescreen and fullscreen editions, but we've chosen to go with the widescreen unrated director's cut edition (a fullscreen edition is also available). It includes 10 minutes of extra footage that, as Snyder explains in his introduction, was thought to be too harsh for an R rating. Snyder cut in some extra dialogue scenes to expand characterization, too, while he was at it, and in every case it improves his movie.

Snyder and producer Eric Newman provide a friendly commentrak, sounding like a couple of buddies that dropped in to watch the flick with you. They just happen to be buddies that can point out the bonus scenes and tell some anecdotes from the set. Snyder and Newman also record comments for 11 minutes of deleted and alternate scenes.

We live in a videotaped society, and the movie reflects this by including some clips from various video sources, most significantly during the postscript. The DVD includes some of these tapes uncut. Run the TV news report footage when friends are over without telling them what it is. But the most arresting tape isn't used in the movie, and should be seen as a separate 15-minute short zombie film: it's a home movie monologue performed by Bohne as the last days of gun store guy Andy unreels. Aside from the commentrak, extras exclusive to the unrated edition are separate Making-Of featurettes focus on zombie makeup and special zombie makeup f/x.

If you took a poll in 2003, you'd have found that the vast majority of those polled would prefer that DAWN OF THE DEAD never be remade. But since remakes happen anyway, we can be glad that this one turned out to be so good. The same poll would probably give you entirely different results today, which means that the remake has done its job.