28 Days Later‘s Rage-infected psychopaths are largely responsible for revitalizing this gruesome subgenre, thanks to director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland’s vision. These two filmmakers saw potential in this corner of cinema that had yet to be unlocked. While Romero, the father of the modern zombie film, used the apocalypse to comment on society’s greed and prejudices, Boyle and Garland discovered more personal stories. How do you find the will to survive in a world where you might be forced to watch your loved ones die, try to kill you, or force you to kill them? That, coupled with the manic speed of Boyle and Garland’s Rage zombies, is essentially what Snyder tried to inject into his remake of Romero’s masterpiece. These days, Snyder is a bit of a polarizing figure in geek culture. Comic book-inspired films such as 300, Watchmen, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Justice League have certainly raised his profile. For a particular kind of moviegoer, those who love comics and don’t want their beloved stories tampered with by big-name directors, Snyder is either a godsend or hellspawn. The director has a knack for filming panel-by-panel recreations of classic comic book scenes, but has also changed stories around to better serve his brutal movies. His heroes are often dark, grim subjects used to study morally gray areas. “Can a hero ever truly be pure at heart without first shedding his darkness?” Snyder seems to ask in his movies, especially in 2013’s Man of Steel, in which Superman is forced to snap Zod’s neck “in order to learn that killing is bad.” This “punch first, ask questions later” mentality has earned him much grief from fans who feel Snyder has traded intellectual pursuit for pure action. But despite how people might feel about Snyder now, his first film remains his crowning cinematic achievement.
No More Room in Hell
Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead isn’t as much a remake as it is a re-imagining of the original that doesn’t quite go for the thinly-veiled criticism of American consumerism that is Romero’s thesis. About the only resemblance to the original is the remake’s main setting (a mall), a couple of cameos, and some references to Romero’s film, such as the one you can watch above. Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead is purely an entertainment piece, full of outrageous set pieces, scary moments, and extravagant dialogue. And it’s all the better for it, sandwiched in between 2001’s 28 Days Later and Romero’s 2005 Land of the Dead, as a fun popcorn flick, a movie that won’t make you think as much as holler at the screen. If nothing else, Snyder deserves credit for directing a critically and financially successful horror movie remake, which is no small feat. (See: 2008’s awful awful awful Day of the Dead remake, starring Nick Cannon, Mena Suvari, and Ving Rhames, to see a remake done wrong.) All of the hallmarks of Snyder’s later career are front and center in Dawn of the Dead: the brutal storytelling, the desaturated color palette, and big action sequences. Perhaps fans would be more kind to the director if he had stuck to horror movies. His style is certainly best suited for darker ventures. One only has to look as far as the opening of the movie, which is seriously scary stuff. 28 Days Later‘s opening section is famously unsettling for its shots of an empty London. The movie smartly builds the tension by making viewers wait for the monsters to pop out their nasty heads. In comparison, Dawn of the Dead is already chasing you down the street almost as soon as the curtains open. Snyder, like his predecessor, unleashes the chaos wonderfully in the opening twenty minutes. We get confusing news reports, dead lovers, and pandemonium on the streets, as a little suburb in Milwaukee suddenly finds itself crawling with zombies. The main character, Ana (Sarah Polley), doesn’t have time to wake up, think, collect cans of Pepsi for the road, or say goodbye to her husband, Luis (Louis Ferreira), before she’s already crashed her car into a tree. Further Reading: George Romero Left Behind Over 40 Unproduced Scripts In the case of Snyder’s protagonist, she’s not listening, and in the process, the remake keeps us ill-informed. All we get are snippets of conversation at the hospital and the quick drone of the radio. Even the emergency news bulletin on TV is interrupted by shower sex. Snyder gives us just enough to know something is going terribly wrong, but not enough for Ana to prepare. Things are clearly not going to go well for her. As soon as shit hits the fan — that little girl breakfasting on Luis’ throat, Ana frantically climbing out of her bathroom window as her undead husband smashes his head through the door, gas stations exploding on the side of the road — we get the rush of information in one of the greatest horror movie opening sequences in cinematic history. Johnny Cash’s “The Man Comes Around” is already terrifying, but when combined with those grainy news reports of the end of the world, it becomes a completely different monster. Images of people bowing in prayer are interspersed with lines from the Book of Revelation and the deafening cries of the undead. An official at the CDC answers questions while the pulse of a heart rate monitor slowly dies out in the background. There’s nothing quite as chilling as when a reporter asks the official if the hungry killing machines running around are alive or dead and he nervously answers, “We don’t know.” In a two-and-a-half minute credits sequence, shelters are compromised, bloody riots break out, reporters are eaten, and Capitol Hill is overrun. All while an unconscious Ana sleeps.
Mall of the Dead
The rest of the cast is introduced pretty quickly afterward. Ving Rhames’ badass Officer Ken looks like the guy who will ultimately save the day, the Ken Foree of the remake, while Mike (Jake Weber) becomes the voice of reason of the group. There’s also the delinquent Andre (Mekhi Phifer) and his wife, Luda (Inna Korobkina), who’s pregnant, which is pretty bad news for that baby. I should mention that this film benefits greatly from the pen of James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy), who wrote the screenplay. (Gunn reportedly left the project to work on Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, and Michael Tolkin and Scott Frank were brought in for rewrites, although they did not receive writing credits.) Through the years, Gunn has shown that he can balance large casts of characters, telling large stories while also focusing in on the more personal ones. Dawn of the Dead is mostly successful at this. One of the security guards at the mall, Bart (Michael Barry) hoped to have sex with “the fat chick at the Dairy Queen” before everything went to shit. Another security guard, Terry (Kevin Zegers), quickly replies, “Bart, dude, everybody’s dead, okay? Your mom’s dead. Your brother’s dead. That fat chick at Dairy Queen? Dead!” scolding Bart for his insensitivity. Further Reading: The George Romero Resident Evil Movie You Never Saw This movie tries to exploit every single angle on loss that it can, especially when it comes to family. Snyder and Gunn want you to know that every single character has lost everyone he/she loves, and the characters feel relatable and sympathetic because of it, even if they are zombie movie archetypes in the end. Mind you, Dawn of the Dead isn’t telling some epic tale of redemption, the will to survive, or anything fancy you might slap on as a tagline. This is an action movie, so the stories are very light, but they at least explore the personal repercussions of the apocalypse. The mall itself poses less of a logistical problem than its older sibling. Romero’s mall (Monroeville Mall in Pennsylvania) is like a glass egg, begging to be cracked, which it eventually is by a group of bikers (led by Tom Savini, who was also the make-up and effects artist in the original and makes a cameo in Snyder’s remake). It’s also full of zombies, unlike Snyder’s mall in Milwaukee (which was actually an abandoned mall in Thornhill, Ontario that no longer exists), which is relatively safe and shatter-proof. The group in the remake doesn’t have to do anything as fancy as clear out a horde or build a fake wall to hide its living space. In fact, the mall doesn’t present much danger at all. After clearing the three or four zombies and subduing the security guards, who don’t take too kindly to their new patrons, the mall is relatively safe for the survivors. There are a few close calls, of course, including a cool scene where another group rams the back of a truck into the mall and uses the storage container to climb up to safer ground while the zombies give chase. Frank (Matt Frewer), Nicole’s dad, is quarantined after the group discovers he’s been bitten. Ken is forced to put Frank down after he turns. The tragedy continues.
It’s All Fun & Games Until a Zombie Gets Pregnant
Nothing is as tragic as the zombie baby, though. Snyder shows here why he is a perfect horror director. He seems to have an itch to go there. Remember that whole thing about Superman killing General Zod in Man of Steel? You shouldn’t be surprised that Snyder doesn’t shy away from the implications of Luda’s pregnancy, although this is way more violent and terrifying than anything Superman could possibly do. Andre and Luda’s subplot, while not given too much screen time, proves to be the movie’s most poignant. Whether intended or not, Snyder presents the fall of the American family in these violent scenes. To Andre, the baby represents a future for his family (and to us, society as a whole) and a chance to right his wrongs, to make something of his life. It’s just too bad Luda’s been bitten. The baby is already tainted with the infection, already lost, like the world outside. Andre can’t escape what’s coming for him. Earlier in the film, Andre has a moment of doubt while talking to Ken. He thinks that maybe he’s being punished by God for his sins. Ken angrily replies that Andre only feels remorse for his past because he “saw Hell outside” and now Andre is afraid that he’s going there. Rhames delivers one of the best, most Synder-esque lines of the movie in this scene, too: “Go in the stall, say five Hail Marys, wipe your ass, and you and God can call it even.” I probably should’ve mentioned this is a bathroom scene. Further Reading: 10 Nastiest Zombie Kills of All Time It hasn’t. Snyder uses a CGI baby for the infamous shot of the zombie’s little gray face, yellow eyes piercing through the screen. Andre dies cradling the baby after being shot by another survivor, who also kills the zombified Luda. He lands on top of Luda’s corpse, the baby still kicking and screaming in his arms. “You see?” Snyder seems to say, “One happy family.”
Requiem for an Andy
I couldn’t write a whole piece about Dawn of the Dead without mentioning Andy (Bruce Bohne), Ken’s gun-toting pal from across the parking lot. The character isn’t particularly important except for the fact that he has a gun store full of much-needed firepower. But he’s also a neat trick. Andy’s the only contact the survivors in the mall have to the outside world, and a glimmer of hope that there might be more people like him out there, surviving amid all the chaos. At first, Andy’s just another guy on a rooftop, waiting for the military to rescue him. He watches along with the mall group as the last rescue helicopter zooms past them, unwilling to make a landing in zombie-infested territory. Later, he becomes Ken’s stand-in for the brother he’s most likely lost, and it’s a cool idea to have them communicate via whiteboard. They play chess, a twisted version of Hollywood Squares, and just shoot the shit. It’s almost surreal, like he’s a mirage in the distance, a cruel trick being played on Ken, who obviously needs some brotherly love. Further Reading: 7 Times Zombies Attacked Our Favorite TV Shows While Andy’s entire existence is a plot device used to move the story along to the third act (the survivors need those guns), he’s the subject of a few happy and touching moments for Ken. RIP, buddy.
Get Down with the Sickness
If it weren’t for his later DC superhero offerings, Dawn of the Dead‘s final action sequence would be Snyder’s most outrageous cinematic moment. The third act of the movie is basically one long action scene. Nicole’s unhealthy obsession with Chips drives her to chase after the dog, driving the truck from earlier in the movie to Andy’s gun store. She’s not much of a fighter, though, and is forced to lock herself in a closet when she discovers Andy’s turned into a zombie. The group organizes a rescue mission by sneaking across the parking lot through the sewers below. This is a fast-paced action sequence, full of explosions and fancy shooting. Snyder’s characters don’t miss. There’s a great tongue-in-cheek moment where one of the guys has broken his leg. One of the security guards, C.J. (Michael Kelly), is forced to drag his injured friend through the sewers while the zombies give chase. The guy being dragged shoots and curses at the approaching monsters, a pistol in each hand. It’s just so good. I would’ve loved to be in the room when Snyder and the writers were planning the climactic vehicle sequence. It probably would’ve gone something like when Mike is showing Ana how he plans to mow zombies down from the side of the armored shuttle with a chainsaw. She sarcastically says, “Romantic,” but Snyder and I say, “AWESOME.” In its final minutes, Dawn of the Dead lets go of the notion that it’s a horror film at all and puts all of its chips on blockbuster action, as the group blazes through the streets of Milwaukee with two armored shuttles, chainsaws, propane tanks, and lots of guns. Snyder tries to exploit what he thinks is the film’s emotional center, the end of Ana and Mike’s very brief love affair (which never really develops into anything believable), as Mike is forced to stay behind at the marina after being bit while trying to save Ana from the zombies. But I don’t think anyone actually cares for or even falls for that cheap bit of sentimentality. At this point, I just want the survivors to get to the yacht in time. The film fades to black on Ana’s face, as Mike shoots himself in the head while watching the sunset. On a budget of $26 million (a humble amount compared to Justice League‘s $300 million), Snyder scored a $102 million box office hit for Universal, which was unsurprisingly keen on producing a sequel. Snyder co-wrote a sequel with Joby Harold, writer of Awake, called Army of the Dead, which was set to be directed by Matthijs van Heijningen, who later went on to direct 2011’s The Thing. The movie would have featured “rapist zombies” who attack human females in order to breed “hybrid zombie offspring.” So you shouldn’t be surprised that this movie got shelved for a decade. Army of the Dead was revived by Netflix in 2019 as a new project with Snyder back in the director’s chair. The movie involves a heist and rescue mission in a quarantined, zombie-infested Las Vegas. The “zombie rapist” storyline has thankfully been launched into the fucking sun. It’s likely that Snyder’s success with Dawn of the Dead helped Romero get the funding he needed to make his ambitious Land of the Dead, the legendary director’s first Dead film in twenty years. This fourth installment, which was also produced by Universal, remains the highest budgeted film in the series, at $19 million. It was a zombie renaissance, thanks to Boyle, Snyder, and Romero. It was also around this time that a relatively unknown comic book writer named Robert Kirkman began to hit his stride on a creator-owned book called The Walking Dead. The rest, as they say, is a gruesome history. Dawn of the Dead was ultimately a successful debut for a director who until 2004 had only directed commercials. In this movie, you can already find signs of what was to come in his later movies, especially Snyder’s taste for big action setpieces, an overwhelming grimness, and the notion that any film could be resolved with over-the-top violence. If you’re sitting down to watch a Zack Snyder movie, more often than not it’s best enjoyed with a big tub of popcorn. Not all good habits, as many fans will tell you, but they’re the trademarks that have kept him on the A-list of Hollywood directors. There’s definitely a place for his kind of movies. It may just not be in the superhero genre. But I’d welcome his return to horror any day. John Saavedra is an associate editor at Den of Geek. Read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @johnsjr9.
