Dawn of the Dead

Dawn of the Dead (2004) is a remake of George Romero's 1978 film and it breaks one rule: here the dead run. A nurse wakes one morning to find the neighbourhood already finished. Running, she joins a group sheltering in a shopping mall. Inside is safe, outside is full. They begin living there. In Romero's film the mall was a criticism: the dead came there out of habit. Snyder largely drops that layer and concentrates on tension. The first ten minutes are the best of it; the outbreak is delivered with no explanation, inside a single morning. The credits are built on news footage over a Johnny Cash song and tell the collapse of the world in two minutes. James Gunn wrote the screenplay; it was Zack Snyder's first feature. In one mall scene a metal song appears as lift music, which sums up the film's humour. There is a section that continues after the credits and most viewers miss it. Romero said he did not like the remake. It runs 101 minutes. Good for: zombie films, survival tension, and post nineties horror. Less good for: it is bloody and fast, and anyone looking for the original's social criticism will not find it.