5 out of 5

Director: Zack Snyder

The Dawn of the Dead remake is an excellent horror movie with great visuals (and more weighty plotting than could be expected from this era of terror) that is the definition of a good remake: respectful of the source but updating the subject matter sensibly. The essential plotting from 1978 to here remains the same: a sudden plague seems to be overtaking the nation that turns people into zombies and we dont know why. Once infected, the only way to stop you is to shoot you in the head. A group of survivors stumble into each other soon after the outbreak and wind up securing themselves inside the local mall. Romero commented that the beginning of the movie held his attention but then seemed to become a video game. The statement is misleading but accurate: while Snyders use of green-screen and slo-mo were his go-tos for the next several movies, the stylizing of action as influenced by video games and comics appears here, but it matches the film and increases the sense of frenzy. That frenzy was the need for the remake. Romeros endless iterations on his own film and… lets say a modern tribute to old horror like Ti Wests House of the Devil… show that while those films are capable of generating chills, they dont quite reach the terror of the first Dawn of the Dead… because weve seen it now. (Not saying that quiet, patient horror cant still be balls-shattering scary, but that it can NOT be scary also.) From the setup zombie scene in the remake, we know we are in new territory where everyone must keep moving. Character development: doesnt have the focus of the first one, but for the AMOUNT of characters here, the script does a great job of fleshing out your expected tough-guy funny-guy tropes with enough feeling to make them real. While Watchmen has questionable aspects, with it and this film, Snyder has shown that he has the confidence to respectfully render fan-favorites in a satisfying and modern manner.