Dawn of the Dead (2004 film)
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| Dawn of the Dead | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster for Dawn of the Dead |
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| Directed by | Zack Snyder |
| Produced by | Marc Abraham Eric Newman Richard P. Rubinstein |
| Written by | 1978 Screenplay: George A. Romero Screenplay: James Gunn Uncredited: Scott Frank Michael Tolkin |
| Starring | Sarah Polley Ving Rhames Jake Weber Kevin Zegers Mekhi Phifer Kim Poirier |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) |  March 19, 2004 March 26, 2004 |
| Running time | Theatrical Cut: 100 min. Director's Cut: 109 min. |
| Country | United States Canada |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $28,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | $102,356,381 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Dawn of the Dead is a 2004 remake of George A. Romero's 1978 film of the same name. The remake and original both depict a handful of human survivors living in a shopping mall surrounded by swarms of zombies, but the details differ significantly. Directed by Zack Snyder, the film was released by Universal Studios and stars Ving Rhames, Sarah Polley and Jake Weber with cameos from original cast members Ken Foree, Scott Reiniger and Tom Savini. It was released in the United States on March 19, 2004, and in the United Kingdom on March 26, 2004. The film was Rated R in the U.S. for "Pervasive strong horror violence and gore, language and sexuality". In Australia it was edited for content and is rated MA 15.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Ana, a nurse, finishes a long shift at Milwaukee County hospital, then returns to her peaceful suburban home. She and her husband Louis make love and go to sleep, missing warnings from the local media concerning a mysterious and rapidly-spreading contagion which kills and then reanimates its infected hosts as aggressive flesh-eating zombies.
The next morning the couple is awoken by their zombified neighbor, a young girl, who bites Louis in the throat. Despite Ana's frantic efforts, Louis dies, reanimates as a zombie and chases her from the house. She flees her now chaos-torn neighborhood in her car, before an attempted hijacking sends her crashing into a tree and knocking her out. Accompanying the opening credits, a bleak news-video montage depicts swarms of zombies overwhelming human civilization worldwide.
Upon awaking, Ana meets Kenneth, a grim police sergeant traveling to Fort Pastor, a U.S. Army base. The route blocked by zombies, they and three others - jack-of-all-trades Michael, criminal Andre and his pregnant Russian wife Luda - break into the nearby Crossroads Shopping Mall. Inside, a scuffle with a zombified mall security guard results in Luda getting a minor bite-wound.
They confront three living security guards - C.J., Bart and Terry - The group give up their weapons in exchange for refuge. After the group secures the mall, they head to the roof to dispose of bodies. There, they "meet" another survivor, Andy, who is stranded alone in his gun store, across the mall's zombie-infested parking lot.
The next day, Terry sides with the new arrivals, C.J. and Bart are disarmed, and the inhabitants of a delivery truck are allowed into the mall: the driver, Norma; selfish Steve; workingman Tucker; trampy Monica; elderly Glen, bitten Frank and his teen daughter Nicole, and an anonymous badly-injured woman. These newcomers report that Fort Pastor has been overrun by zombies and no help is coming. Shortly afterwards, the nameless woman dies, reanimates and is "killed" when Ana thrusts a metal fireplace poker through her head. The group determines that bites are how the zombies multiply their numbers; after Ana and Michael argue about what to do with the rapidly-deteriorating Frank, the man is isolated in a store with guard Kenneth as he dies. Michael and Ana achieve an awkward reconciliation, which is interrupted by Kenneth's shotgun blast as he destroys Frank's reanimated brain.
Though the mall provides many material distractions, Kenneth bonds with Andy, and Michael and Ana edge towards a romance, the undead surround the refuge in ever-increasing numbers, eventually filling the parking lot. Finally the mall’s power goes out and C.J., Bart, Michael and Kenneth enter the underground parking garage to turn on the emergency generator. After they meet an unaffected dog, a zombie swarm kills Bart and traps the others in the generator compartment, where they douse the zombies with gasoline and set them ablaze.
Meanwhile, Andre, faced with the fact that Luda's bite-wound is inexorably killing her, sinks totally into denial and has his heavily-pregnant and infected wife tied to a bed in the mall's children's store. As she gives birth, she dies and reanimates. Norma checks on the couple, discovering the zombie-Luda and the deranged Andre clutching a small bundle of blankets. Norma shoots Luda, causing Andre to snap completely; they exchange more gunfire, mortally wounding each other. Ana arrives onscene and opens the bundle to reveal a zombie baby. She pulls her revolver and a single shot rings through the mall.
At a makeshift memorial, the remaining survivors decide to flee the mall, fight their way to the local marina, and from there travel out on Steve's small yacht to an island in Lake Michigan. They reinforce two small shuttle buses from the parking garage, removing the seats, welding on a snowplow, stringing barbed wire, boarding up the windows, and cutting slits for the deployment of weapons. Chainsaws, propane tanks and other supplies are loaded onboard. Meanwhile, Andy is starving, and will not have the strength to join the escape (and contribute much-needed ammunition), so the mall survivors strap a pack of food on "Chips", the dog from the basement, and lower him into the parking lot. Chips reaches the gun-shop untouched, but unfortunately a zombie gets in as well and badly injures Andy. Nicole, distraught over Chips, takes the delivery truck and barges into the gun store, where she is trapped in a closet by a now-zombified Andy.
Kenneth, Michael, C.J., Terry, and Tucker heads into the sewers, while Steve is assigned guard-duty on their exit door. They reach the gun store, where Ken kills the zombified Andy and the group finds Nicole and Chips and stocks up on weapons and ammunition. A propane tank is detonated to clear a path back to the sewers, but the zombies pursue them. Tucker is bitten and mercy-killed by C.J., and thanks to Steve's negligence the zombies break into the mall, forcing an immediate evacuation. The survivors pile into the buses and smash out into the parking lot, where another propane bomb is used to clear a path through the waiting horde. When Glen moves to take out a last hitchhiking zombie, a sudden swerve sends his chainsaw slashing instead into Monica's shoulder. The resulting splatter of blood covers the windshield, causing driver Kenneth to crash. Glen and Monica are killed, while Steve flees the toppled bus and is attacked by the hitchhiking zombie.
The others scramble for the second bus, meeting zombie-Steve on the way. Ana shoots him dead, then lingers to get the boat keys off his corpse, allowing more zombies to catch up with them. Ana flees to the bus, and Michael helps her in. After a struggle, they pull away and speed to the marina dock, where they crash the bus and dash for the boat. Cornered in the bus, C.J. detonates a final propane tank blowing up the vehicle, the zombies, and himself. The remainder of the group gets on the boat, except for Michael; he was bitten while helping Ana. Ana futilely pleads him to come before the boat sets sail with her, Terry, Kenneth, Nicole, and Chips. She watches as Michael draws his pistol, places it under his chin, and a final gunshot rings out. As the closing credits roll, the boat reaches an island in the lake, only to be met by a new swarm of zombies. The survivors attempt to escape once again, but the film leaves it an unanswered question whether or not they survive.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Sarah Polley | Ana Clark |
| Ving Rhames | Kenneth Hall |
| Jake Weber | Michael |
| Kevin Zegers | Terry |
| Lindy Booth | Nicole |
| Mekhi Phifer | Andre |
| Ty Burrell | Steve Marcus |
| Michael Kelly | C.J. |
| Michael Barry | Bart |
| Jayne Eastwood | Norma |
| Boyd Banks | Tucker |
| Inna Korobkina | Luda |
| R.D. Reid | Glen |
| Kim Poirier | Monica |
| Bruce Bohne | Andy |
| Matt Frewer | Frank |
The anonymous bloated female zombie whom Ana destroys is played by actor Ermes Blarasin, who also appears as a zombie in the 2005 film Land of the Dead, along with Boyd Banks.
The production used real amputees to portray zombies with missing limbs.[1]
[edit] Production
James Gunn is only partially responsible for the screenplay, despite receiving solo writing credit. After he left the project to concentrate on Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, both Michael Tolkin and Scott Frank were brought in for rewrites. In a commentary track on the Ultimate Edition DVD for the original Dawn, producer Richard P. Rubenstein explained that Tolkin further developed the characters, while Frank provided some of the bigger and upbeat action sequences.
The mall scenes of the film as well as the rooftop scenes were shot in the Thornhill Square Shopping Centre in Thornhill, Ontario and the rest of the scenes were shot in the Aileen-Willowbrook Neighborhood of Thornhill, Ontario. The set for Ana and Louis's bedroom was constructed in a backroom of the mall.[1] The mall was defunct, which is the reason the production used it; the movie crew completely renovated the structure, and stocked it with fictitious stores after Starbucks Coffee and numerous other corporations refused to let their names be used [1] (two exceptions to this are Roots and Panasonic). Most of the mall was demolished shortly after the film was shot.
The first half of the film was shot almost entirely in chronological order,[1] while the final sequences on the boat and island were shot much later and at a different location (Universal Studios Hollywood) than the rest of the movie, after preview audiences objected to the sudden ending of the original print.[1]
[edit] Music
The song that plays over the film's opening credits is "The Man Comes Around" by Johnny Cash. The track has suitably apocalyptic lyrics, contains mentions of Armageddon, numerous Bible references and quotes from the Book of Revelation 6:8. The film also featured "People Who Died" by The Jim Carroll Band, as well as both the original version of "Down with the Sickness" by Disturbed and the lounge, jazz-like version by Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine (the lounge version was played during the film, while the original version was played when the survivors met their morbid fate at the island). "Have a Nice Day" by Stereophonics was also used early in the film. The muzak playing in the mall when the survivors first arrive is Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy" and as they flee to the buses it is Air Supply's "All Out of Love".
Director Zack Snyder personally selected all the songs for the film's soundtrack.
[edit] Reception
In the UK, both this film and Shaun of the Dead were originally scheduled to be released the same week, but due to the similarity in the names of the two films and plot outline, UIP opted to push back Shaun's release by two weeks.
Heavily derided by some fans before its release,[citation needed] the film's debut received mixed to generally positive reactions from both moviegoers and critics. Some felt that the film did not retain the social satire and poignancy of the original.[2] George A. Romero is quoted as saying of the film, "It was better than I expected. [...] The first 15, 20 minutes were terrific, but it sort of lost its reason for being. It was more of a video game. I'm not terrified of things running at me; it's like Space Invaders. There was nothing going on underneath."[3] The film grossed over $59 million at the box office,[4] (over $102 million worldwide[5]) and is currently one of the few zombie films to make over $100 million at international box-office.[6] Its success also launched the career of director Zack Snyder. RottenTomatoes.com lists it with a 77% "Certified Fresh" rating, while Metacritic.com lists it with a rating of 58 out of 100 which indicates "mixed or average reviews".
[edit] Comparisons to the original
In the original film, the zombies moved very slowly and were most menacing when they collected in large groups. In the remake, however, the zombies are fast and agile, and are, on the whole, closer to the quick-moving, psychotically violent victims of the 'Rage' virus in the 2002 British horror film 28 Days Later and the zombies of 1985's Return of the Living Dead than the traditional shambling Zombie archetype. Many admirers of the original, as well as Romero himself, protested this change, feeling that it limited the impact of the undead.[7][8] This is somewhat borne out by the fact that the remake has almost no close up shots of zombies that last more than a second or two. Snyder mentions this in the commentary track of the remake's DVD, pointing out that they seem too human when the camera lingers upon them for longer.
In the original, as in Night of the Living Dead, all 'recently dead' are reanimated by an unidentified source. Zombie bites seem to somehow induce rapid death, and subsequent reanimation, even though death by any manner will result in reanimation of the dead as well. The cause is never fully elaborated upon, but news reports in the first film imply that the cause is radiation from a space probe to Venus that was destroyed and landed back on Earth. In the remake, it springs up worldwide overnight, and is definitely blood borne, relying on zombie bites for transmission. In the original, anyone who dies for any reason returns after several minutes (so long as their brain is intact). In the remake, only those infected return and after a period of less than a minute after death.
The original had a smaller cast than the remake, allowing more screen time for each character. Many fans and critics protested the resulting loss of character development.[9]
In the original version the story unfolds over several months, indicated by the advancing stages of Fran's pregnancy. In the remake the events transpire within approximately 1 month, as evidenced by the supplemental feature The Lost Tape: Andy's Terrifying Last Days Revealed, located on the DVD in the special features section.
Three actors from the original film have cameos in the remake, appearing on the TVs the survivors watch: Ken Foree, who played Peter from the original, plays an evangelist who asserts that God is punishing mankind; Scott H. Reiniger, who played Roger in the original, plays an army general telling everyone to stay at home for safety and Tom Savini, who did the special effects for many of Romero's movies and played the motorcycle gang member Blades in the original Dawn of the Dead, plays the Los Angeles County Sheriff explaining the only way to kill the zombies is to "shoot 'em in the head."
Additional references to Romero's original Living Dead movies include: During the opening scene of news footage, a brief clip shows a political figure from archive footage of actor Duane Jones who played Ben in the original Night of the Living Dead. This is a posthumous appearance as he died in July 22 1988. A store in the mall is named Gaylen Ross, the actress that played Fran in the original Dawn of the Dead. A sign for "Wooley's Diner" can be seen, a nod to the character of "Wooley" in the 1978 version. The character Tucker's name is a reference to Rod Tucker, one of the SWAT team members in the original. A truck from the BP corporation is seen, the same company as in the original. The WGON helicopter from the first film is seen flying into the frame in one early sequence. The film's tagline, "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth", is the same one from the first film, and is delivered in both films by actor Ken Foree. The mall-dwellers' ultimate escape plan echoes a similar attempt by a group of ex-policemen at the start of the original Dawn, while the remake's opening sequences contain at least two references to the original Night of the Living Dead film: a car crashes into a gas station and explodes, and the female lead crashes her car into a tree.
[edit] Deleted scenes
Scenes cut from the film's original theatrical release were added back for the "Unrated Director's Cut" DVD edition. Along with gore effects removed to obtain an "R-rating",[10] they include a clearer depiction of how the survivors originally break into the mall, and a short scene where the character of Glen "tortures" the imprisoned C.J. and Bart with his reminiscing about his homosexual coming-of-age. The DVD also offers, as a bonus feature, several more scenes which were not included in any version of the film.
[edit] Possible sequel
There were reports that Universal Studios was in talks with the 4 actors who played the movie's survivors to return for a sequel.[citation needed]
George Romero's original Dawn of the Dead film was followed by 1985's Day of the Dead and 2005's Land of the Dead. In 2008 a remake of Day was released directly to video. Despite the presence of Ving Rhames in the cast, the film has no relation to Snyder's version of Dawn.[11]
Snyder has committed to at least producing another zombie movie entitled Army of the Dead;[12] however, Joby Harold (a co-writer of the film who was involved with the development) said in interviews that it is in no way connected to Dawn 2004.[13]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e DVD Commentary by director Snyder and producer Newman
- ^ TheMovieBoy Review - Dawn of the Dead (2004)
- ^ Simon Pegg interviews George A Romero. Retrieved on 2007-03-18.
- ^ 2004 Yearly Box Office Results.
- ^ 2004 Worldwide Box Office Results.
- ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=dawnofthedead.htm
- ^ http://www.ajhakari.com/guestcritics/dawnofthedead2004guest.htm
- ^ John Leguizamo on Land of the Dead - ComingSoon.net
- ^ Dawn of the Dead
- ^ DVD-only introduction by director Snyder
- ^ Ain't It Cool News: Vern sees the DAY OF THE DEAD remake. But he's not a role model. Don't make the same mistake he did
- ^ Warner, Snyders enlist in new 'Army' - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety
- ^ EXCL: Joby Harold on Army of the Dead - ShockTillYouDrop.com
[edit] External links
- Dawn of the Dead (2004) at the Internet Movie Database
- Official Site
- Trailers
- Dawn of the Dead (2004) at Rotten Tomatoes
- Dawn of the Dead (2004) at Metacritic
- Dawn of the Dead (2004) at Box Office Mojo
- April 24, 2003 draft screenplay
- Thornhill Square Shopping Centre
- Detailed Comparison between Theatrical Version and Director's Cut
| Preceded by The Passion of the Christ |
Box office number-one films of 2004 (USA) March 21, 2004 |
Succeeded by Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed |
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