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Dawn of the Dead. Oh god, so much better than the 70s/80s original which I have on VHS and loathe with a mind-burning passion.
To justify: has anyone who likes the original Dawn of the Dead actually fucking seen it with two working pairs of eyes? It's crap! The acting is piss poor, the zombie extermination sequence in the abandoned tenemant is lacking in tension. In fairness, high on the squick and blood factor as Black Cop and White Cop execute the coralled zombies individually but it's boring, and the pimp/priest who gives the 'when hell is full' speech looks and acts like the shambling corpse of Huggy Bear.
The worst, oh god the worst part of the film comes towards the end of the middle act. White Cop and Black Cop are stealing trucks to barricade the Mall. White Cop gets sloppy and gets nibbled on by a hungry zombie. Watch, video viewers, as a supposedly professional actor goes from Nought to Psycho in sixty seconds. The wound has barely shed a single drop of bloody before White Cop starts acting like Jack Nicholson's Joker on speed and PCP.
I won't even mention the end. Okay, I will. Black Cop decides to kill himself while White Girl makes her way to 'tha choppah'. Black Cop has a gun to his head, then CHANGES. HIS. MIND. Oh, that was a needless cop out. Cue him rushing to the chopper to fucking whiz-bang AMERICAN FOOTBALL BAND MUSIC. He even tackles the undead. Holy Christing Fuckmas.
The remake avoids these mistakes by not being retarded and generally being fairly smart about things. The only big mistake that made a mark in my mind three months on is when the girl, Sally/Mary, stupidly goes after the fucking dog the survivors have adopted. When the zombies won't touch it. What the helling fuck? Nice way to risk your life needlessly, dumbass.
A stand out scene comes immeadiately after, however. The survivors go back to the roof to check on the guy they've been communicating with across the street using big handwritten signs. This guy has just been attacked by zombies. Looking through the binoculars the survivors watch him writing some kind of message. He's bleeding and moving funnily, he must be okay to draw out a message right? He holds up the sign, and it's just one big, intelligible bloody smear. Sends chills down my spine every single time. That's horror, folks.
Thrill factor gore scenes? The big methane bomb they use on the zombie riot was pretty good. The opening scene of the zombie holocaust with the car being filmed with a camera mounted to the bumper was visually different and pleasing, with the car being direct centre the whole time, letting us track the carnage with the car as our Heroine escapes. Just nice the way the picture is balanced symetrically. Oh, and some woman totally gets her shit ruined in chainsaw accident at the end. Good stuff.
The 'End' is decently edited and tense as well. Island of the Dead, anyone? |
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