It's been said many times before: George A. Romero's original zombies-in-the-mall thriller was
groundbreaking because it mixed terrifying horror with social commentary on consumerism. But
it's not the social commentary I missed in Zack Snyder's solid but somewhat unsatisfying update --
it's the (lack of) emphasis on the mall.
From the film's startling opening twenty minutes, I was expecting a grade-A fright flick -- excellent
indie actress (Sarah Polley, who'd be a B-movie queen if this were the 70's), washed-out
cinematography, unabashed gore, unexplained mayhem, domestic zombies bouncing around the
neighborhood, and that fantastic aerial shot of anarchy creeping into the city. (Still, there's a
caveat: Why must contemporary zombies run like Olympic sprinters? It's as if filmmakers are
pandering to the shortened attention spans of today's teenagers who might doze off if the walking
dead lumbered about like Romero's did.)
Great into, and it's still getting better. Ving Rhames, always solid (though a bit less expressive this
time around), joins the cast and soon a group of survivors are headed to the mall to hole up until
help arrives. This is where Snyder's "re-imagining" begins taking slight turns for the worse.
When our heroes arrive at the shopping center, they are greeted by three fascist security guards
who refuse them any sort of help and insist on locking them up in a home design store. Huh? Did
these security guards suddenly become prison wardens? Did everyone forget that the mall is big
enough for everybody? Wouldn't it make sense for everyone to brainstorm together to think of a
way out? The best part of Romero's original was seeing how the group managed a semblance of
normalcy while living within the confines of a doomed paradise. Now we barely get a glimpse of
the survivors doing what we all would want to do if given free reign inside a shopping center --
take advantage of every store, item, and luxury because there's no one there to stop you.
Luckily Snyder ups the shock factor to compensate for the relative seriousness of the whole affair.
It's not an even trade-off, but when you're biting fingernails at the edge of your seat it's easy to
forget that you're watching "Jurassic Park" merely set inside a mall.
Also to his credit, the director erases any glimmers of hope that lingered at the end of Romero's
"Dawn." The original film ended with two escapees fleeing the zombified urban penitentiary for a
future that we were never shown; stay until the end of the new movie's credits to find out what
really becomes of our protagonists. (It's something that most modern thrillers would save for the
alternate ending on a DVD.)
The current "Dawn of the Dead" isn't bad. It's more workmanlike than visionary in its execution,
however, exhibiting flashes of excitement amid grotesque thrills instead of a steady stream of satiric
horror.
Director: Zack Snyder
Screened: March 9
Grade: C+
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