| Dawn of the Dead | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Zack Snyder |
| Screenplay by | James Gunn |
| Based on | Dawn of the Dead byGeorge A. Romero |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Matthew F. Leonetti |
| Edited by | Niven Howie |
| Music by | Tyler Bates |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 100 minutes[3] |
| Country | United States[2] |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $26 million[4] |
| Box office | $102.3 million[4] |
Dawn of the Dead is a 2004 Americanaction horror film directed byZack Snyder, in his feature directorial debut, from a screenplay byJames Gunn. Aremake ofGeorge A. Romero's 1978 filmof the same name, the film features anensemble cast that includesSarah Polley,Ving Rhames,Jake Weber, andMekhi Phifer, withScott Reiniger,Tom Savini, andKen Foree from the original film appearing in cameos. Set inMilwaukee, its plot follows a group of survivors who try to survive azombie apocalypse while holed up in a suburban shopping mall.
ProducersEric Newman andMarc Abraham developed the film rather as a "re-envisioning" of the originalDawn of the Dead, aiming to reinvigorate thezombie genre for modern audiences. They bought the rights from co-producerRichard P. Rubinstein (who produced the original) and hired Gunn to write the script, which oriented the original's premise around theaction genre. Intent on making the remake a straight horror, Snyder took over to direct with the goal of keeping every aspect of the production as grounded inreality as possible. Filming took place from June to September 2003, on location at a Toronto shopping mall that was slated for demolition. Thespecial makeup effects were created byDavid LeRoy Anderson, and the music was composed byTyler Bates in his first collaboration with Snyder.
Dawn of the Dead was theatrically released on March 19, 2004, byUniversal Pictures. Despite Romero's distaste for it, the film earned generally positive reviews from critics, who saw improvements over the original in terms of acting, production values, and scares. However they felt it lacked character development, was excessively gory and also indifferent to Romero's preoccupation withconsumerism.Dawn of the Dead was a commercial success, grossing $102.3 million worldwide on a $26 million budget. Retrospective reviews have called it Snyder's best film. Aspiritual successor,Army of the Dead, was released in 2021.
After finishing a long shift as a nurse in theMilwaukee area, Ana Clark returns to her suburban neighborhood and her husband, Luis. Caught up in a scheduled date night, they miss severalemergency news bulletins. The next morning, a zombified neighborhood girl, Vivian, enters their bedroom and kills Luis, who immediately reanimates and attacks Ana. She flees the chaotic neighborhood in her car, crashes, and passes out.
Upon awakening, Ana joins police sergeant Kenneth Hall, electronics salesman Michael, petty criminal Andre and his pregnant wife Luda. They break into a nearby mall and are attacked by a zombified security guard, who scratches Luda. Three living guards — C.J., Bart, and Terry — force them to surrender their weapons in exchange for refuge. Together they secure the mall. On the roof, they see another survivor, Andy, stranded in his gun store across the zombie-infested parking lot. The group notices a military helicopter and attempts to get the pilot's attention, but to no avail.
The next day, a delivery truck carrying survivors enters the lot, pursued by zombies. C.J. and Bart want to turn them away but are overruled and disarmed. The newcomers include Norma, Steve, Tucker, Monica, Glen, Frank and his daughter Nicole. Another woman is too ill to walk; she is wheeled inside, only to die and reanimate. After she is killed, the group determines the disease is passed by bites. Frank, who has been bitten, elects to be isolated. When he dies and turns, Kenneth shoots him. Andre leaves to see Luda, who has hidden her scratch.
Kenneth and Andy start a friendship, communicating with messages written on whiteboards; romance also buds between Ana and Michael, and Nicole and Terry. When the power goes out, C.J., Bart, Michael and Kenneth go to the parking garage to activate the emergency generator; they find a friendly dog named Chips, signifying a breach. Zombies attack and kill Bart, forcing the others to douse the zombies in gas and set them ablaze. Meanwhile, Luda — tied up by Andre — dies giving birth and reanimates as Norma checks on the couple. When Norma kills the zombified Luda, Andre snaps; they exchange gunfire and both are killed. The others arrive to find a zombie infant, which they kill immediately. The group plans to get to the local marina, find Steve's yacht and travel to an island onLake Michigan. They reinforce two shuttle buses from the parking garage for their escape.
To rescue Andy, the group straps supplies onto Chips's body and lower him into the parking lot; the zombies have no interest in him. Chips enters Andy's store safely, but a zombie follows through the dog door. Nicole, fond of Chips, crashes the delivery truck into the gun store, where a now zombified Andy traps her. Kenneth, Michael, Tucker, Terry, and C.J. reach the gun store via the sewers, kill Andy, and rescue Nicole. They grab ammunition and go back to the mall; along the way, Tucker breaks his legs, and C.J.mercy-kills him. Back to the mall, they are unable to lock the door, forcing an evacuation via the buses.
The survivors fight their way out as the buses drive to the marina. Glen loses control of a chainsaw, accidentally killing Monica; blood splatters on the windshield, causing their bus to crash, killing Glen. Steve attempts to abandon the group and is killed by a stowaway zombie. While C.J., Kenneth, and Terry leave the other bus to look for survivors, Ana kills the zombified Steve and retrieves his boat keys. Eventually the remaining survivors get to the marina, and C.J. sacrifices himself so the others can escape. Michael reveals a bite wound and kills himself as Ana, Kenneth, Nicole, Terry, and Chips sail away on the yacht.
Footage from acamcorder found on the boat shows Steve's escapades before the outbreak and concludes as the group runs out of supplies, approaches an island, and is attacked by a swarm of zombies before the camcorder drops.[a]
Additional members of the cast includestuntman Ermes Blarasin as the bloated woman,Natalie Brown as aCDC reporter, anddog actor Blu as Nicole's adopted pet dog Chips.[2][7] DirectorZack Snyder cameos as a soldier battling zombies at theUnited States Capitol during the film'stitle sequence. There are also cameo appearances byScott Reiniger,Tom Savini, andKen Foree (who were in the original film) as a general, sheriff, and televangelist, respectively.[7]
Plans to remake 1978'sDawn of the Dead were conceived by producerEric Newman, a fan ofzombie films who cited theGeorge A. Romerohorror film as the best in this genre.[8][10] With the remake, Newman and producerMarc Abraham wanted to reinvigorate the zombie genre for modern audiences as well as "make the old fans happy and make a lot of new fans".[8] Newman and Abraham bought the rights toDawn of the Dead from its producer and rights holderRichard P. Rubinstein, who was reluctant at first as he was "concerned that somewhere along the way a studio would sanitize Newman's vision for producing a version with 'attitude'", but that it was "Marc Abraham's long track record in keeping the creative integrity of the studio distributed films he has produced intact that gave me reason to say 'yes'".[8] Newman hiredJames Gunn to write the script, and thestudio brought Gunn in despite not wanting to deliver them asignal idea for the film beforehand. A fan of the originalDawn of the Dead since he was a young boy, Gunn explained that he took the job because he "kind of saw generally what it could be".[19]
The producers conceptualized the remake as more of a "re-envisioning" which would work in some references to the original but would primarily work on its own terms.[8] Co-producer Eric Newman citedInvasion of the Body Snatchers (1978),The Thing (1982), andThe Fly (1986) as influences on the remake, considering these to be "amazing updates" as well as "great movies that add to rather than diminish the original films".[8] By way of respect to Romero's film, the producers cast the original'sTom Savini,Scott Reiniger, andKen Foree in cameos; and incorporated visual references toGaylen Ross andJames A. Baffico.[8][b]
In writing the script, Gunn took anaction-oriented approach while remaining faithful to the basic premise of Romero's version.[19] To develop the plot, he declined to write atreatment in favor of a discovery writing method whereby he would devise hypothetical situations which would ultimately force the characters to evacuate the mall.[10] Gunn decided to leave the origin of the zombie outbreak ambiguous, believing this would give not only equal consideration to each audience's viewpoint (scientific or otherwise) but also something to think about what they would do if they found themselves in a similar situation.[10] The script was given uncredited rewrites byMichael Tolkin andScott Frank; co-producer Richard P. Rubinstein said Tolkin further developed the characters while Frank provided some of the bigger, upbeat action scenes.[20] Gunn revealed he received internet backlash over the film due to his past screenwriting credit onScooby-Doo (2002), believing him to be unqualified for the job.[19] However, film criticHarry Knowles, initially an opponent of the remake, read Gunn's script and gave it a positive response on his websiteAin't It Cool News, which Gunn said helped eliminate doubts cast upon him by fans of the original.[19]
WithDawn of the Dead, Gunn wanted to explore thehuman condition as well as tell a wholly different story about redemption.[19] He elaborated on the redemptive theme of the film in an interview withIGN during apress junket forScooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed released that same year:
[...]Dawn of the Dead is about redemption because it's about a bunch of people who have lived certain lives, who have maybe not been the best people, and suddenly they have everything that they've used to define themselves: Their careers, their churches, their jobs, their families are stripped away. They're gone. They start at nothing and they have to become who they really are in the face of all that and some of the people are redeemed and end up becoming good people and some of them are not redeemed and they end up, you know, not redeemed. And that's what kind of drove me throughout the story, was it was a story about redemption. I also think that there's a lot about how people survive and what people turn to in the face of such tragedy. The tragedy in this case being flesh-eating zombies. And really it's a group coming together to work as a community who wouldn't otherwise work together. So there is that foundation of love, that basic message, within evenDawn of the Dead...[21]
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Zack Snyder chose to direct the remake as his first feature film because it gave the television commercial director "a reason to care about every shot".[8] Not wanting his version inevitably compared toGeorge A. Romero's, he concurred with the producers on reimagining the latter film as opposed to doing it as a "remake", which, in his view, would have entailed re-shooting Romero's script.[8] For that matter, he aimed to make his film a straighthorror that was "as serious as a heart attack"[8] and keep every aspect of its production as grounded inreality as possible.[22] His approach includedprevisualizing the film withstoryboards and introducing the concept of running zombies, which he said was his "fresh, new way" of giving it a sense of verisimilitude and rendering zombies as if they were real threats, especially when they attack in hordes.[8] Snyder maintained Gunn's decision not to reveal the origin of the zombie outbreak, believing it was "obvious that in thisfallen society, you wouldn't know where the whole plague started".[23]
In searching for a suitable upscale mall location for the film,production designer Andrew Neskoromny looked for existing malls that were scheduled for demolition.[8] His search yielded no results until he found the now-defunct Thornhill Square shopping mall inToronto, Ontario, Canada, which measured approximately 45,000 square feet (1.0 acre). Dubbed the "Crossroads Mall", the crew completely redid the mall over an eight-week period, adding an expensivewater feature near the entrance, 14 stores, parking structures, and warehouse areas.[8] Since Snyder wanted the stores palpable in terms of design and stood not merely asstorefronts, Neskoromny's team accordingly built them as actual retail stores complete with merchandise. These stores were given fake names, since only two major retail brands agreed to be featured in the film.[8][10]
Thespecial makeup effects for the film were created byDavid LeRoy Anderson, with assistance from his actress wifeHeather Langenkamp. Prior to accepting the job fromUniversal Studios' then-executiveJames D. Brubaker, Anderson had been in a two-year hiatus from working as a makeup effects artist to operate his company DLA Silverwear.[22] Anderson completed his test makeups for the film over a four-week period,[24] and then he and his team traveled to the Toronto set and set up their makeup effects lab next to the mall.[22]
To depict a heightened realistic look to the zombies, Anderson researched on the appearance of decay following humandeath, looking through several medical books, war footages, andcrime scene photographs showing graphic images oftrauma victims;[8][22] he broke down the look of decomposition into three stages:
The first stage looks like someone who was just in theER – pale, with lots of fresh blood. The second stage has moist wounds but the skin is beginning to break down. There is a lot of discoloration and mottling, mostly blues and greens. The third stage is the most intense, with the skeletal form coming through. The wounds are dried-up, the skin is sloughing off and colors are oily blacks.[8]
Head hits were donepractically through various methods, such asbullet hit squibs covered with prosthetic scalps and attached to the back of the actor's head to be detonated. Concerned about the risk thereof, Anderson developed an alternative method in which his team would attach wires to the scalps loaded with blood packs and yank them with a remote-controlled "airratchet system", lending a similar gruesome effect as with the squibs sans potential harm.[25]
Filming began on June 9, 2003, on location in various parts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[8] Hundreds of zombieextras had to be constantly available for the entire shoot. To handle the volume of willing extras, Anderson and his team built a large "factory" where painted extras would stay put until they are spoken for by either the main orsecond unit film crew.[26] They built various makeup rooms for the artists to work in: one consisted ofcamper trailers where they would apply detailed prosthetic makeups to extras playing "hero zombies", a special type of zombie; and the other consisted oftents where they would produce paintedmasks for extras playing background zombies. Extras playing foreground zombies were painted with plainpalette makeups in Anderson's mall lab.[27] The makeup artists were given hisconcept images to work on as references.[28] According to Anderson and Heather Langenkamp, the most extras they ever had in a given day sat between 200 and 400,[22] with a total of 3,000 makeups completed when filming ended on September 6, 2003.[8]
Thevisual effects for the film were provided by Canadian VFX studio Mr. X Inc., with its president Dennis Berardi serving as the film's co-VFX supervisor.[29]
The production shot scenes for which Snyder wanted as many as 4,000 live-action zombies, which Berardi created rather as a combination ofpractical zombies andCG zombies which he built as 3D models withAutodesk Maya. One such scene involved tens of thousands of zombies at the mall's parking lot, which was shot with motion-control passes whosegreen screen elements of 200 extras, combined with the CG zombies, were latercomposited to create a "digital crowd simulation that looks realistic".[29]
Kyle Cooper designed thetitle sequence for the film, using real human blood.[30]
Thescore forDawn of the Dead was composed byTyler Bates, his first for a horror film. Bates was hired after being recommended bymusic supervisor,G. Marq Roswell, as both of them were involved on theMario Van Peebles's filmBaadasssss! (2003). However, the studio was not convinced on Bates's hiring because he was not an established composer at that time, but upon Snyder's insistence, he was ultimately hired.[31]
While scoring the film, Bates avoided taking cues from the original film's music by the bandGoblin, as he felt it incompatible with what Snyder had filmed. Although he liked Goblin's themes for the counterpart, he felt it was specific to that period and Snyder's version had a "different attitude" in comparison to the original film. Hence, he let go of the popular themes from the original film, including the main title theme, which he felt "was cool and was a different thing".[31] Influenced by the works of composers adept at creatingdissonant themes, such asBéla Bartók andKrzysztof Penderecki,[31] he combined elements ofelectronic music and20th-century orchestra with the intention of making the audience "very, very uncomfortable".[10]
Milan Records released Bates's score inphysical format for the first time on October 23, 2012, a week after the record label released it digitally viaiTunes Store andAmazon Music. The album comprises 31 tracks, all of which were composed by Bates.Dawn of the Dead also marks the first of several collaborations between him and Snyder: he would later compose for the director on300 (2006),Watchmen (2009), andSucker Punch (2011).[32]
In a 2023 interview withTotal Film, Snyder revealed he had lobbied for the inclusion of theRichard Cheese cover of "Down with the Sickness", originally sung by the heavy metal bandDisturbed, which plays in amontage where the characters relieve boredom in the mall. According to Snyder, the studio originally declined the Richard Cheese version in favor of the Disturbed version, but he managed to convince them that the former was appropriate for the scene. Snyder also stated his rationale behind the decision to play "People Who Died" bythe Jim Carroll Band at the end of the film: "I really love that [opening chords of 'People Who Died'] DANG! DANG! DANG, DANG, DANG! I thought that it was cool as a way to end the movie because it's so dark. It's a bleak ending, in a cool way."[33]
Universal Pictures distributed the film worldwide, excluding the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Japan, Scandinavia, Iceland, Turkey, Israel, South Africa and the Middle East.Strike Entertainment retained the film through a set of closed deals, selling the film toEntertainment Film Distributors in the United Kingdom and Ireland,Metropolitan Filmexport in France,Toho-Towa in Japan,Nordisk Film in Scandinavia, Samfilm in Iceland, Pinema in Turkey, Forum Film in Israel, Nu Metro in South Africa and Italia Film in the Middle East.[34]
"[Y]ou could see a movie withone guy rising from the dead or you can see one with thousands."
Dawn of the Dead was marketed with its 10-minute opening sequence that was broadcast oncable television four nights prior to its theatrical release.[35]Entertainment Weekly projected that it would outperformThe Passion of the Christ in its United States opening weekend, with an audience base comprising largely young males and estimated gross of $22 million.[36]
In the U.S. and Canada, the film was released alongsideEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind andTaking Lives, on March 19, 2004.[36]Dawn of the Dead ended up performing above projections, debuting to $27.3 million in its U.S. opening weekend and claiming the top spotThe Passion of the Christ held for three consecutive weekends.[37][38]Variety reported, "Some 63% ofDawn [audiences] were under age 25, with 57% of patrons male.Hispanic moviegoers comprised 21% of its supporters andAfrican Americans 14%."[38]Dawn of the Dead ended its theatrical run as a commercial success, grossing $102 million worldwide on a $26 million budget;[17] it grossed $59 million in the United States and Canada and $43.3 million in other territories.[4]
The release ofDawn of the Dead in the U.S. nearly coincided with that ofShaun of the Dead, another zombie film distributed byUniversal Pictures. In a February 2004Variety report, a spokesman at Universal revealed that the studio hadgreenlitShaun of the Dead "with the condition thatDawn of the Dead would be released here in the U.S. first" in order to avoid this conflict.[39]
Dawn of the Dead was screenedout of competition at the2004 Cannes Film Festival.[40]
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment releasedDawn of the Dead onDVD,Blu-ray, anddigital with director Zack Snyder's unrateddirector's cut of the film:[41] he described this version as longer, gorier, and more character-driven than the theatrical one.[42] Bonus features found on the DVD and Blu-ray include Snyder and co-producerEric Newman'saudio commentary; thefeaturettesAttack of the Living Dead,Raising the Dead,Drawing the Dead,Splitting Headaches,Surviving the Dawn, andSpecial Report: Zombie Invasion; theshort filmThe Lost Tape: Andy's Terrifying Last Days Revealed;deleted scenes with optional commentary by Snyder and Newman; and the film's theatricaltrailer.[43]
OnHalloween of 2017,Shout! Factory's horror sub-label Scream Factory released a two-disccollector's edition Blu-ray ofDawn of the Dead, which contains the film's theatrical version and the director's cut. The Blu-ray, which is said to have been "derived from thedigital intermediatearchival negative", contains bonus features found in previous releases in addition to new and exclusive ones featuring interviews with actorsTy Burrell andJake Weber, screenwriterJames Gunn, and makeup effects artistsDavid LeRoy Anderson andHeather Langenkamp.[44] A4K Ultra HD collector's edition Blu-ray from Scream Factory with extras ported over from the label's previous release was released on January 31, 2023.[45]
Dawn of the Dead received generally positive reviews upon its release,[37][50] with critics praising it as a worthy remake of the original and a fine addition to the zombie genre.[6][13][51] On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 76% of 191 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.80/10. The website's consensus reads: "A kinetic, violent and surprisingly worthy remake of George Romero's horror classic that pays homage to the original while working on its own terms."[52] As of 2024[update],Dawn of the Dead is Zack Snyder's highest-rated film on the website.[53]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 59 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[54] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[55]
The film was considered by most to be an improvement over the original in terms of acting, production values, and scares,[13][46][56] althoughVariety andDerek Malcolm felt that it was only intermittently scary.[35][57] Despite giving it a negative review,Variety said that the film was otherwise "more palatable" than the "atrocious"Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake released the previous year.[35]Michael Gingold stated, "[...]Dawn of the Dead joinsThe Ring andThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre as an update that both honors its source and emerges as an effective horror film in its own right",[48] a sentiment also shared byIGN.[6]Lisa Schwarzbaum praised Snyder's direction in "a killer feature debut",[46] whileRoger Ebert said in a positive review that anyone paying to see it is guaranteed to get their money's worth.[56]
Abundant praise was given to the film's opening sequence,[58][59] which an otherwise negative review fromThe Hollywood Reporter called "pulse-poundingly good".[12] Gingold found Snyder's camerawork using afirst-person video-game perspective at the beginning of the film to be praiseworthy, more so than those of the video game filmsResident Evil (2002) andHouse of the Dead (2003).[48] The lack of dark humor of the original was a source of criticism,[47][56] although the scene in which survivors shoot zombified celebrity look-alikes with a sniper rifle was considered by most to be funny, among other jokes;[46][58][59]The Hollywood Reporter cited it as some of the film's "moments of inspired audacity".[12] Many noted that the fast-moving zombies ofDawn of the Dead were similar to those of28 Days Later,[48][51] but felt that theDanny Boyle film was "darker and creepier",[13] "smarter, more rigorously structured",[60] and could pass for a remake of the original.[35]
Despite the general praise, some critics said the film gave scant consideration to Romero'ssatirical critique ofconsumerism, among other sociopolitical issues.[49][60] Ebert andVariety stated that whereas Romero used the shopping mall to stage a metaphor about consumer society, Snyder used it merely as a convenient shelter for his characters.[35][56] Gingold lamented that unlike Romero's film, Snyder's provided no social commentary onracism through its Black characters Kenneth and Andre as well as theinterracial relationship between Andre and Luda.[48] In contrast,Manohla Dargis commented that Romero's consumerist metaphor has lost its significance in the years since the original's release, "with the politics of consumption now an established academic field and shopping now considered a statement ofidentity".[51]IGN praised the film's tonal departure from Romero's, calling it "a calculated risk that paid off".[6]
The Hollywood Reporter andChicago Tribune commented thatDawn of the Dead was content to indulge in bloody zombie killings devoid of meaning and introspection once present in the original, leaving the audience rather numbed and "less mercifully handled, even at the end-credits".[12][47]Wesley Morris gave a negative review in which he said the film "feels like the product of thePlayStation era" as opposed to a reverence for Romero.[60]Elvis Mitchell had similar objections, writing that "[t]he flesh-eaters are picked off like video-game targets".[61] Conversely, theBBC complimented the film as a "stylish, gore-drenched shoot-em-up",[49] and Dargis attributed its appeal not to the bloody violence but to "the filmmakers' commitment togenre fundamentals".[51] Writing in a positive review, internet-based criticJames Berardinelli said fans of "tight, tense, graphic horror" should be able to enjoy the same aplenty inDawn of the Dead.[13]
While Schwarzbaum and Dargis complimented Gunn's script as "sharp" and propulsive, respectively,[46][51] others took issue with what they believed to be the lack of plot and character developments.[12][35][56] Morris found most of the characters to be too irritating that he believed audiences might want them "thrown from the mall roof to the throngs of undead".[60] TheChicago Tribune said that the characters were clichéd and about as dumb as the undead, though sympathized with the "tragic" moral dilemma faced by Andre as an expectant father.[47] Conversely, Berardinelli said that while there are moments in which the characters show a lack ofcommon sense, "it's inevitable that most of them end up as one-dimensional throw-aways whose sole purpose is to increase thebody count" and that "not many people go to a horror film looking for character development and drama".[13] He and Ebert found the subplots of Kenneth and Andre to be "touching", with Berardinelli stating that these were "handled with a deft hand".[13][56] Although Ebert was personally not on board with the characters' "risky" plan to escape from the mall in lieu of awaiting the zombies' natural death, he remarked that "taking chances makes for good action scenes".[56] Mitchell criticized the plot as "strictly by the numbers" and said that the climactic gun store scene "shows why zombie pictures aren't unsettling anymore".[61]
The ensemble cast was generally praised: comments ranged from "superlative"[6] and "convincing down the line"[48] to "respectable"[12] and "annoying".[61] Schwarzbaum and theChicago Tribune describedSarah Polley's screen presence as "a perfect against-type heroine" with "a nice anxious stare".[46][47]IGN was dismayed that least attention was given to Phifer's "naturally charismatic presence" with such a large cast, though felt that Rhames was effective as Polley's "quietly authoritativefoil" and praisedJake Weber's performance in "a thankless role".[6] While giving equal praise to Polley, Phifer, and Rhames, Gingold singled out Weber's existentialist role as "the best of all",[48] as did theBBC, who also credited the actor with "bringing a redoubtable decency and charisma to a potentially bland part, like the youngRoy Scheider inJaws".[49]
In 2005, George A. Romero spoke briefly of how dissatisfied he was withDawn of the Dead during an interview with actorSimon Pegg forTime Out. Romero said although the remake could pass for a good action film, he thought it was aimless and "more of a video game" for that matter, as well as maintained he was "not terrified of things running at me".[62] In a 2024 interview withThe Hollywood Reporter, Pegg said he was a fan of the film but the title, the use of which he felt merely depended on the popularity of the Romero version: "They could have called itDeadish, which was a great line in the film that one of the actors used, and it still would have been a great film, but when you just take a title because people recognize it, it's so disrespectful to the original."[63]
Numerous publications have namedDawn of the Dead as Zack Snyder's best film.[c] Revisiting the film on its 15th anniversary in 2019, Joe Lipsett wrote the following verdict forBloody Disgusting:
Fifteen years later,Dawn of the Dead completely holds up. The film's flaws are mostly at the character level, though having a dumb zombie baby and a few undeveloped red shirts in the mix is hardly a deal breaker. The action – particularly the opening scene and thepropane explosion climax – in addition to the fantastic special effects makeup, the brief flirtation withfound footage, and the reverence for its source text while introducing something new makes 2004'sDawn of the Dead one of the best remakes on the market.[15]
Likewise,Dawn of the Dead has appeared on several lists of the top zombie films, including number 3 byRolling Stone (2012),[67] number 12 byEmpire (2020),[68] byCollider (2021),[69] number 17 byIndieWire (2022),[70] and byVariety (2023);[71] as well as the best horror films of the decade, including number 3 byDread Central (2010),[72] number 8 by Bloody Disgusting (2009),[73] number 52 byIGN,[74] and number 55 byRolling Stone (2020).[75] The film made review aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes's lists of "The 20 Scariest Opening Scenes in Horror Movie History" (at number 6),[76] "The 25 Best Horror Movie Remakes" (at number 9),[77] "The 30 Essential Zombie Movies" (at number 13),[78] and "18 Memorable Horror Remakes".[79]
In a June 2018 article forThe Hollywood Reporter, Richard Newby wrote thatDawn of the Dead helped revitalize the zombie genre along with28 Days Later at a time when the United States "was ripe for the re-emergence of zombie movies" following theSeptember 11 attacks, which he believes to have contributed to the Americans' "increased fear ofbiological weapons, fervent massmilitarization and the burrowing question of who exactly are the people we call our neighbors".[80] AuthorStephen King, in the forenote of the 2010 edition of his bookDanse Macabre, saw what he believed to be Snyder's subtext conveying the horrors induced by terrorist attacks, drawing parallels between the zombie apocalypse and a post-9/11 America. King describedDawn of the Dead as "genius perfected" in terms of its standing in the zombie genre.[81]South Park creatorsTrey Parker andMatt Stone and South Korean filmmakerYeon Sang-ho consider themselves to be fans of the film, citing it as an influence upon their works "Night of the Living Homeless" and theTrain to Busan series, respectively.[82][83]
| Year | Award | Category | Recipient | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Bram Stoker Awards | Screenplay | James Gunn | Nominated | [84] |
| Golden Trailer Awards | Best Horror/Thriller | Dawn of the Dead | Won | [85] | |
| Best Music | Dawn of the Dead | Nominated | [86] | ||
| 2005 | Saturn Awards | Best Horror Film | Dawn of the Dead | Nominated | [87][88] |
| Best Make-Up | David LeRoy Anderson and Mario Cacioppo | Nominated |
On March 25, 2007,Variety announced thatWarner Bros. Pictures would produce a new zombie film from a screenplay written byJoby Harold, based on an original idea conceived by Snyder. In a statement, Snyder said that he wanted the film to feel similar toDawn of the Dead and300 and that it would center around a father inLas Vegas "who tries to save his daughter from imminent death in a zombie-infested world". At the time, Wesley Coller was attached to executive produce, with Snyder and his wifeDeborah Snyder producing through Cruel & Unusual Films (now known asThe Stone Quarry).[89] Snyder got the idea duringDawn of the Dead's production and wanted to explore a new evolution of the zombies. The film is not a sequel toDawn of the Dead but rather aspiritual successor. Snyder realized that he needed a neworigin story to develop the plot and create a new incarnation of the living dead. He titled the projectArmy of the Dead as a tribute tothe works of George A. Romero.[90][91] After languishing for several years indevelopment hell, the distribution rights to the film were acquired byNetflix in 2019,[92][93] and Snyder began shooting that same year.[94]
Army of the Dead had a week-long limited theatrical release starting May 14 prior to its wider Netflix release on May 21, 2021.[95]
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