UrbanWire

Dawn of the Dead is a remake of George A. Romero's 1978 original of the same title and that being the case, it's inevitable one will invite comparisons to the original cult classic. Don't.

The current remake simply wants the audience to enjoy the gore and violence fest, and perhaps make a point or 2 on the power of the masses and crowd violence judging by its MTV-styled opening.

The original was a satire on consumerism (okay fine, I'm comparing) and done deadly so with humour and wit. This time, although the cast congregates and hides in a shopping mall from the zombies too, there isn't a hint or whatsoever on the big C issue. Surely, we know now that Zack Snyder isn't cut out to talk, but to shock.

So don't expect plots to exist. If they do, they are without explanations and just integrated along for the scary ride. Ana (Sarah Polley) wakes up to find her boyfriend attacked by a girl zombie and flees for her life. She finds herself surrounded by nimble and quick zombies yearning for a bite of her. She flees again and ends up in a mall with a group of strangers.

There're about 10 people in the group and it's obvious the numbers will slowly deplete with each zombie's bite. Hence, lies the million-dollar question: Who's next? Who will survive? The group of survivors plan, devise and find ways to entertain themselves (hiding in a mall for months can get a little boring) and escape the mall eventually.

There's Kenneth (Ving Rhames) the tough policeman, Michael (Jake Webber) the self-righteous leader and Andre (Mekhi Phifer) the husband who cares deeply for his pregnant wife, Luna (Inna Korobkina). There's also the security guard, C.J (Michael Kelly) who tries to boss the group around. The rest of the cast is evidently pointless to mention (read: they will die soon).

We didn't know the mall could be a frightening place. The long corridors, dark staircases and eerie silence in an empty store are suitable places for zombies (where they come from, don't ask me) to jump at the characters (cue: audience screams). And yes, the characters like to walk alone. Whatever happened to good common sense?

The zombies will jump at the character, occupying the entire screen at various times. It's a great camera effect that simply scares the daylights out of the audience. Although the director uses the zombies as a shock tool wisely, he fails to do it in moderation. The zombies are everywhere and even those with a tough gut might get sick of their ubiquity. In a scene, the cast is on the roof shooting at specific persons (celebrities actually) in the hundreds of zombies walking outside the mall. It's probably not a good sign that we sympathise with the zombies.

Having said that, Dawn of the Dead isn't 28 Days Later because the latter is a subtle expose on the human condition while the former is an in-your face gore fest (there's a chainsaw scene which really is just too bloody). In Dead, the virus that inhabits the zombies is unexplained, characters like CJ transform dramatically without proper justification and gasp, the characters even have time to fall in love!

Dawn of the Dead may get you stifling a yawn or 2 when it comes to the storyline (or the non-existence of it), but it's still a good old school remake as compared to the recent The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or those teenage slasher flicks because it's authentic enough to use the dead as scare tactics and not screaming girls running in wet t-shirts.