Dawn of the Dead, the remake of the 1978 zombie mashing classic of the same name, is action packed any bloodier than ever.

The film gets going very quickly, starting as the film title may have suggested, at dawn when their neighbour's daughter pounces and kills the heroine's husband. It's not long until he dies from his wounds and starts looking for revenge.

As in the original, the film is largely set in the local mall, though they don't actually show us how they got in whilst making the place safe on entry. Unlike in the original the zombies are ferocious and bloodthirsty, capable of running and smashing stuff whereas in the original they seemed more like sleepwalkers who would eat when they happened to find you. There are no scenes of zombies walking aimlessless around the mall, which was somewhat disappointing.

As a zombie movie, there was plenty of zombie mashing for any fans of this genre, enough storyline (other than that of 'Zombies are walking the Earth') including a rather horrid scene of a pregnant woman dying whilst giving birth, becoming a zombie and then giving birth to a zombie baby.

One of the better plot developments was concerning the new father protecting his family, zombified though they were, even shooting someone who dared to put one of them down. If you like zombie films, or scary films this one will have you on the edge of your seat but it's not the best film I've ever seen by a long way.

see also:
Blade 2, Insidious, A history of Violence, Planet Terror

User rating: 4.5 (1 votes) [rate this movie] [official site]
photo © Universal.