Dawn of the Dead

"When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth"

Dawn of the Dead, directed by Zach Synder in 2004 (a remake of a movie by the same title in 1978), the same guy who directed 300, and Watchmen. It's your typical zombie apocalypse movie. Featuring some less scary and more amusing scenes. And your usual selection of incompetent characters.

It starts in a hospital with a nurse, and a hint of the virus initially being spread. Which by the way, there is no indication of how the virus was made, or how it eventually managed to affect hundreds of thousands of people, causing them to eventually die... and come back to life with insatiable cravings for human flesh.

The nurse is played by Sara Polley and the first section of the film involves a scene with her escaping pajama clad from her zombified husband and child, and fleeing the neighborhood as it burns up in chaos in the early hours of the morning. Although how her little girl managed to get bit in the first place is unknown, could be an affected pedophile that broke in? Who knows.

After driving far enough enough away she eventually bumps into a tree, where she meets a police officer played by Ving Rhames, who also played as Marsellus Wallace in Pulp Fiction.

After realizing she's not a zombie they team up and venture forth to meet some more survivors, two guys played by Jake Weber and Mekhi Phifer. And a pregnant women played by Inna Korobkina, who would obviously be a setback.

Malls. Your safest hiding spot in the event of a zombie apocalypse!

They decide to head over to a nearby shopping mall, where the run into the security guards played by Kevin Zegers, Michael Kelly and Michael Barry. Showing just how reluctant people are at getting along during an apocalypse!

It's not long before more survivors show up, including (much to my amusement) a fat woman being towed in a wheelbarrow, who is quite clearly infected. 

With thousands of zombies congregating outside, the survivors amusingly call out zombies by name, while another snipes them.

There's some funny lines in Dawn of the Dead, and the soundtrack is fitting. Character personality seem to be either dumb, cold, or over-caring, but that's usually all you can expect from this kind of film.

Even while they have a great place to hold out the survivors decide they should all pack up and grab a boat from a nearby pier to go hide on an island.

It's not long before something goes horribly wrong. And when another survivor gets infected trying to get food. The action kicks off! They jump in some armor plated trucks and head for the pier. Where there's blood and explosions right up to the end of the film! 

Dawn of the Dead is definitively one to watch, it's got action, and silliness, but if you're looking for a scare you're out of luck. It's not as good as the likes of 28 days later, but it's not as bad as most other zombie movies out there!

3.5 / 5