So it's been over 17 years since the Dawn of the dead remake came out in theatres for
the first time.
Zack Snyder's first film was one that helped to revitalise the
Zombie genre and show what the auteur traits of the director really were.
In the buildup to his new film Army of the Dead on Netflix, I'm going to be breaking
down Snyder's first directorial effort in Dawn
of the dead, and discussing my overall thoughts on the film so many years later.
I have also covered a lot of his work on the channel over the last few months, so I will
be looking at more films by the director as time passes.
If you want to keep up to date with all of this content alongside Army of the Dead when
it releases next week, then don't forget to support this video by giving it a like rating,
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which is all linked in the description.
But without further ado, let's dive into Zack Snyder's 2004 zombie
film, Dawn of the Dead.
So Zack Snyder was a director with a background in music videos who would eventually cross
over into feature filmmaking with a remake of George Romero’s 1978 zombie film Dawn
of the Dead.
Snyder’s version hit theatres on March the 19th 2004, and in this movie, the characters
aren’t superheroes or Spartan warriors.
Instead, we get a movie with everyday people who are thrusted together in an extraordinary
situation.
This dose of humanity makes Dawn of the Dead more
down-to-earth and relatable through the perspectives we follow, and with a screenplay by James
Gunn, who would also go on to become a key figure in the comic book
movie genre, this is Snyder’s most barebones film, and it’s also one of his best.
When it comes to zombies, 28 Days Later‘s Rage-infected bunch are largely responsible
for revitalizing the genre, thanks to Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s vision.
These two filmmakers saw potential in this area of cinema that had yet to be unlocked.
While Romero, the king of the modern zombie film, used the apocalypse to comment on society’s
greed, Boyle and Garland discovered a more personal story.
How do you find the will to survive in a world where you might be forced to watch your loved
ones die, try to kill you, or force you to kill them?
This, coupled with the manic speed of Boyle and Garland’s zombies, is what Snyder tried
to infuse into his remake of Romero’s masterpiece.
However, Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead isn’t as much a remake as it is a re-imagining of
the original that doesn’t quite go for the thinly-veiled criticism of American consumerism
that is Romero’s thesis.
About the only resemblance to the original is the remake’s main setting, a couple of
cameos, and some references to Romero’s film.
Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead is purely an entertainment piece, full of set pieces and scary moments.
But this is what makes it all the better, as Snyder directs a critically and financially
successful horror movie remake, which is a huge accomplishment in itself.
All of the auteur traits of Snyder’s built career are on display in
Dawn of the Dead, whether it be the brutal storytelling, the desaturated colour palette,
or the epic action sequences.
When looking at Dawn of the Dead's opening sequence, we also get something that is quite
classic, with Snyder demonstrating his great use of openings to create a tone
that the movie will run with.
Starting out in a hospital that isn't abandoned and instead, still buzzing with life, the
movie begins in pre-apocalypse.
As a genre artefact, Dawn of the Dead is perhaps best remembered for this cold open.
It’s eleven and a half minutes before the film’s title appears on-screen and its opening
credits begin.
In that time, Snyder manages to draw us into the life of one character and then open the
world out around her to where it shows a citywide end-of-the-world nightmare.
Sarah Polley’s character, Ana, isn’t a warrior with powers, instead, she’s a nurse
at the end of a long shift who just wants to get home so she can have a nice night with
her husband.
As the movie fades in, we see her standing in the hallway next to a doctor talking about
golf, without them realising that the world is about to go insane.
And enter The Dawn Of The Dead Credit Sequence which Is Still One Of The Best Snyder has
done to date.
There are the shots of riots combined with zombie attacks and other horror elements that
are all played to “The Man Comes Around by Johnny Cash,” and there are few title
sequences that have created the same effect.
The tone of the movie is established and it sets up the first chapter that ends with Ana
waking up to a world gone mad.
The idea of having a song about the end of times sung by one of
the best musicians to help the film better differentiate itself from the original pays
off massively.
Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead is a new version of the classic as opposed to a shot-for-shot
remake of the original.
Yes, the movie has the same basic premise of
'there’s a zombie outbreak, survivors take refuge, things get hectic and survivors make
an escape,' but at the same time, it doesn’t follow the 1978 version beat-for-beat.
What I love is how Zack Snyder and James Gunn’s approach to the story finds a balance of drawing
from the original while also doing its own thing.
Still, There Are A Ton Of Great Callbacks To George A. Romero’s Horror Classic though,
and this weirdly makes it more rewatchable when combined with all the new elements that
the film has to offer.
Zack Snyder and his team included everything from the classic line of “When there’s
no more room in Hell…”, Tom Savini in a
Monroeville Sheriff’s uniform, the TV helicopter, Scott Reiniger appearing as a general, and
even the Gaylen Ross department store.
In Dawn of the Dead, we get a film which is driven by the situation, and it's not the
characters who are larger-than-life.
We see this in the ways the characters try to cope with the situation, all the while
navigating their own human weaknesses.
The movie begins with a flaming skull transitioning into an X-ray as if to show that what’s
really on fire in this apocalypse is the human brain.
Kenneth — a police sergeant with a U.S. Marine Corps tattoo — initially leans into
guarded self-interest.
At first, he only cares about going to meet his brother, even if it means ditching these
other survivors, leaving them to fend for themselves in the mall.
Eventually, however, we see him embrace the group of characters
he’s with and forge a rooftop connection with the gun store owner, Andy.
Michael Kelly, who's gone on to play numerous roles you might know of is less recognizable
with a moustache and a security guard hat, but his character, C.J., tries to take a bit
out of the situation.
He controls the mall until the other survivors overthrow him and set him on a redemption
arc.
Andre, has perhaps the most bonkers arc in the film, believing it’s his purpose in
life to bring his baby into the world, and he’s the one who loses his grip on sanity,
tying his infected wife to a bed and attending the delivery of their zombie baby.
They may be caught up in everything going on, but all of these characters react to stress
and trauma in very human ways.
Maybe that’s the secret to the movie’s success and quality, as if you removed the
whole plot of a zombie outbreak, what you’d have is just a story about people undergoing
an increasingly bad survival situation.
Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead is one of those rare remakes that can live side-by-side with
the original without losing its identity.
Perhaps recognizing that no one could do it better than the legendary George Romero, Gunn’s
script downplays the social commentary of the original but makes up for it by
exploiting the setting more and giving us crazy moments like that zombie birth.
At their best, zombie stories often function as a metaphor for holding onto one’s own
humanity in an increasingly hostile world.
2004's Dawn of the Dead was one of the films that paved the way for series like
The Walking Dead, and Snyder’s film used a more modern sensibility to bring Romero’s
B-movie zombies into the mainstream.
Its hyperkinetic undead portrays the dawn of a new period with an increased pace and
shorter attention spans.
And the fake-out ending helps to really portray all the themes and the approach that I've
discussed.
The conclusion of Dawn of the Dead is grim and the false sense of hope capitalises on
the movie as a whole.
At the end of the movie (following the true ending), everyone is presumably dead after
meeting the undead welcoming party.
But even before that with the quick cuts of handheld footage of the survivors’ mood
slowly changing prepares you for what is about to happen.
The foreshadowing really drives the message home that no one is going to survive this.
All these things being said, Dawn of the Dead is not a perfect movie as it has tonal problems,
but the nostalgia coupled with the new infusion of modern energy makes this film one in Zack
Snyder's filmography, that is worth a rewatch and can definitely build
the excitement for his upcoming project.
But that was my video essay for Zack Snyder's Dawn Of The Dead remake, and why I think the
film perfectly introduced us to the filmmaker through the zombie genre.
Dawn of the Dead highlighted how Snyder tells his stories visually but also includes the
character and emotion you'd expect from an intense situation.
Coupled with James Gunn’s sensibilities, there's a great creative synergy on display
and it’s no coincidence that both directors wound up making their names on comic book
movies later in their careers, with visual styles for also staging memorable moments
to music in their films.
Zack Snyder will also be producing The Suicide Squad, which means that he and Gunn have come
full circle and will soon be reunited on their next theatrical release.
As a director, Snyder’s own DC Comics superhero days may be behind him, and
of course, we hope not after the Snyder cut, but it's reassuring to know that he’s got
a new zombie movie, Army of the Dead, arriving on the Netflix horizon.
We'll have to see how Army of The Dead turns out when it releases next week on Netflix,
and I will be doing videos on the film, so look out for all of the content that I post.
But let me know down below what your thoughts are towards 2004's Dawn of the dead and do
you agree with the points I have raised in this breakdown.
For more videos on Zack Snyder's work, including the director's cut of Justice League and Army
of the Dead when it releases later this month, then subscribe to the channel and turn on
your notifications.
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But anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it, I've been Cortex and as always make some noise.