Some zombie movies keep you up at night, some make you check behind your back when you take a walk outside, and then some make you feel like you might have a chance if that apocalypse ever comes to fruition. Dawn of the Dead (2004) is a perfect blend of these feelings, never losing its horror roots with the zombies while also not taking itself too seriously.
Now, for some background, I was terrified of zombies as a kid. It did not help when my 10-year-old self went to see Man of Steel (2013), a Superman movie, at the drive-in just to find out that the movie World War Z (2013) was playing before it. I could just never shake the feeling of fear when it came to the genre after being subjected to that movie. Then, I was introduced to The Walking Dead.
I knew the popularity of the show, as well as its fall from pop culture, but I was still intrigued to find out why it was so popular at its peak. Long story short, I ended up binging the first 10 seasons of the show in a matter of two months, and never let go of the grip that zombies began to take hold of me.
After moving in with my girlfriend, Jessica, the thing I looked forward to the most was getting her to watch the show that I fell in love with. I once again binged the show with her despite it being less than a year since I watched it myself. Yes, that is how much I had now fallen in love with a show about the creatures I was so terrified of as a kid. Whether she likes it or not (she definitely does), she would now be subjected to my infantilization with zombies.
To flip back to the present, I let her pick from a handful of movies for us to make our first review about, and she landed on Dawn of the Dead (2004). Now, I never knew much about the film, but, of course, there were zombies! I knew that no matter what, I would have an opinion on how I felt about the movie.
PLOT (SPOILERS AHEAD)
Set in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, our main character, Ana, is introduced to us in a hospital, where she works as a nurse. A mysterious infection has begun spreading, yet it appears the dead are not yet rising. After returning home, Ana greets her husband, Luis, and the two fall asleep following a scene in which Ana’s feet are displayed to the audience about 4 times in three minutes (yes, it is certainly 2004).
In the morning, the two are awoken by a little girl who has somehow made her way into their house and to their bedroom door. Luis is attacked, and Ana is forced to flee after he turns into a zombie. We then follow Ana as she drives down an empty highway with explosions going off all around her (again, 2004 baby!).
Ana gets into a car crash and is awoken to a shotgun being pointed at her face by Sergeant Kenneth. Along with Kenneth and another group, they meet, including Andre, his pregnant girlfriend Luda, and Michael, when a mall is discovered. The group makes its way in, encounters a few zombies, and is greeted by mall security.
What makes this film different from other horror and zombie films is what follows, as the group appears to find joy in their situation. No situations arise that force the group out of the mall, there appears to be no shortage of supplies, and no real threat of a zombie break-in is present.
So, you’re probably wondering, what gives? Well, the group decides that they should flee the hotel and take a boat to an island. Again, there is no threat to their safety or lives in the mall. The security guard by the name of CJ even appears to break the fourth wall to some extent, explaining to the group how ludicrous this plan is, and then just agrees to do it anyway.
This is where the movie sort of falls off for me. I believed a good build-up was occurring, but to write the climax, the idea to flee the mall was sort of just shoe-horned in to create conflict that would eventually lead to the group’s demise. Two buses in the mall’s garage are suped-up to be capable of transporting the group to the boat of a rich guy they let in, who also happened to have the keys to his boat (again, pretty poor writing), and the group sets off.
Unsurprisingly, several members of the group die on this journey. A portion of the group makes it to the boat and sets sail to an island. As a reminder, this movie takes place in Milwaukee, so it is unclear why the group believed a better life awaited them on an island in a lake in Wisconsin. During the credits, it is revealed that zombies already inhabit the island, and it appears that the portion of the group that did make it was quickly eaten by them.
REVIEW
In short, I believed this to be a movie I would call “fun.” I did not love this movie, nor did I dislike it; I believed it was a perfectly alright depiction of a zombie apocalypse that mainly suffered from its lack of a true direction. It fits perfectly into the come-up that zombie media was experiencing in Western culture during the mid 2000s, and catalyzed to propel the genre into the mainstream, so I am certainly grateful for its existence.
Jessica’s review of the film, as someone who is certainly not as into the genre as myself moreso, focused on the differences of this film from other interpretations of zombies that she has watched, as well as the lighting of the film. Her instant reaction is as follows: “I would say that I was a bit skeptical at first because I’m not the biggest fan of older movies as far as the visuals, especially because technology is so advanced now that I feel like I’m spoiled. I like to have movies with really good quality. Plus, the movie had super high saturation, which reminds me of when I was younger. I used to watch YouTube, and they would crank the saturation up on their videos and their pictures to make it look cooler, and I thought that was silly. Visuals aside, I liked it. I’ve seen my fair share of zombie movies, so I feel like this isn’t something better than anything else I’ve ever seen, but I also don’t think it was the worst. It was an okay movie. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it.
I decided to add a wrinkle and include two separate rating categories, one for the movieas a whole, as well as one grading the movie compared to other zombie movies. Jessica gave it a 3 out of 5 stars for the former, while giving it a 4 in terms of being a zombie movie. Hearing her review, I think I completely agree, and thus my rating turned out to be the same.
To wrap up our review from the perspective of a couple, I would recommend it as something to put on if at least one of you is into zombies. I would not call this a horror film for those who enjoy that genre, as I was never really scared, despite certainly being someone who gets scared rather easily. This was a good example of a movie that I would more gravitate towards rather than Jessica, but definitely a genre that she has grown to at least pretend to enjoy!
Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐