Dawn of the Dead [Blu-ray]
Studio: Starz/sphe Release Date: 10/02/2007 Run time: 91 minutes Rating: RAre you ready to get down with the sickness? Movie logic dictates that you shouldn’t remake a classic, but Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead defies that logic and comes up a winner. You could argue that George A. Romero’s 1978 original was sacred ground for horror buffs, but it was a low-budget classic, and Snyder’s action-packed upgrade benefits from the same manic pacing that energized Romero’s continuing zombie saga. Romero’s indictment of mega-mall commercialism is lost (it’s arguably outmoded anyway), so Snyder and screenwriter James Gunn compensate with the same setting–in this case, a Milwaukee shopping mall under siege by cannibalistic zombies in the wake of a devastating viral outbreak–a well-chosen cast (led by Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer), some outrageously morbid humor, and a no-frills plot that keeps tension high and blood splattering by the bucketful. Horror buffs will catch plenty of tributes to Romero’s film (including cameos by three of its cast members, including gore-makeup wizard Tom Savini), and shocking images are abundant enough to qualify this Dawn as an excellent zombie-flick double-feature with 28 Days Later, its de facto British counterpart. –Jeff Shannon
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Blood and Guts
George A. Romero’s original “Dawn of the Dead” is as haunting and creepy as the remake. Despite its low budget, there are tons of blood and gore and violence all around. There’s some black humor, also. The actors are believable as their characters are memorable. The zombies (not as fast as the ones in the remake) are just downright scary; the blood and guts are not for squeamish. Truly a must-see for all zombie lovers from all across the globe.
Movie: A-
DVD: C+
I should’ve seen the Ultimate Edition rather than the Divimax. But oh, well.
5 Stars Vintage Zombies
This “Ultimate Edition” is a fitting homage to the 1979 release of George Romero’s second zombie film, Dawn of the Dead, a film which “expands upon” rather than supersedes his previous effort, Night of the Living Dead. In this pre-digital film, we are treated to the latest analog gore. I remember first seeing it at its first release, sinking into my seat and cringing at the gore. At the same time, the deadpan humor and heavy irony keep the brain cells alive.
What I notice now is the dramatically different style Romero uses in DD compared to NLD. Eschewing the documentary style of NLD, DD is much more conventional in its cinematography. However, as noted in the generous commentaries, Romero was developing his ideas through fast “cutting” (the old montage approach). NLD is, in my opinion, spookier, while DD is more of an “in your face” experience.
So, no digital effects, no outrageously flying bodies or weapons, no bodily transformations…just old-fashioned “down-to-earth” gore. The commentaries — by Romero, producers, and actors — are fun and informative. In the end, this DVD release provides a rich context to appreciating DD as an important juncture in film history and, perhaps, as an important cultural event.
5 Stars The God of all Zombie Movies!.
Well what can I say about Dawn of the Dead, this film is the definitive zombie film. Dawn of the Dead is acclaimed as one of the best horror films ever made and that’s no exaggeration, this cult classic is George A. Romero’s nightmare vision of a world populated by flesh-eating zombies and four individuals struggling for survival. This Ultimate edition is definitely the way to go for horror fans since it has a ton of special features including the excellent documentary Document of the Dead but if your short on cash then you should probably get the divimax edition. Along with John Carpenter’s The Thing, Dawn Of The Dead isn’t the scariest film I have seen and in my opinion not as scary as Night Of The Living Dead but overall I prefer this and it is in my top ten films of all time it’s also the best film in the trilogy of dead films (or quadrilogy). I know why this is one of my favorite films because I have watched it so many times that I have lost count and enjoy it equally if not more every time I see it. It all starts off with a feeling of panic as if the end of the world is about to occur and this part of the film works fine because there is not much of a sense of humor, it takes itself very seriously until the scenes with the rednecks at least so it has this very bleak atmosphere. From the moment the helicopter takes off with the four lead characters looking for somewhere safe to settle is where this film really takes off. The moment that the weird but brilliant musical score by Goblin plays for the first time in the helicopter scene always reminds me of why I love this film for so much. Then there is that timeless scene when they see the shopping mall for the first time, from the moment that they decide to take a look at the shopping mall and then till the end, this film is an absolute joy to watch with a great mixture of gory, tense, claustrophobic and funny scenes and of course plenty of zombies. While the zombie make up does look abit primitive and looks as if they have blue powder? and the 70’s fashion was laughable it still doesn’t distract the viewer from enjoying the rest of this awesome film.
The first film before Dawn of the Dead was Night of the Living Dead. NOTLD was in black and white and the action was restricted to a boarded up farmhouse and a few dozen zombies at most. With DOTD, there are hundred’s of Zombie’s and a group of human survivors held up in a big shopping mall. George A. Romero created the zombie genre and he created the common knowledge rules of the zombie film. He deserves a great deal of credit for this, but he deserves more credit for moving the concept so far ahead in the sequel. As expected the film also has some great social commentary, where the film separates itself from every other action/horror film out there is its clever subtext that reflects society at the time the film was made (in 1978, consumerism and materialism had started to rear its ugly head). This film was certainly better than the re-make, I don’t mean that it was bad or anything but I’m starting to like it less and less through out the years and plus I much prefer the slower moving zombies than the hyper fast athlete runner, which is abit ridiculous. Thanks to the masterful directing and high-energy editing of Romero and Tom Savini’s great and gory splatter effects and fantastic acting from the cast especially Ken Foree (O.K. so maybe not all the acting was good), this film had turned into a true classic of the horror genre. Everything from its groundbreaking gore effects to its hilarious commentary on consumer satire was light years ahead of its time. The four main characters also have genuine meaningful depth, none of them are disposable stooges so when deaths do occur within the group it is strongly felt.
Like I said before the script was clever and had a biting commentary on on society’s decadence into consumerism and the film was in widescreen format, the video quality and audio quality throughout this film was amazing. I can’t believe they did such a good job with the transfer. Anyway the story was about this group of people who are desperately trying to escape the zombie plague that is taking over Philadelphia, TV chopper pilot Steven (David Emge) along with his girlfriend Francine (Gaylen Ross) and two policemen, Peter (Ken Foree) and Roger (Scott H. Rieniger)take off in a stolen helicopter and head for the hills. With the gas running out before a safe haven can be found, the quartet take shelter in an abandoned (That’s what they think!) shopping mall, quickly reinforcing and barricading it to keep the zombies out and making it there own little consumer paradise. But nothing lasts forever, and the zombies are bound to find there way in eventually…even if it requires a little push from a trouble making biker gang who’s leader is none other than Tom Savini in a great cameo role. Unfortunately for horror fans Anchor Bay never released a good DVD of the film, constantly releasing new editions every few years with different features and cuts of the film, they’ve done the same with The Evil Dead and The Halloween series. They can be forgiven though this time with this brilliant and amazing 4 disc Ultimate Edition, packed with more extras than most people would even want, fans can buy this edition with confidence that Anchor Bay won’t release a better one anytime soon. Included in this massive set are three different cuts of the film. The theatrical cut, the original extended cut and Italian filmmaker Dario Argento’s cut that was made for European audiences. The theatrical cut remains the best balancing out the satire and dramatic scenes with enough zombie carnage to make everyone happy. The extended cut, which runs nearly 20 minutes longer is an incredible drag. Zombies seem few and far between as we are treated to countless scenes we don’t need to see such as the extended mall ‘clean-up’ montage, and endless dialogue that doesn’t really matter, I like to call this version Yawn of the Dead!. Argento’s cut, running over 10 minutes shorter than the theatrical cut, has the opposite problem. Entire chunks of narrative are removed and replaced with more gore and action scenes. The vast cuts in the film destroy the overwhelming tension that original cut built up so well. However Italian rock group Goblin’s impressive music score remains a near-constant throughout the film, removing the muzak of the mall, which in my opinion was good but most of the great humor was missing. Each disc is full of American and international trailers, commercials and radio spots, as well as separate commentaries by George Romero and Tom Savini, Producer Richard P. Rubienstein, and the cast. All three commentaries are worth a listen as they cover all aspects of pre-production, production and post-production, the release of the film, the cult following of the movie and even the recent remake. If that wasn’t enough you also get two making-of documentaries. The all-new Dead Will Walk retrospective featuring interviews with the entire cast and crew, and the vintage Document Of The Dead, the original on-set documentary. Let’s face it, there’s stuff on this set that most people won’t ever watch unless there were a diehard zombie or Dawn of the Dead fan, but of course if they had left some of the stuff out then the real die-hard zombie fans would have been upset, so I guess its better to have too much than not enough. If you’re a casual fan of the film, the dirt cheap one-disc release of the theatrical cut is still available and that should be fine for you, however if you love this film the way I do then this 4 disc package is definitely worth buying, I highly recommend this enjoy!……..
1 Stars Forget It
I was sucked in!!!!! This is NOT the Dawn of the Dead with Ving and cast. It is the original that at the best can barely rate a 1.I was totally disappointed when I started the movie. I couldn’t possibly believe that i was caught off guard and threw away good money for such a movie of this type. Blu-ray quality, my backyard!I have seen many standard dvd’s and vhs tapes that can make the viewing of this movie look like dust.As for Romero’s Classics, this was definitely not his best work. I’d take Thriller anytime over this zombie movie. So be warned you can do better than this.
5 Stars 3.5 stars out of 4
The Bottom Line:
Zombie-czar George A Romero delivers one of the best all-around horror movies ever made in Dawn of the Dead, a film which combines solid characterization, skillful direction, and sly social commentary with exploding heads, severed arms, and buckets of blood.
Filed under: Blue Ray Movie Reviews