Review #121: Dawn of the Dead (2004)

This review was originally written in October 2021.

October 2021 Horror Movie Review #7- Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Hey, y'all remember when everyone unanimously stood up and said, "Let's make all of our movies GREEN"? Well, it was certainly in full swing in 2004! It's like they made an entire movie, that looked like any other movie, and then just made 100% of the visible colors into a shade of green. Seriously, it's all green. All of it. Even the parts that don't look green are still green.

In all seriousness though, I had to open this up with a joke about the green color because otherwise this was a fantastic movie with very little to complain about. We've gotten into the modern era of big-budget blockbuster horror films, so this film has plenty of action, a quick pace to keep it from getting stale, and loads of fully-realized characters that all pull their weight, narratively speaking. I saw this movie back when it first released (if I recall, my best friend who worked at a movie theater had a private viewing party on his birthday) and I didn't have strong memories of it, probably because of how few horror films I'd seen by that point in my life- but this time around I was amazed at how much I found myself caring about the characters, charting their growth as the film went on, and feeling genuinely bummed when one or more of them inevitably died. This film has characters you're meant to like, characters you're meant to hate, and characters you hate but then they redeem themselves when the going gets tough. This one had plenty of the quiet introspection that the original had too- less than the original, of course, but it was able to get across much of the same feelings with far less waste in the process.

I don't know how the general public reacted to this film (I could look it up, but I don't want it to color my opinion of the movie just yet) but I think it was fantastic, and way better than the (already great) original. It's not a perfect movie- there were a bit more explosions than I think was necessary and really, that palette is just annoying- but it's probably as close as we're going to get this month.

Overall Rating: 10/10 Zombie Celebrity Look-a-Likes

Weirdest Song Cover: Richard Cheese's cover of "Down With the Sickness" that plays during the recreation montage