LogFAQs > #969110729

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Dawn of the Dead (Snyder Cut) (2004)
Directed by: Zack Snyder
Written by: James Gunn
Starring: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Mekhi Phifer, Jake Weber
Previous status: Never seen

"Hell is overflowing."

Oddly, that wasn't Samuel L. Motherfucking Jackson, whom I'd first thought it was. Grainy TV effects can do that. No, that was a guy from the original movie, the George Romero version.

Before they took over the DCEU, Zack Snyder and James Gunn were making zombie movies together, back when they were frat boys. And frankly... aside from the ending, I really can't tell much of a difference between this one and Shaun of the Dead, its complementary release. There's comedy and romance in this one, too; the romance is even more overt, and... pretty much everything else is the same kind of thing. The humor in this one kinda dies off just the same, but doesn't resurface like it does in Shaun.

Gotta mention this early that the film is set in my home state of Wisconsin, namely south of Milwaukee (as implied by the radio mentioning Racine County, which I would think a script would leave in to pinpoint the location, as opposed to it meaning nothing in reality). I found it unusual that a gun shop was near Milwaukee Mitchell airport - the general area to which I'm referring, as that's more Waukesha. There's also whatever "Fort Pastor" is (doesn't actually exist) and... islands in Lake Michigan? Uh, what? Those are all to the north!

What may explain all this is that it was filmed in Toronto, which doesn't exactly double that well - it certainly didn't feel right to me, but I stopped caring when they were inside the mall (which apparently was slated for demolition, but they delayed it to film this). The mall was gorgeously built (just like the brilliant makeup - like that had to take half the budget alone), and certainly had a lot of things one could find helpful - not to mention fresh clothing for whenever the old stuff got bloodied, as happened frequently. Why Ana spent so long in her pajamas, stained with the blood from her zombified husband, is beyond me. And then she changed outfits several times with stolen clothes. It's also odd that nobody but Tucker thought a hat might be useful. Keeps blood splatter out of your eyes and can be used as a shield if a zombie is gunning for your neck. Just feed it to the zombie, run, and get another one later.

Snyder said his cut this time was "more personal and more gory" - I can't imagine how much more was added, since this movie wasn't as gory as I was expecting it to be. The casualties, however, were numerous; in fact, everybody dies. I don't really know if I like that ending or not, but I'm leaning "not." I'd have much preferred an ambiguous fate to it being very apparent that they all got cornered in an inescapable situation. This is why I prefer Shaun's ending; it was unexpected, and it was funny. This was neither. It was grim, it was bleak, and it was dry.

Even so, this movie was pretty much what I expected it to be: People shooting zombies. Or lighting them afire, because zombies are weak to fire. That's something often exploited: Either blow their brains out, since they don't have that much left up there, or light them on fire, since their decaying skin is highly flammable. It was dark. It was violent. And it was sad, too, but despite Snyder's statement that there was more character development in his cut, I felt that was a weakness of the movie. Ana's husband became a zombie, then she got away from him and never saw him or thought of him again. It's also weird how she was suddenly fighting him off just hours after they were fucking in the shower - how did she know he'd turned? How did she think a zombie outbreak was immediately possible? Was it the kid, Vivian, who was bloodied that got her to think something was wrong? It doesn't really make sense. She didn't operate like a normal person in regards to that, and he was forgotten halfway through the movie when she hooked up with Best Buy TV Guy Michael. Ana also took the pulse of that dead woman, forgetting that she could suddenly reanimate.

Her behavior wasn't the only one who was weird. Nicole's freak-out and pursuit of Chips the dog was odd. She'd had the dog a day and suddenly felt like he was worth risking her life for in a zombie apocalypse. I think the problem was the writing: This was back when Snyder and Gunn were young and dumb, long before the latter got canceled for such shit. He redeemed his image, sure, but I still think he's a douche, even if I enjoy Guardians of the Galaxy and am interested in what he'll do with DC. I don't think he'll any good for the female characters, though that's already a shitshow given how the second Wonder Woman movie was atrocious and another is played by a vicious harpy who shits on beds and lies on the witness stand. But I'm getting off topic. It's Halloween, I can talk about costumes, yes? My point is that the female characters here don't seem to be written well. The guys are also mostly generic, though Kenneth is great - Ving Rhames (whom I last saw as Marcellus in Pulp Fiction). I lol'd at his whiteboard sign chess match with Andy (who met such an unfortunate fate, as someone who shares his name). CJ was, however, the most interesting character; he was such an ass, and his stoolie Bart followed his example. And then he started warming up to people once they told him he needed to not be an ass, or he dies. And he died anyway - as a hero who blew himself and a couple dozen zombies to bits with one of his propane tank grenades. It was awesome.

A few rapid-fire notes here:

• It's also weird how they just knew what boat was Steve's, since Steve was very much dead by then. Like... did he give them every nauseating detail in case anything happened to him?
• Andre, a criminal and Kenneth, a cop, came together - but may or may not have realized that it didn't really matter what they were anymore now that they had to survive off the land. Things changed fast. It's anarchy, and that was indicated when CJ got locked up and everyone did whatever the hell they wanted. Including Kenneth.
• Andre and Luda breeding a zombie babby was... yeah. Shooting the little imp had to be traumatizing.
• Why didn't they think to use the sewer earlier, when Andy needed food? There had to be a way to get the food to his door, get back into the sewer, close the grate, and not attract the zombies.
• Glen and Monica's deaths felt very forced, since it made no sense why Glen was wielding a chainsaw at that point.
• It was weird how, early in the movie, the two groups just magically found each other without having encountered much in the way of zombies.
• Watching the "Special report" they missed... what the hell is "the Heartland" and who the hell says that around here? Do your research, guys!
• Michael giving himself up wasn't too saddening to me, since he was pretty generic. Just "generic Prince Charming" type of guy

So, in the end, this was pretty much not too different from Shaun. I liked some things more about that one and other things better about this one. I think Shaun had better characters and a better ending. This one had better fights/action and art direction (including makeup). The art direction matters a lot in a zombie movie for sure, but I think that because Shaun is better written, I have to give it a slight edge, and give this one a 3/5 also. It's not exactly my thing, but it was a good mood movie for Halloween.

@BetrayedTangy you get a new nomination!

Next movie will probably be either tomorrow or Friday (not sure what yet). And then V for Vendetta on Saturday because November 5th, its fixed date thanks to Guy Fawkes. (write-up for that may be Sunday morning jsyk)