Dawn of the Dead (2004 film)
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Dawn of the Dead is a loose remake, or "reimagining", of George A. Romero's 1978 film. The remake and original share a similar premise and central location, but the story differs significantly. It was released in 2004 and stars Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Lindy Booth, Mekhi Phifer, Kim Poirier and features cameos from original cast members Ken Foree (Evangelist), Scott Reiniger (General), and Tom Savini (Sheriff). It was written by James Gunn (with uncredited rewrites by Michael Tolkin and Scott Frank) and directed by Zack Snyder.
Plot
An unknown phenomenon (suspected to be a virus; the film offers no explicit explanation) causes anyone infected by it to rapidly weaken and die. Moments later, they revive as ghouls which mindlessly attack living humans with the intention of tearing at their flesh. This strange infection is passed from the zombies to living humans through the resulting bites, allowing the undead to multiply exponentially.A montage behind the opening credits shows human civilization collapsing across the globe, but (as indicated by the signage glimpsed on a commuter bus) the bulk of the movie is set in the Milwaukee County area.
Ana (Polley), a nurse whose husband is infected when bitten by a neighbor's young daughter, escapes the chaos-torn suburbs. After crashing her car, she ends up at a shopping mall where she takes refuge with several other survivors: a police sergeant (Rhames), a jack-of-all-trades salesman (Weber), a criminal (Phifer), the criminal's pregnant wife, and three mall security guards who are on the fence about helping survivors. Across the mall's parking lot is a gun store, where the store's stranded owner (named Andy) communicates from his roof with the mall-survivors via dry-erase boards and binoculars.
Another group of survivors arrive together in a delivery truck. In relative safety, the expanded group first waits for rescue, then generally whiles away its time, but as the mall becomes surrounded by more and more of the undead, and the situation inside rapidly deteriorates, they decide they need to escape once more. They formulate and set in motion a desperate plan to drive two homemade armored vehicles to a nearby marina and take a boat out into Lake Michigan. As the final credits roll, only a handful have survived the trip, and the reception they find waiting for them at their island destination is not an encouraging one...
- Tagline (lifted from the original film): When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth...
Cast
- Ana: Sarah Polley
- Kenneth: Ving Rhames
- Michael: Jake Weber
- Andre: Mekhi Phifer
- Steve: Ty Burrell
- CJ: Michael Kelly
- Terry: Kevin Zegers
- Bart: Michael Barry
- Nicole: Lindy Booth
- Norma: Jayne Eastwood
- Tucker: Boyd Banks
- Luda: Inna Korobkina
- Glen: R.D. Reid
- Monica: Kim Poirier
- Frank: Matt Frewer
Reactions
Heavily derided by fans and critics before its release,http://www.petitiononline.com/dawndead/ on release the film received mixed to positive reactions from both, and is regarded as both a critical and financial sucess. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dawn_of_the_dead/ Particular praise was given to the 10 minute pre-credit sequence.http://www.reelfilm.com/dawn04.htmhttp://chutry.wordherders.net/archives/001747.html This segment was played on TV the week before the film was released, a practice that has become common since.http://movies.about.com/cs/dawnofthedead/a/dawndd030804.htm?terms=at+dawnOthers felt that the film did not retain the social satire and poignancy of the original.http://www.themovieboy.com/reviews/d/04_dawnofthedead.htm Romero himself, while having strong reservations about some elements of the film, stated that he thought the film was better than he'd anticipated. #redirect
Premise changes from the original
In the original film the zombies moved very slowly and were most menacing when they collected in large groups. In the remake however the zombies are fast and agile. Many admirers of the original (including Romero himself) protested this change, feeling that it limited the impact of the undead.http://www.ajhakari.com/guestcritics/dawnofthedead2004guest.htmhttp://comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php?id=7973 This is somewhat borne out by the fact that the remake has almost no close up shots of zombies that last more than a second or two. Snyder mentions this problem in the commentary track of the new version's DVD, pointing out that they seem too human when the camera lingers upon them for longer.In the original, the plague spread slowly over a period of weeks and months. In the remake, it springs up worldwide overnight. In the original, anyone who dies of any reason returns after an hour or two. In the remake, only those infected return and after a period of less than a minute after death.
The original had a smaller cast than the remake, allowing more screen time for each character. Many fans and critics protested the resulting loss of character development.http://www.pajiba.com/dawn-of-the-dead.htm
In the original version the story unfolds over the space of several months, which was indicated by the advancing stages of Fran's pregnancy. In the remake the events transpire within approximately 1 month, as evidenced by the supplemental feature The Lost Tape: Andy's Terrifying Last Days Revealed. The character Andy owned the gunshop across the street from the mall in the film, and in this bonus feature Andy records a video diary of his ordeal for future reference. He begins recording on May 7, 2004, the day after he first encountered the flesh eaters, and continues to record until his death on the day of June 6.
Notes
- This film contains multiple references to the original. A store in the mall is named Gaylen Ross, the actress that played the female lead in the original. A sign for "Wooley's Diner" can be seen, a nod to the character of "Wooley" in the 1978 version. A truck from the BP corporation is seen, the same trucks as in the original. The WGON helicopter from the first film is seen flying into the frame in one sequence. Even the film's tagline, "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth", is the same one from the first film.
- Ken Foree speaks the tag line "When there's no more room in hell..." in both the original and the remake.
- One possible reference from Dawn of the Dead (2004), features Sarah Polley, playing the character of Ana, running her car into a tree in the beginning. Similar to George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" the character of Barbra also runs her car into a tree in the beginning of the movie.
- A reference to 1968's "Night of the Living Dead" can be found near the beginning when a truck crashes into a gas station, an event mentioned by the character Ben in the 1968 film.
Trivia
- Starbucks Coffee, along with many other corporations, did not wish to be featured in the film, so the fictional "Hallowed Grounds" shop was created, along with all the other names of stores in the mall.
- Three actors from the original film have cameos in the remake: Ken Foree, who played Peter from the original, plays the evangelist on television who asserts that God is punishing mankind; Scott H. Reiniger, who played Roger in the original, plays the army general on television telling everyone to stay at home for safety; and Tom Savini, who played the motorcycle gang member Blades in the original, plays the Los Angeles County Sheriff explaining the only way to kill the zombies are to "shoot 'em in the head."
- The obese female zombie was actually played by a male stunt performer.
- Director Zack Snyder appears in the opening credit sequence as one of the National Guardsmen who open fire in front of the United States Capitol.
- The Subaru commercial playing on the television while Ana and Lewis are in the shower was directed by Zack Snyder.
- Actual human blood was utilized for the credit sequences.
- An early draft of the script had the film ending with everyone dying (the scene played during the closing credits leaves this ambiguous). Another draft ended with only Ana, Nicole, and Terry surviving after being rescued by an army convoy.
- The song playing in the mall when the survivors first arrive is a muzak version of Bobby McFerrin's Don't Worry Be Happy.
- The WGON News Helicopter from the original film appears during the pre-credit sequence flying above the deserted freeway.
- Ving Rhames' arm prosthetic was accidentally stitched to his arm for the scene where Ana sutures Kenneth's wound. An actual nurse was performing the procedure, and in her nervousness, stitched the prosthetic to his arm. Mr. Rhames did not mention this until after the shot was complete.
- The production used real amputees to portray zombies that were missing limbs.
- Though James Gunn is given solo writing credit, he is only partially responsible for the screenplay. After Gunn left the project to concentrate on , both Michael Tolkin and Scott Frank were brought in for rewrites. In a commentary track on the Ultimate Edition DVD for the original film, producer Richard P. Rubenstein explained that Tolkin further developed the characters, while Frank provided some of the bigger action sequences.
- No mention of a cause for the living dead is actually mentioned in the film. However, the copy on the DVD box implies that it is a virus.
- The film was shot in chronological order.
- Both the original and remake feature a pregnant woman.
- The final sequences on the boat and island were shot much later (and in a different location) than the rest of the movie. Preview audiences objected to the sudden ending of the original print. The epilogue was filmed at Universal Studios in Hollywood, with the final scenes at the dock filmed at one of the locations on the Universal Studios Tour. Another scene was shot off the coast of Los Angeles, which creates a geographical continuity error (noted on the DVD commentary) as there are no mountainous islands in Lake Michigan.
- Included in the DVD release of the movie is a segment -- which utilizes the false document technique -- entitled "We interrupt this program," styled to look like an authentic TV news broadcast reporting on the zombie outbreak. It features the last onscreen performance of Richard Biggs (who plays the news anchor). Biggs' Babylon 5 costar, Bruce Boxleitner, is heard as the voice of the President of the United States. Neither character appears in the film, although the President is mentioned. Some of the news footage, however, can be seen in the film (particularly the segment with Tom Savini as the sheriff).
- Also produced for the DVD was a series of video diary recordings made by the character of Andy the gun shop owner, giving viewers an insight into what was happening to him during the scenes at the mall. Andy's transmissions over the walkie-talkie at the end are identical to those heard in the film.
- The mall scenes of the film as well as the rooftop scenes were shot in the Thornhill Square mall in Thornhill, Ontario and the rest of the scenes were shot in the Ailleen-Willowbrook Neighbourhood of Thornhill, Ontario sometimes showing residents of the area.
- In many scenes, you can see independent stores from the bankrupt Thornhill Square mall including a sign saying "Trading Card Show, 5:00 PM" with an arrow pointing to the right.
- In the UK, both this film and Shaun of the Dead were originally scheduled to be released the same week, but due to the similarity in the names of the two films, UIP opted to push back Shaun's release by two weeks.
- Denise Cronenberg, sister of director David Cronenberg, was the costume designer for this film, while Heather Langenkamp, star of A Nightmare On Elm Street, is credited as being part of the production crew.
Sequel
- There were reports that Universal Pictures is very interested in making a sequel and has approached Zack Snyder to make it.
- Dawn remake writer James Gunn has said in an interview that he will not return but director Zack Snyder will.
- There were reports on moviehole.net that Universal is trying to get the Four survivors that were at the end of the movie to return.
- At horrorchannel.co.uk/news.php there is a post about the sequel that it has been announced and there a possible plot that details are sketchy and the plot details that it is possibly about a closely guarded secret.
External links
- [Dawn of the Dead (2004) at Movie Tome]
- [Official Site]
- [Trailers]
- [}}}] at Rotten Tomatoes
- [}}}] at Box Office Mojo
- [Mistakes Database]
- [April 24, 2003 draft screenplay]
References
| The Living Dead films |
|---|
| Official Romero directed films |
| Night of the Living Dead • Dawn of the Dead • Day of the Dead • Land of the Dead |
| Unofficial sequel/spin-offs |
| Italian Zombi series: Zombi 2 • Zombi 3 • Zombi 4 (aka Oltre la Morte or After Death) |
| Other: • Children of the Living Dead |
| Remakes |
| Night of the Living Dead (1990) • Dawn of the Dead (2004) • Night of the Living Dead 3-D • Day of the Dead (2007) |
| Return of the Living Dead series |
| Return of the Living Dead • Return of the Living Dead Part II • Return of the Living Dead 3 • ' • ' |
| Spoofs/parodies |
| Night of the Living Bread • Shaun of the Dead |
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