Zack Snyder’s feature debut remains the best work of his career—and one of the great modern zombie films. Remaking George A. Romero’s original as a lean, mean, action-packed thrill ride was an extraordinarily dicey proposition, but thanks to Snyder’s grasp of tension and ability to ramp up the terror in one fast-escalating set piece after another, not to mention a savvy script by James Gunn, Dawn of the Dead succeeds as scary-good popular entertainment. Retaining the premise of survivors hiding out from the apocalypse in a shopping mall, as zombies not only shamble but sprint demonically throughout the Milwaukee suburbs, the film (which opens with another all-timer opening credits sequence, soundtracked by Johnny Cash’s “The Man Comes Around”) gradually proves itself to be a nastier, more existentially frightening take on an undead epidemic than many zombie films made before and since (two words: zombie baby). With a roster of fine performances—the best by Sarah Polley, capably leading a cast that boasts Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Ty Burrell, plus affectionately knowing cameos by Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger, and Tom Savini—Dawn of the Dead delivers the type of over-the-top spectacle that we can now recognize as Snyder’s signature but married it to a tragic, intimately scaled story about characters struggling to stay together as society breaks down. It remains the most human and emotionally poignant film he’s made, even while demonstrating his mastery of action and suspense.
