Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead Is Still His Best Movie

Before director Zack Snyder took on the DC Extended Universe and began making sci-fi epics for Netflix, the filmmaker burst onto the scene with the daunting task of directing a remake of George A. Romero’s 1978 zombie horror classic, Dawn of the Dead. Showing early signs of confidence taking on material that could make him the target of rabid fans who may have taken issue with him touching one of Romero’s best films, Snyder went into the remake desiring to pay homage to what Romero did in the past while also forging his own path. Beyond the title and the mall setting, the remake doesn’t share many similarities with the original film. But, by tapping into a new age of zombie film that began with Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later and giving the film a relentless energy that never lets up, Snyder crafted a reboot that stands confidently alongside the original while also making a movie that still remains his best 20 years after its initial release.

Directed by Snyder and written by James Gunn, 2004’s Dawn of the Dead is set in Milwaukee and follows a group of survivors who try to survive a zombie apocalypse while hiding away in an upscale suburban shopping mall. The film features a stellar ensemble cast that includes Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer, Ty Burrell, and Kevin Zegers. In addition to new faces, Snyder even had Tom Savini, Scott Reiniger, and Ken Foree from the original film, appear in cameos. The intention of the remake was to “re-imagine” the original movie while attempting to reinvigorate the zombie genre, something Snyder makes clear during the film’s visceral ten-minute opening.

Zack Snyder Sets the Tone With a Visceral Opening Sequence

Taking a cue from Boyle’s 28 Days Later, Snyder’s zombies in his Dawn of the Dead remake would move with the speed of a pro athlete. While Boyle’s film technically didn’t feature zombies, and instead had characters that were infected with a rage disease, the overall inspiration is that of a person that is no longer of the living whose only desire is to consume and destroy. Slow-moving, shuffling zombies were a thing of the past and now speed was their greatest asset. Snyder sets this particular tone during the opening ten minutes of his film, which still remains one of the best horror sequences of the genre.

Fresh after finishing a long shift as a nurse, Sarah Polley’s Ana is quickly thrust into hell when she returns to her suburban neighborhood and her husband, Luis (Louis Ferreira). As they get caught up in a planned date night, they miss an emergency news bulletin that signals things are about to turn upside down for the couple and their entire neighborhood. The next morning, the film lets its intentions be known when a young girl named Vivian (Hannah Lochner) enters their bedroom and kills Luis, which results in him quickly reanimating as a zombie. Luis attacks Ana, but she escapes. What she escapes into is a suburbia in chaos, as it has become clear that the news bulletin that was missed indicated something truly horrific being spread. It’s an unrelenting way to begin a film and by the time the opening concludes, Snyder already has the full attention of his audience.

It’s this unrelenting nature that makes Snyder’s film one of the better horror remakes to emerge during this time period. Romero’s movie is arguably a better film because, by showing the larger-scale effects of a zombie apocalypse on society, the story also serves as a biting social commentary. The most obvious statement about our culture at the time is that, despite being zombies, they’re still drawn to the consumer capital of any city: the mall. Snyder still uses the mall setting as the character’s refuge but, alongside Gunn’s screenplay, decides to do away with much of the commentary and instead focuses on making the film a siege between the survivors and the zombies they’re attempting to escape. While the remake might lack some perceived intelligence of Romero’s piece, it makes up for that by creating an atmosphere that makes the viewer feel as if they’re trapped in the mall with the central characters.

That’s not to say that the film is devoid of character beats that go beyond action and terror. Despite having an increased body count that makes proper character development difficult in a film that clocks in at 100 minutes, there are some moments between the characters that add an emotional component to the film that makes the outcome more impactful. For instance, Rhames plays Sergeant Kenneth Hall, a police officer and former Marine who appears to have a colder exterior compared to the other characters. This is softened a bit when he develops a “long-distance friendship” with a gun store owner named Andy (Bruce Bohne). Because they can’t leave their respective locations due to the zombies stationed between them, they engage in a very touching friendship that is communicated almost entirely through writing on whiteboards. There is an attempt to rescue Andy, but he falls victim to a fast zombie attack, which proves to be one of the more emotional moments of the film.

Another strong character moment features Phifer’s Andre, an expectant father who has his pregnant wife Luda (Inna Korobkina) in tow during all the carnage. After one of the attacks, the group soon determines that the disease is passed by bites, which proves disheartening for Andre when he leaves to go see his wife Luda, who has been scratched by one of the zombies and keeps it a secret from the rest of the survivors. While restrained by Andre, Luda gives birth and dies. Soon she reanimates as a zombie and is found by Norma (Jayne Eastwood), who kills her. Andre snaps after seeing Luda killed and both he and Norma exchange gunfire with each other, resulting in their demise. Adding tragic insult to injury, the rest of the group arrives to a find the couple’s zombie baby, and they’re forced to kill it immediately. While the moment does have its share of horror thrills, the end result proves to be surprisingly emotional as the audience looks at all the pieces that led these particular characters to this moment.

Snyder is able to achieve a lean atmosphere with his debut, despite how quickly it all moves. This would prove to be a staple of Snyder’s directorial style moving forward, as he has continued to be effective at creating visually visceral moments that move the action along, sometimes without coming up for air. Dawn of the Dead also isn’t bogged down by too much universe building, which has proven to be a detriment in some of the director’s other films. His zombie reboot is a pretty tight affair with very little fat on it, which proves to be one of the main reasons the film flows as well as it does. As the director himself put it when developing the film, he wanted to make a straight horror film that was “as serious as a heart attack”, something he greatly achieved.

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It also helps that, despite all the zombie terror, much of the film is grounded in reality. A big creative decision that serves the film well, making it more realistic, is that Snyder supported Gunn’s story decision to not reveal the origin of the zombie outbreak. Should the audience put themselves in the position of characters that become involved in this very impossible situation, it would be more realistic for the players not to know where the plague came from or how it started. The audience is thrown into the mix with the characters in an almost real-time fashion that adds to the horrifying realism.

Dawn of the Dead was released on March 19, 2004, and became an instant hit with audiences and critics alike. Thanks to an effective marketing campaign, which included releasing its ten-minute opening sequence on cable television four nights before the theatrical release, the film opened at number one with a gross of $26.7 million before ending its run with a domestic take of $59 million and $102 million worldwide on a $26 million budget. To date, it also remains his highest-rated film as a director on Rotten Tomatoes with a fresh rating of 76 percent. The consensus on the site calls Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake:

Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead played a huge role in revitalizing the zombie genre, and it also made the director a hot commodity. In many ways, it helped endure Snyder to genre fans, which only carried over to his future projects including 300, Watchmen, Man of Steel, and his director’s cut of Justice League. It can be debated by many of his fans what his best offering has been as a filmmaker, and it’s certain to spark a lot of debate depending on which stage of his career you’re more inclined to follow but, for a feature film debut, his take on Dawn of the Dead features the director at his most effective, utilizing all of his tools to craft a visceral experience that still stands as his best work behind the camera. Stream Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead on Netflix