Review of Dawn of the Dead: Unrated Director`s Cut

Introduction

This year`s adrenalized remake of the apocalyptic zombie classic, here presented in a slightly longer director`s cut.

When the recently deceased begin rising from their eternal slumber and start gnawing off the neighbour`s cheeks, a group of resilient (and fluky) survivors, lead by Sarah Polley`s feisty nurse and Ving Rhames stoic cop, hole up in an abandoned shopping mall and await the cavalry. As the days pass and rescue remains elusive, the group begin to settle into the humdrum rituals of experimenting with endless consumer coffee variations and shooting celebrity zombie doppelgangers in the parking lot. A misbegotten attempt to rescue a fellow roof-top exile allows the zombie hordes to breach their musack and taupe-tiled defences, necessitating a final, frantic scramble to safety. Arterial pyrotechnics ensue.

Video

A superior anamorphic transfer which, allowing for the flaws of NTSC and the compression on the disc, retains the rich colours and stylistic contrasts of the theatrical presentation. No noticeable gradation differences between the original and director`s cut material.

Audio

Mysteriously, no DTS, and whilst one longs to hear the sound of a zombie brain splattering in crystal-clear-ditigal-surround, the 5.1 does an admirable job in both building the tension in quieter scenes and unloading the full portfolio of squidgey splats and bangs in the numerous action scenes.

Features

A jocular, juvenile commentary with director Zack Snyder and producer Eric Newman sets the tone for the set: a trio of featurettes on the film`s gore and zombie effects prove less than illuminating and the deleted scenes don`t spark much curiosity. Of more interest are two short films that deal with the zombie epidemic from different perspectives: the home movie of Andy, the gun-shop owner, from his isolation to eventual infection and a spoof news network that, whilst scrappily conceived, offers a humorous counterpoint to the film`s relentless assault. Other than that, an uninspired collection.

Conclusion

Snappy, cynical, MTV-friendly remake that makes George Romero`s 1978 original look positively arthritic by comparison. The first 5 minutes are the most primal jolt in any horror film since `Scream` - an omniscient camera slumbers in a stale suburban labyrinth, scorched with an eerie ektachrome glow. Ana (Sarah Polley) stumbles wearily home from work and into bed with her husband. In the morning, a young girl bares her shredded jaw and barbed fangs and launches herself at our heroine`s spouse, precipitating a genuinely terrifying escape through the snakes & ladders cul-de-sac onto a sprawling highway of anarchic carnage. And what does director Snyder give us for respite? Perhaps the most hauntingly apocalyptic credits sequence in movie history: caustic, burnt and indecipherable images of "the end" shiver in chilling synchronicity to the strains of Johnny Cash`s revelations ode `When the Man Comes Around`, quivering slithers of blood blackening the title cards, the print eventually blowing out to a dissonance that leaves the viewer putty in Snyder`s hands.

And then, sadly, he blows it. On second viewing, this superior remake of Romero`s original gradually sinks into predictable genre machinations and succumbs to increasing contrived and movie-ish stand-offs with the undead hordes, pushing the movie further away from the visceral assault and apocalyptic chill of the initial moments and into the b-movie realm of relentless splatterhouse schlock. Not helping matters is the added material in the director`s cut which does little but slow the whole process down: a couple more character notes slow the flow and add unnecessary information, there`s more guts for the gore-hounds and although this claims to be unrated, a shot of a naked woman stumbling passed Polley`s car in the pre-credits sequence may be the first ever example of American censors adding gore to conceal nudity. Nipple-gate gone mad.

Whilst Romero`s film savagely satirised the growth of conspicuous consumption, Snyder settles for a series of glib asides, gory showdowns and flashy set-pieces that satiate the instant-gratification impulses the first film tried so hard to vilify. However, whilst cliches are abound in the second half, the film`s greatest asset remains its tone of pitiless sarcasm, its withering cackle into the abyss: a montage of consumer-age time-killing scored to Disturbed`s `Down With the Sickness` is pricelessly cruel and the quirkily assembled cast, from Canadian indie queen Polley to unknowns like Michael Kelly and Jake Weber, are scalpel sharp. Excellent too, to see a bleak ending that doesn`t cheat the film`s grimly fatalistic view of an inexplicable armageddon, with our hero`s sanctuary proving to be an idyllic island nightmare, rendered in the shiftiest digi-cam nausea since `Blair Witch`. So if the film loses some of its savage intensity from this more relaxed director`s cut, at least `Dawn` is one horror movie that has the courage of its grueling convictions.