DAWN OF THE DEAD (remake 2004)

In all honesty this remake is pretty good, production values are great and the violence and gore is top notch. It just misses something. It follows a fairly similar story line and progression to the original "Dawn of the Dead" but something about the souped up special effects leaves me feeling like I miss the "Good old Days" so to speak.

The plot itself follows a few small groups of people who after the zombie apocalypse have holed up in a shopping mall in an effort to survive. Obviously with the situation unfolding around them the tensions mount and relationships between the parties are strained... one by one they are picked of by the hordes of zombies surrounding and breaking into the mall to feast on the survivors. There are slight plot differences, enough to keep it interesting and updated for current fans but no major departures from the original story line.

One thing that really annoyed me about this film was the fast moving zombies, to me zombies are supposed to be slow, sluggish and brain dead, where as these zombies run around like Olympic sprinters and seem to be able to master more complex operations than the zombies featured in the original film.

That aside, I really don't have any problems with anything else the film has done and in a way its probably a necessary evil as I'm sure it exposed a whole new generation of scare fans to the work of George Romero.

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RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985)

RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD

Hmmm..... I had been searching for this film for a while now and upon finding it was extremely excited to pop it up on the television and see how it went.

I got the same feeling when I started watching this as when I saw "Pretty In Pink" or "Saint Elmo's Fire" or the "Breakfast Club" some extreme '80's force is strong with this one.... To be honest I was half expecting Molly Ringwald could pop out at any given moment.

Sometimes a movie is just a bunch of stuff that happens and this is that movie, it follows on from the zombie themes created by "Night of the Living Dead", in fact creator Russo worked with Romero on "Night of the Living Dead" but parted ways sometime after. Why did it take him so long to put out a movie? Who knows? Either way this things is just so god damned cheesy its hard to take seriously.... Some rather crappy dialogue and awful acting follow making me wonder if the production team were also just a bunch of unpaid zombie interns. The zombies themselves are rather comical and the killings rather uninspired, its comical but sometimes tragic as well. Its not funny enough to be a comedy (like Brain Dead or Shaun of the Dead) but not gritty enough to be taken seriously as a zombie movie. One good thing about this movie is that it's kind of like the zombie film that you can safely watch with your pre-teen child, or your grandma ... its fairly safe and won't gross out the non-initiated. Perhaps the type of movie you take to a bad taste 80's party.

It obviously had an impact on modern TV as the 'brains' bit you hear over used on this certainly made its way into modern zombie culture (that Halloween episode of the Simpsons for one)

Some horror movie fans really like this movie. Personally I don't get it. I might give it another watch at a later date to see if it grabs me the second time around.

I like to party as anyone who knows me would know..... I saw no party in this film. If you are new to zombies I recommend you check out Night of the living Dead or if you want a laugh Brain Dead 

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DAY OF THE DEAD (1985)

Day of the Dead

Day of the dead marks George Romero's third outing into the world of the undead the first of course being Night of the living dead waaaaay back in 1968, then Dawn of the Dead in 1978 and now this one...

From what I gather Night of the Living Dead gained some notoriety for its gore content, well this would have given those same cry babies a coronary attack! The gore content has been upped ten fold from NOTLD and is another step beyond Dawn of the Dead, the gore and special effects are looking great which results in one hell of a blood bath, and fun ride for the viewer!



The movie itself fasts forwards to a point where zombies have taken over much of the free world the last remaining humans some military and some research staff have been isolated in a military bunker / research facility type thing and trying to figure out how they are going to survive. Despite the fact the undead have decimated the world population the research staff are still conducting experiments on how the zombies work, and trying to domesticate them. This of course sits at odds with the military staff, and results in tension between the last of the humans and creates a cool sub-plot to the story. In a way this is really cool as it analyses the zombies and allows the viewer to understand what makes them tick, their memories of their past lives and the instincts that keep them hunting human flesh. I think its a good departure from the first two films and gives the horror fan a more cerebral look at the zombie. Some might think the film is a little slow paced, as it is fairly long... but for the conclusion of the original zombie trilogy I think its fitting.

Over all its a fun, but more intelligent look at the brainless undead creatures we have all come to love. Definately worth a watch for any gore / zombie fan!

We managed to find  a good copy of this on you tube so go check it out while you can!

Also be sure to check out our reviews of George Romero's work on later films Night of the Living Dead  and  Dawn of the Dead


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DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978)

Dawn of the Dead represents a huge step forward in filming technology and budget for director George A Romero. I have to admit that revisiting "Night of the Living Dead" as an adult gore-fiend left me a little underwhelmed, I do love the movie and I know it was a groundbreaking film for its time but really its hard going from the visually spectacular horror films we have today back to the rudimentary execution of NOTLD.

Mr Romero's second venture into the world of the undead, this one from 1978 still holds up remarkably well against the zombie flicks of today. despite being over 2 hours long this one holds the viewers interest, of course being shot in colour played no small part in this.  The film allowed Romero to go a little wild on the gore, rendering it one of the more graphic american films to have been released at the time. The VHS copy I have shows it to have an "R" rating (restricted to adults) but by todays standards it would most likely have earned the 15 year old rating which to me makes it good wholesome family fun that you can let your older kids watch without the exploitational nudity and sex that other european films being released at the same time were saturated in.

Plot wise it doesn't have anything really to do with "Night of the Living Dead" save the fact that zombies have risen from the dead and are devouring anything and everything in their path. This time round much of country seems to have been overrun with the reanimated corpses. The story itself revolves around a small group of survivors who have taken refuge in a shopping mall and attempt to survive off the supplies within the mall for months while civilization around them (presumably) collapses and the undead around the mall attempt to break in and consume them. There is some cool interpersonal play within the characters and its a film that keeps the viewers interest the whole way through, and the gore effects would have been second to none at the time, and still hold up reasonably well today I have to say!

Also be sure to check out our reviews on Night of the Living Dead and Day of the Dead

For more great horror movie reviews check out:
http://www.gorenography.com