DAWN OF THE DEAD – zack snyder – 4.8 / 10

There are some really inventive, really interesting things going on in this film.  And there are also some incredibly stupid, incredibly annoying things in it as well.  In the latter category, there’s the fact that the people in this film appear to have never heard of zombies nor seen any zombie films.  If they had then they would've known that the bite of a zombie is contagious.  I find it very hard to believe that ten average people in modern America have no idea how to deal with zombies (a problem cleverly circumvented in the far superior Zombieland).

Other things I hate (because those are more fun to talk about): I hate the look of the film.  That high contrast, oversaturated look is more suited to car commercials than a feature film.  Both of those things (oversaturation and high contrast) are fine separately but together they look like absolute dogshit.  And, more damning, it makes it difficult for the audience to accept the reality of this film.

I also really hate the fact that everyone in the film is an asshole.  I have no idea how the world would respond to a crisis such as this.  I don’t know if we’d lay aside our petty grievances and band together.  But I’d like to think that we would.  Snyder and Co. obviously think we would still be self-centered assholes who only care about ourselves.  And that’s a shame.

I also despise the pointlessly nihilistic coda that comes halfway into the credits.  First of all, isn’t this film set in Milwaukee?  If it is, on what body of water is this marina that they go to?  Is it on one of the Great Lakes?  And besides, how stupid are these people?  Yeah, not one of them ever saw a zombie film, but wouldn’t they figure out that zombies could walk under the water and find whatever island they happened to land on.

But the reason I hate the coda is more than just the fact that it doesn’t make any sense.  The real reason is that the ending of the film proper is somewhat hopeful.  It’s certainly not a happy ending, but I think the characters in this film more than deserve something to feel good about.  Then the credits start to roll.  And then, a few minutes later, we get a few flashes of camcorder footage that indicate that everyone dies.  Why do that?  Why give the audience one ending (the proper one) and then, moments later, yank the rug out from under them?  That just seems like bad form to me, a breaking of the contract with the audience.  It’s nasty and mean, and pointlessly so.

Okay, so that’s an awful lot of hate, what is there to like about Dawn of the Dead?  Well, although it looks like dogshit, there’s some really nifty camerawork here.  In retrospect (i.e. after having seen 300), the lovingly photographed violence really stands out.  There’s lots of slow motion headshots and spraying blood.  But, if you can’t glorify violence to zombies, what kind of violence can you glorify?

Additionally, the choice to have the first zombie attack come from a child and take place in a bedroom is a brilliant idea.  Not only is this attack much more horrible than just encountering a stranger in a graveyard (just for example), it also brings home the fact that loved ones become the enemy in this horrifying new world.  And just in case that point wasn’t clear, the second zombie to rise is the heroine’s husband.

These two opening attacks are immediately followed by a pretty nifty spin through a suburban neighborhood that has turned into hell on earth (an obvious but still enjoyable metaphor).  And, following that, there’s a kinda great title sequence scored with Johnny Cash’s ‘When the Man Comes Around,’ a song about the coming of the end of the world as images of the end of the world play underneath.

Unfortunately, from that point on, the moments of greatness are few and far between.  A sequence involving the birth of a zombie baby is both fascinating and horrifying in just the right measure.  It’s also a nice commentary on the insane over-protectiveness of parents.  There’s also the bit where the survivors pick off zombies that look like celebrities, a clever commentary on our collective mixed feelings about the celebrity culture that has overtaken even respected journalism.

In the final analysis it’s hard to know what to make of this film.  The moments of wit seemed to indicate great things could be ahead for Snyder.  But, having seen 300 and Watchmen, I know that they’re not to be.  So maybe I’m being harder on the film than I should be.  Or maybe there may still be great things ahead.  Even though he completely screwed up 300 and Watchmen (two of my all time favorite graphic novels), maybe Snyder will one day find a script to match his obvious visual flair.  I don’t know.  But I guess the fact that I’m talking about Dawn of the Dead in terms of what this indicates for Snyder’s future means that the film at hand is mostly a failure.  It has its moments, I guess, but that’s all they really are.