HOME VIDEO 'Dawn of the Dead' remake comes alive

These zombies also have some character.
By LARRY WILLIAMS
HARTFORD COURANT
Why are there so many remakes? Because every now and then, there's one that's light years better than the original.
"Dawn of the Dead" may be the best remake ever; it's one of the best movies I've seen this year. And if you've read that admirers of George A. Romero's 1978 original are unmoved, you should reject their advice and rent the new one.
Excellent cast
Zack Snyder, a rookie director, assembled an excellent cast led by Sarah Polley and Ving Rhames and kept the basic concept -- survivors trapped in a mall, surrounded by flesh-eating zombies -- but made a pulse-pounding thriller instead of a sleepy, half-heartedly amusing B-movie.
The most obvious change from the original is that the zombies are energetic, relentless track stars instead of Romero's old-style sleepwalking zombies, which the heroes of the 1978 film were able to run around and knock over with ease.
The new zombies also attack like packs of ravenous dogs, and their faces are grossly disfigured in a wild variety of ways. And there are thousands more of them. (An amusing DVD extra is a short video about making up the zombies. You'll be interested to know that there are three stages of zombies, ranging from freshly dead to putrid.)
Zombies with character
You may be wondering if "Dawn of the Dead" has character development, suspense and a semblance of believability to go with horror movie-geek essentials like "better zombies." The answer is, yes! The characters aren't fully developed, but they're not stick figures, either. And during its quiet moments, the atmosphere, lighting and music create an undercurrent of anxiety and fear.
The DVD is an unrated "director's cut," with nine minutes added, about half of which come at the very beginning. That's too bad, because the theatrical opening was better.