Dawn Of The Dead Review

"When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth," intoned the posters for George A Romero's 1978 Dawn Of The Dead. To which one is tempted to add "And when there are no more original ideas in Hollywood, lazy filmmakers will remake anything for a quick buck." Fortunately, that's not the case with this glossy update of Romero's landmark zombie apocalypse movie, since it's a reverential, souped-up splatterfest that will have the living (and the living dead) howling for more.

Cautiously described by its producers as "a re-envisioning, not a remake," debut director Zack Snyder pares down the original's languorous plot in favour of a rapid action movie aimed at the thrill-seeking MTV generation.

The opening 20 minutes are a model of how to set up a horror movie, as hospital nurse Ana (Polley, excellent) returns home from the nightshift. Oblivious to news reports of civil unrest throughout the city, she goes to bed only to awake to a dawn of the dead. The city is infected with a mysterious plague that turns the newly dead into homicidal maniacs. Banding together with a group of fellow survivors, Ana takes refuge in a suburban mall with ex-marine cop Kenneth (Rhames), street-thug turned family man Andre (Phifer), practical, proactive Michael (Weber) and a handful of other lost souls.