Dawn of the Dead (2004)

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Movie
German title Dawn of the Dead
Original title Dawn of the Dead
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2004
length Director's Cut
approx. 105 minutes.
Theatrical version: approx. 96 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Zack Snyder
script James Gunn
production Marc Abraham
Eric Newman
Richard P. Rubinstein
music Tyler Bates
Tree Adams
camera Matthew F. Leonetti
cut Niven Howie
occupation
chronology

Successor  →
Day of the Dead

Dawn of the Dead ( dt. Dawn of the Dead or in this case Awakening of the Dead ) is a horror film - remake by US director Zack Snyder from 2004. It is based on the film of the same name by George A. Romero from the year 1978, which was published in Germany under the title Zombie .

action

The nurse Ana wakes up one morning. In her bedroom is the neighbor's daughter Vivian, who suddenly jumps on her husband and tears his throat to pieces. He bleeds to death, but gets up again and tries to bite Ana. She manages to get into the bathroom. From there she escapes through the window and can finally escape in her car.

Ana wanders her car through her formerly tranquil place of residence, where chaos has broken out: Some of the residents have become zombies who hunt the living. Anyone who is bitten by a zombie dies and becomes a zombie himself. When Ana, completely traumatized, stops on the street, a car thief tries to steal her car. When trying to escape, she loses control of her car and drives down an embankment, where she remains unconscious. She is found by the policeman Kenneth, whom she joins. A little later they meet Michael, Andre and his partner Luda. These report that there is no escape from the city. Together they decide to hide in a nearby shopping mall and wait for help. There, however, they meet the militant security guards of the shopping center, who already claim it as their refuge and do not want to share it with anyone. Therefore, Ana's group is initially held captive in a shop in the mall.

Later, more refugees arrive in a truck and drive around in front of the mall. The guards do not want to let the newcomers in because they fear that the disease will introduce them. Terry, the youngest security guard, then frees the group around Ana because he wants to help the refugees. Together with them, he succeeds in overpowering and imprisoning his two colleagues. The refugees from the truck are taken to the shopping center. Two of them were bitten and must be killed after mutating into zombies. The newcomers report that the assembly point set up by the authorities in the city was overrun by the undead. A little later on TV you learn that the whole earth is populated by zombies. After all, all television channels switch off their programs.

For the time being, the survivors settle in at the mall and indulge in luxury. The guards rethink their attitude and understand that everyone has to work together to survive. There is trust between everyone and you try to pass the time. In addition, another survivor named Andy is discovered on a rooftop not far from the shopping center, who is holed up alone in his gun shop. Since thousands of zombies are now crowding the streets in the area and he is also trapped in his shop, he communicates with the group via texts on whiteboard boards .

After a while, the opinion prevails in the group that it would be better to try an escape than to wait in a golden cage for the end. A plan is forged. This initially plans to convert two shuttle buses from the underground car park into armored vehicles in order to reach Steve's yacht , which is moored in the city's harbor. Before that, however, Andy is supposed to be picked up from his gun shop, and they also want to get more weapons and ammunition for the escape. With the yacht, the group would like to try to get to one of the islands off the coast, in the hope of being safer there.

Since Andy is now hungry in his gun shop and seems too weak to flee, Nicole sends the dog off to bring him a bag with groceries and a radio. The zombies initially ignore the dog. After Andy gets him into his shop through a hatch in the front door, a zombie takes the same route and bites him. Nicole drives the truck to the shop on her own initiative to save her dog, which forces the group to start their escape earlier than planned. They get through the sewer to Andy's shop and via the hatch. This has now mutated and is shot by Kenneth. Nicole and her dog have locked themselves in front of Andy and are set free. The group stock up on weapons and ammunition in the shop and retreat through the sewers, pursued by the zombies. The group immediately flees towards the harbor in the converted buses. They reach it with heavy losses and leave it with the yacht. Michael stays behind and shoots himself because he was bitten while trying to escape.

During the credits, you can see some scenes that were made with a video camera during the boat trip: After a while, they come across flotsam that only contains a zombie head. After they run out of water and provisions, the survivors find an island, but there are also zombies there that attack them immediately. The last pictures from the video camera only show zombies.

Criticism and success

Most of the critics reacted positively to the film. On Rotten Tomatoes , it got a 75% rating based on 180 reviews. The consensus reads: "A kinetic, violent, and amazingly worthy remake of George Romero's horror classic that pays homage to the original and works on its own terms." The Internet Movie Database rated the film 7.4 out of 10.

Fritz Göttler expressed himself benevolently and praised director Snyder in particular in the Süddeutsche Zeitung . Roger Ebert found the remake weaker than the original despite better acting performances, but attested it to work and deliver what one expects. Johannes Pietsch von Filmstarts compared the film with the original and found that the remake lacked the “political subtext of the independent Romero film”, and saw Snyder's film as a “hard, cynical action film, who pleasantly never pretends to want to be more ". A critic of the magazine Cinema drew the following conclusion: "A tough shocker that serves (almost) non-stop action and macabre jokes". The lexicon of the international film judged: "Remake of George A. Romero's horror film" Zombie "from 1977, which, with sometimes gruesome images, visualizes an all-encompassing crisis experience within the horror genre and evokes an end-of-the-world mood."

On the other hand, USA Today called the film "soulless," and Michael Wilmington ruled for the Chicago Tribune that the film was a "bloody mess," despite its high budget, craftsmanship, and good cast.

The film grossed over 100 million US dollars worldwide through its theatrical release alone . The budget was $ 26 million.

Margin notes

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.
  • Three actors from the original have cameo appearances in the remake: Ken Foree , who plays Peter in the original, is the TV preacher who sees God's punishment behind the zombie plague. Scott H. Reiniger , who plays Roger in the original, plays the television general who says everyone should stay home for security reasons. Tom Savini , the special effects man of the original, who also plays a member of the rocker gang in it, plays the sheriff in the new film, who says on television that you have to shoot the zombies in the head.
  • A shop in the mall is called Gaylen Ross, like an actress in the original. The sign "Wooley's Diner" reminds of the role of "Wooley". The BP truck, the WGON helicopter and the car that crashes into a gas station also appear in the original.
  • The song that runs during the opening credits is The Man Comes Around by Johnny Cash , the lyrics contain several quotations from the Revelation of John . In addition, the song Down with the Sickness was played twice, the original by Disturbed in the credits and the lounge cover by Richard Cheese in the scenes in which the survivors settle in the mall. The song People who died by the Jim Carroll Band can also be heard in the credits .
  • Many companies did not want to appear in the film, which is why the shops in the mall are fictional - with the exception of the Panasonic store.
  • The scenes in the mall were filmed in Thornhill Square in Thornhill, Ontario , and the remaining scenes in Aileen-Willowbrook, Ontario.
  • The scenes on the boat and the island were only filmed in retrospect after test screenings revealed that the audience saw the original ending too suddenly.
  • The word “ zombie ” does not appear in the film. The word is only used in the bonus material, when a doctor demonstrates an undead to a reporter and in a survival video shown in the bonus material as part of the "News Report".
  • In this film, the zombies are shown faster and more agile than in the zombie films that have appeared so far. They don't seem as sluggish and slow as their zombie colleagues in the other films, but even have the ability to sprint or climb here.
  • On the DVD under Special Features you get the information that the developers wanted to create a kind of physical development for the zombies within the film. If you take a closer look at the film, you can see physical changes in the infected in the course of the action, they look more and more rotten and dead. While you could initially only recognize the zombies through their pale skin, white eyes and bite wounds, you can already see in the middle of the film that the human outer shell is partially falling apart. This is to emphasize the timing of the plot and make it possible that the infected people actually die.

Director's Cut and Theatrical Version

The film was released in German cinemas on April 15, 2004 and attracted almost 400,000 viewers there. The film was released on DVD in mid-August 2004 , but in a version that was around nine minutes longer, the so-called Director's Cut . A few scenes have been added to this version, which show more depth of character, but also more violence. Only then was it decided to release the identical version to the 2004 theatrical version on DVD in February 2005.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Approval for Dawn of the Dead . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry, July 2004 (PDF; Director's Cut).
  2. ↑ a b Certificate of Release for Dawn of the Dead . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , July 2004 (PDF; test number: 97 342 V / DVD).
  3. ↑ Dawn of the Dead by Rotten Tomatoes (English)
  4. ↑ Dawn of the Dead in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  5. ↑ SZ from April 29, 2004, reproduced from film-zeit.de ( Memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ^ Film review by Roger Ebert
  7. ↑ Film reviews on film releases
  8. ↑ Film review on Cinema
  9. ^ Dawn of the Dead. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  10. ↑ Film review in USA Today
  11. ^ Film review in the Chicago Tribune ( Memento November 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  12. Jump up ↑ Box Office Mojo - Dawn of the Dead
  13. ↑ Comparison of the cinematic version and the director's cut