which cost less than $1 million to make, has earned close to $60 million.
And there is one final matter that must be mentioned: Dawn of the Dead saw one of the world’s leading special-effects and make-up artists come to the fore: Tom Savini, who also happened to play the role of biker, Blades, in Dawn of the Dead. Savini’s zombie credentials do not end there: he went on to direct the 1990 remake of Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, appeared in 2001’s Children of the Dead, surfaced in Zombiegeddon two years later, had a role as a sheriff in the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead, played a zombie in Land of the Dead of 2005, and took on a starring role in the 2007 zombie-themed movie Planet Terror.
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
In the early 2000’s, many George Romero purists were completely appalled by the news that the man’s 1978 movie, Dawn of the Dead, was going to be remade in new, lavish style. Worse, the traditional slow-walking killers, for which Romero has become justifiably famous, were going to be replaced by 28 Days Later-style, super-fast infected. Tensions ran high as the March 2004 release date got closer and closer. But, there was no real cause for concern, after all. Under the directorship of Zack Snyder, the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead was a superb, nerve-jangling, non-stop descent into a world turned on its head, overnight. That Snyder brought accomplished actors to the production—including Sarah Polley, Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer, and Michael Kelly—was a great plus, too. Dawn of the Dead also marked the first of three zombie-themed movies in which Ving Rhames has starred, the others being 2008’s Day of the Dead and Zombie Apocalypse of 2011. While the plotline of the 2008 version of Dawn of the Dead contains some considerable differences from Romero’s original story, it does, nevertheless, follow a largely similar path.
Filmed in Ontario, Canada—with a predominantly Canadian cast—Dawn of the Dead first introduces us to Ana, a nurse from Milwaukee who, when the end of the world begins, is on her way home from work. As Ana switches frequencies on her car-radio, we hear snippets of news stories, suggesting something strange and unsettling is going down big-time. Somewhat amusingly, Ana elects to ignore the news and, instead, listens to Have a Nice Day, a 2001 song from Welsh band the Stereophonics. As time progresses, the day becomes anything but nice. Less than twenty-four hours later, Ana does violent battle with her husband, Luis, and with Vivian, a little girl who lives down the street. Both have become infected with the zombie virus (the former after getting bitten by the latter), and both are after one thing, and one thing only, human flesh.
Just about making it out of the house in one piece, Ana races for her car—with homicidal Luis hot on her tail—and floors the accelerator for a journey to destinations unknown. The roads are in chaos; zombies are here, there, and everywhere. After crashing her car, Ana teams up with Rhames’ character (a cop named Kenneth), Michael (played by Weber), and Andre and Luda (a couple portrayed by Phifer and Inna Korobkina). They soon decide that, to survive, there is only one option: they head to the nearest mall.
As Dawn of the Dead progresses, various other characters appear on the scene, all of who think that it’s a very good idea to hole up in a secure shopping mall. Well, it is, for a while. Divisions in the group, violent altercations, growing panic, and a deep sense of claustrophobia soon set in, however, and the survivors—finally realizing that the only way to stay alive is to put aside petty differences and work together—decide to make a run for it. Or, rather, make a drive for it, in a pair of buses stored in the mall’s garage. They try their very best, but fail, to bring along another uninfected soul, Andy, an expert shot who spends most of his time on the roof of his gun store—that is, until he, too, finally succumbs to a deadly bite. Those who manage to get out of the mall in one piece, head to a marina where there is a key to survival: a boat. It is owned by one of the group, Steve, the villain of the movie, who gets a much-deserved bullet in the head from Ana, after he too, is zombified.
Ana, Michael, Kenneth, and Terry and Nicole—the latter being a young couple thrust together during the crisis—manage to escape the zombie hordes. As Kenneth prepares to get Steve’s boat moving, Michael reveals he was bitten during the race to reach the marina. Ana says her tearful goodbyes to Michael, before he blows his brains out and the now-four exhausted survivors head for an isolated island in the distance. Isolation means safety. Well, sometimes it does. In this case, however, it does not. Dawn of the Dead reaches its knuckle-clenching conclusion with the four finally reaching the island and disembarking from the boat. As they do so, savage growling, and shadowy, fast-running figures can be seen in the wooded land ahead. Infection has reached the island. As the dead loom into view, Kenneth warns the other three to stay behind him and he lets loose with a salvo of bullets. As the zombie hordes race towards Steve’s boat, the screen goes black. It’s game over and adios amigos.
Day of the Dead (1985)
If, as a zombie apocalypse grows, the sheer number of undead staggering around the streets makes it impossible to wipe them all out, there is one final alternative, when all others have been exhausted: teach the murderous hordes to behave like civilized undead. In essence, that was the central theme of George A. Romero’s third zombie production, Day of the Dead. Made in 1985, the movie provided a refreshing departure from what usually passes for standard zombie fare and lore.
The story follows Dawn of the Dead, and at this point civilization is in complete tatters, cities are little more than eerily silent ghost towns, and the human race is rapidly spiraling down to extinction. In terms of numbers, the zombies are growing as fast as the survivors are shrinking. As for the government and the military, they have taken the cowardly approach of heading deep underground, leaving the rest of humanity to its own devices. “Underground” essentially means secure and fortified U.S. Army bunkers. It’s deep inside the bowels of one of these well-fortified installations that groundbreaking research is taking place.
Located in the Florida Everglades, the facility is home to a brilliant but eccentric scientist, Dr. Matthew Logan, and a band of soldiers led by the certifiably psychotic Captain Henry Rhodes. It’s the job of Rhodes’ team to provide Logan with zombies for his strange experiments. Dubbed “Frankenstein” by the soldiers, Logan believes that it’s actually possible to control the zombies by means of training them to obey commands, for which they will receive rewards in the form of food. Unbeknownst to the troops, the “food” that Logan supplies secretly comes in the form of Rhodes’ comrades, who died in earlier, violent confrontation with the zombies.
There is soon another addition to the underground survivors: Dr. Sarah Bowman, pilots Bill McDermott, and John, whose last name we never learn, and a soldier, Miguel Salazar. Things do not go well for the new arrivals. In fact, they have sought refuge at just about the worst time possible. The fraught situation, the daily fight to stay alive, and the fact that Rhodes’ men are constantly risking their lives to provide Dr. Logan with new specimens, are all now taking their physical and psychological toll. As so often happens when large-scale disaster strikes, people start to split into factions, and hostilities break out. The troops stick firmly together, preferring their own company and no one else’s; Bowman and her friends do likewise, increasingly fearful of Rhodes and the soldiers; and a crazed Logan continues to do his own dark and solitary thing behind closed doors.
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