There’s nothing quite like ringing in the dawn of a new year with a good movie, and it looks like Netflix is doubling down on its horror offerings by bringing Zack Snyder’s 2004 “Dawn of the Dead” remake to the streaming platform. If you’ve never seen the movie that helped launch Zack Snyder’s career as a top director, then now is a great time to catch up and see what all the hype is about. His vision of George A. Romero’s 1978 classic takes the zombie formula and turns it on its head, following in the footsteps of other zombie action giants like “28 Days Later,” which was one of the first zombie flicks to highlight fast-moving zombies instead of the previously beloved “shamblers” that many other flicks used, including Romero’s original classics.
Despite being over 20 years old at this point, the movie has aged fairly well, with reviews for it on Rotten Tomatoes still heralding it as a classic. One user even wrote that the movie is “a rare, worthy remake which breathed new life into the then decaying horror genre…” Of course, you don’t have to take everyone else’s word for it. You can check it out yourself right now, along with a slew of other great movies like Liam Neeson’s forgotten action thriller, “Honest Thief”.
What makes ‘Dawn of the Dead’ so special?
While technically a remake of a much earlier film, “Dawn of the Dead” has gone on to become a cult classic in its own right, veering away from the somewhat satirical nature of Romero’s original classics and ramping up the violence and tension to new levels. The original screenplay was penned by none other than James Gunn, who has gone on to work on multiple big-name projects, including “Guardians of the Galaxy”, and he’s even heading up the latest iteration of the DC Universe. Part of what helped make the remake so special was the fact that it didn’t appear to hold back when it came to tension and gore.
It painted this brutal world for zombie fans to dig into, and each of the actors involved delivered highly praised performances. The film also remains one of Snyder’s highest-rated films to date on Rotten Tomatoes. 2004’s “Dawn of the Dead” also features some actors who have since gone on to become bigger names in Hollywood, including Ving Rhames and Ty Burrell. The movie was made with just $26 million and raked in over $102 million at the box office — making it a commercial success despite the fact that the creator of the original, George Romero, was not a huge fan of the remake.
