Dir.
Zack Snyder, 2004, USA, 97 mins
Cast:
Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer
The thought of such a cult classic being remade by a young director who has so far only made car commercials should be a scary enough proposition in itself. Thankfully you can rest easy as Snyder grabs the audience from the start and never lets go. Going for blunt scares and frenetic MTV editing in favour of the original's more sedately paced gore-fest, he manages to successfully stamp his own name on the project without diluting the simple zombie premise.
Polley stars as a nurse who, after a stunning opening ten minutes that outdoes most zombie movies of the last two decades, flees the carnage in the city and teams up with a ragged band of survivors, including Rhames' tough-nut cop. They seek shelter in an empty mall where they spend the majority of the film fending off the undead and hatching a plan to escape. Whereas old zombie movies consisted of bad actors trudging slowly towards their intended victim, the new twist (first demonstrated in Danny Boyles' 28 Days Later) is that these zombies can run like hungry dogs, giving the audience a genuine sense of rising panic as said zombies bolt toward the protagonists.
The film is clearly an ensemble piece, with Polley and Rhames having the most impact, but the amount of characters and almost non-stop action means we don't care about them perhaps as much as we should. That said, Snyder knows his target audience and delivers a heady mixture of guns, gore and ear-splitting rock music. If you want a thoughtful character drama, you've come to the wrong place. The growing friendship of Polley and Weber is nicely underplayed, but all to soon they are running from more zombies and the romance element isn't quite strong enough to have the required impact.
Romero's movie was more of a direct satire on society at the time, with mindless zombies walking through a mall to represent the shallowness of consumerism. The remake isn't quite as political (although viruses and warfare are constantly in the headlines these days), but it does find time to poke fun at the nature of celebrity, with the heroes picking off zombies with a rifle because of their resemblance to iconic movie stars.
CGI is used sparingly to great effect, whether due to Snyder's obvious love of seventies horror movies, or the restraints of a sensible $28 million budget (take note folks, the cost of the average Hollywood movie is now $100 million), we'll never know. And since it has already recouped its budget after just a few days on release, a sequel is practically guaranteed. This is the Resident Evil movie we were all expecting but didn't get from Paul W.S Anderson's kiddie-friendly effort of 2003. Dawn Of The Dead wears its 18 certificate on its sleeve and it's refreshing not to have the requisite blood and guts excluded in favour of a lower certificate and bigger box-office. With the sleeper Brit hit 28 Days Later, comedy Shaun of the Dead, and yes, Resident Evil 2, the zombie movie is well and truly back from the dead.
Tom Ramsbottom
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