Dawns of the Dead

By Graham Arneson Remakes have become a staple of the horror genre since the beginning of the new millennium. Starved for creativity and seeking the box office revenues which an established property promises, production companies continuously churn out updated versions of classic horror films differentiated from the originals by bigger budgets and a polished appearance. 2004’s Dawn of the Dead (Zack Snyder) arrived on the cusp of this trend, helping to establish remakes’ potential for financial success. The movie’s generally positive reception from critics and fans alike, though, is more surprising than its worldwide gross. Given that the 1978 original is often championed as the greatest zombie movie of all time, the prospects of this remake living up to its predecessor seem nonexistent. Snyder’s Dawn is not as subtextually rich as Romero’s, but it nonetheless succeeds by updating the original’s broad themes for a new millennium and offering an overall different parallel exp