Last night’s fun was the modern remake of Dawn of the Dead. I’ve not seen the original, so I can’t compare the two in any way, but this one was exactly what I expected it would be — a fun, sometimes silly, and very gory horror flick.
No reason is given for the zombies, but then, that’s not really the point. Plausibility, rationality, and logic have no place here. What does have a place is lots of creepy dead and decaying people, exploding heads, and creating a enjoyably icky couple of hours of entertainment, all of which were pulled off quite well enough for me.
About the only bummer for me were some of the special features. Occasionally during the movie we’d see snippets of television news broadcasts reporting on the catastrophe in progress, and these are presented in full on the DVD. Unfortunately, it turns out that there’s a reason that we only saw snippets during the actual film — most of the zombies (who didn’t have to do much more than scream, grunt, growl, grimace, ooze, and bleed) were better actors than the reporters in the broadcasts. The extra background was entertaining enough for what it was, but they were a little painful to watch straight through.
On the bright side, though, the ten minute long featurette exploring the special effects behind the myriad exploding heads was really entertaining. As much as I enjoy computers and digital effects, I’m always fascinated by the real physical effects work — everything from the puppetry of Jim Henson’s films to the blood and gore of horror films — and it’s fun to watch the effects crew geek out when they get a good shot of some zombie’s brains blowing out the back of their head.
Okay, so it’s a little sick. That doesn’t mean it can’t be fun!
“Drama” by Club 69 from the album Junior Vasquez, Vol. 2 (1997, 3:36).