Dawn of the Dead

A plague of flesh-eating zombies sweeps across America, and a small group of survivors takes refuge in a deserted shopping mall. Writer James Gunn and director Zack Snyder loosely remake George A. Romero’s 1978 sequel to his Night of the Living Dead, jettisoning the 1978 film’s satirical jabs at the consumer culture and staying focused on the scares. This may annoy Romero’s cult following, but those who thought Romero was out of his depth in the first place will be less offended. There’s a good cast on hand (Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber and Mekhi Phifer) and some good scenes, but the film is dramatically inconsistent. It seems patched together from two different drafts of the script (there’s a clear dividing line halfway through). Snyder’s style is assaultive, and there’s little pleasure to the scares.