Reviews & Ratings for
Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Dawn of the Dead is a 2004 American action horror film directed by Zack Snyder in his directorial debut, from a screenplay by James Gunn. A remake of George A. Romero's 1978 horror film Dawn of the Dead, it stars an ensemble cast that includes Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer. Scott Reiniger, Tom Savini, and Ken Foree from the original film also make cameo appearances. Set in Milwaukee, Dawn of the Dead follows a group of survivors who take refuge in an upscale suburban shopping mall during a zombie apocalypse.

Producers Eric Newman and Marc Abraham developed the film rather as a "re-envisioning" of the original Dawn of the Dead, aiming to reinvigorate the zombie genre for modern audiences. Newman and Abraham were handed the rights to the original courtesy of its producer and rights holder Richard P. Rubinstein; and then Gunn was brought in to write the script, which adopted the original's basic premise but is oriented around the action genre. Snyder, who previously worked as a television director, came on board to direct with a goal of keeping every aspect of the production as grounded in reality as possible. Filming took place from June 9 to September 6 of 2003, on location in Toronto, Ontario, Canada where a now-defunct shopping mall that was slated for demolition was used. The special makeup effects for the film were created by David LeRoy Anderson.

Dawn of the Dead was released by Universal Pictures on March 19, 2004, topping the box office on its United States opening weekend, and went on to gross $102.3 million worldwide against a budget of $26 million. Upon release it received generally positive reviews from film critics, some of whom considered it an improvement over its predecessor in terms of acting, production values, and scares; though others found it lacking in character development, excessively gory, and indifferent to the sociopolitical subtext of the original. A spiritual successor, Army of the Dead, was released on May 14, 2021.