Product Description

Studio: Starz/sphe Release Date: 09/07/2004

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6859 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-09-07
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Box set, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 384 minutes

Amazon.com
Are you ready to get down with the sickness? Movie logic dictates that you shouldn't remake a classic, but Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead defies that logic and comes up a winner. You could argue that George A. Romero's 1978 original was sacred ground for horror buffs, but it was a low-budget classic, and Snyder's action-packed upgrade benefits from the same manic pacing that energized Romero's continuing zombie saga. Romero's indictment of mega-mall commercialism is lost (it's arguably outmoded anyway), so Snyder and screenwriter James Gunn compensate with the same setting--in this case, a Milwaukee shopping mall under siege by cannibalistic zombies in the wake of a devastating viral outbreak--a well-chosen cast (led by Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer), some outrageously morbid humor, and a no-frills plot that keeps tension high and blood splattering by the bucketful. Horror buffs will catch plenty of tributes to Romero's film (including cameos by three of its cast members, including gore-makeup wizard Tom Savini), and shocking images are abundant enough to qualify this Dawn as an excellent zombie-flick double-feature with 28 Days Later, its de facto British counterpart. --Jeff Shannon

DVD features
Zombie fans, all rise from the bowls of the earth and rejoice! Anchor Bay's Ultimate Edition of Romero's horror classic Dawn of the Dead not only delivers the DVD goods in spades but goes above and beyond all expectations. The ongoing fan dissatisfaction of which version is available can now end, and the neverending debate of which version is the best can continue ad nauseum. For Anchor Bay has included all versions of the film in their pure, grotesque glory for fans to fully analyze, dissect, and digest. Included in this four-disc set are the "U.S. Theatrical Release" (127 minute, unrated director's cut, with the famous "Goblin" soundtrack in DTS; this is Romero's preferred version), the Dario Argento-edited "European Version" (118 minutes, a faster pace, a few extended scenes, and more "Goblin" music), the "Extended Version" released for the 1978 Cannes Film festival (139 minutes, with additional scenes, more gore, and a music score of library tracks), and a bonus disc of documentaries. All films are remastered and presented in 1:85 anamorphic widescreen. The U.S. and European versions have 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Surround, and all three versions are presented in their original mono.

You may have your favorite version of the film, but there is no arguing about quality. They all look and sound fantastic. Each version has its own commentary track. The European version has the actors' commentary track, while the extended version has producer Richard Rubinstein. But it is the commentary track on the U.S theatrical version that is the real gem. It includes Romero himself, his wife Chris, and makeup artist Tom Savini. If you enjoyed the stellar commentary on Anchor Bay's Day of the Dead, you can expect more of the same. The three of them will take you on a strange trip down memory lane discussing every possible nuance and anecdote of Romero's crowning achievement. The extras on this set are too numerous to lay out in detail. However, two documentaries are particularly noteworthy. The Dead Will Walk (75 minutes) is an all-new documentary tracking the entire life cycle of the Dawn of the Dead phenomenon. It includes tons of interviews with cast and crew members. It is interesting to compare the new documentary with Roy Frumkes' Document of the Dead (92 minutes), an excellent, original documentary that was shot during the making of the film. All in all, Anchor Bay has done an exceptional job with this Ultimate Edition. If you make it through the set, feel free to award yourself an honorary Ph.D in the undead. --Rob Bracco

Customer Reviews

One of the best Zombie movies ever
My favorite Zombie movie. The best way to see this is unrated and uncut. Not for the faint at heart or those easily grossed out. Lots of blood,and exposed intestines. Ken Foree was great in this. He is one of 4 survivors trapped in a mall with zombies. They fly to the mall after a drug bust in an apartment where zombies are on the loose. They escape via chopper to a mall. The mall is filled with zombies. Tom Savini leads a gang of bikers who want the mall for themselves and go after Ken & co. (all GREAT performances) and you actually feel bad for the zombies who are getting attacked by Savini & his bikers. Cool twists, cool flick,great acting, & SPFX the best Zombie film if you ask me. The best version of this on DVD is the ultimate edition from Anchor Bay which has 3 versions of the movie(including Dario Argento's version)..

EDDY DEMAYO HIHGLY RECOMMENDS THIS FLICK!
TAKE IT FROM EDDY DEMAYO, KING OF THE ZOMBIE MOVIES, DAWN OF THE DEAD IS PERFECT! A GEORGE ROMERO CLASSIC! NOT TO BE MISSED! CLASSIC CULT FILM!

Ode to Dawn of the Dead
George A. Romero discovered a universal truth: Zombies rock. What's not to love? Shambling, animated corpses with a taste for living flesh? Desperate survivors with trigger happy fingers decapitating said zombies with rusty machetes or well-aimed head shots? Zombies piling up like chords of wood? And the screaming!

It's like Christmas at the organ donor shop.

Romero's original "Dawn of the Dead" made in 1978 is a lot of things: horrifying, taboo-shattering, gory, and disturbing. It's also horror camp at its finest - skewering the mass consumer culture of the United States in our most shallow of decades: the 1970s.

Romero has a gleefully good time with his pack of survivors holed up in an indoor shopping mall. The slow-moving zombies that bang into the display cases or stumble up the escalators aren't so far removed from normal everyday mall shoppers - at least according to Romero.

Why do the zombies congregate at the mall? "Some kind of instinct. Memory, of what they used to do. This was an important place in their lives," one of the characters informs us.

Yeah, even dead we like buying stuff at the mall.

But one thing the Romero film is not? Scary.

That's one reason why we're also fans of the much maligned 2004 remake by director Zack Snyder. That's a sacrilege in many quarters, but for pure fright - Snyder tops Romero. That's the truth. Romero's low-budget wonder is a classic - no doubt. It can be uncomfortable to watch, but there is more dark humor than actual chills. Romero focused his film on his wicked wit: satire instead of terror.

Snyder isn't interested in delivering a sardonic message. He wants to scare you. And damn it if he doesn't. His zombies - like the times we live in - are fast. There's no shambling here - but straight out sprinting.

The gem of Snyder's movie is the opening 10 minutes. It may be the most frightening sequence of any horror movie made over the last 20 years. It has a disjointed, sour flavor as if the orange juice you drink every morning has been spiked with cyanide.

Sarah Polley plays a nurse named Ana. She's at the end of a difficult shift at the hospital. All she wants to do is go home. Traveling home over washed out streets in a bland suburban tract, she arrives home for "date night" with her husband. They make love in their messy, little bed in their messy, little house.

Then it all goes to hell.

The little girl next door wonders in and lo and behold the lower half of her face has been chewed off. She creeps into the bedroom and Ana's husband jumps up concerned. But before he can react, she takes a bite of flesh out of his neck.

Ana locks the little girl out of the bedroom and then has a grueling life and death struggle as her husband dies and then reanimates as a zombie. It's bone rattling violence and by the time Ana gets into her car - her neighborhood, her world is in chaos.

It's absolutely chilling.

While the overall Snyder's film doesn't quite live up to the original (and the characters make some ridiculous decisions - especially at the end), Snyder delivers a zombie movie that belongs on the list of greatest undead flicks ever made - with Romero's original and the superb "28 Days Later."

The two movies follow the same premise - but are very different movies. That's why you can enjoy them both: turn to Romero for the horrifying satire (you can often overlook the rather awkward acting) and then lean on Snyder for some in-your-face terror (and for using Johnny Cash's "Man Comes Around" as an opening number).

Either way -- it's a great two for one.

Like undead literate blather? Then plodded on over to the Dark Party Review.