What happens when a riot breaks out, when you are caught amongst hordes of blind vandals. How do people become blind? I am obviously not talking about blind in love but blind in hatred, radical religion etc.
I was watching ‘Dawn of the Dead’ and 9/11 conspiracy on national geographic almost simultaneously. That made me realize that religious fanatics are no less than zombies, who crashed those planes because they believed in holy jihad.
Interestingly the sequel to the old 1978 Romero classic shows rows of muslims in Namaz during the casting reinforcing my realizations.
Ana Clark an ER nurse after a long duty gets to go home. She does not pay attention to the strange patients coming in or the warnings on TV or radio. Into the loving arms of her husband and a romantic shower scene later we find the couple getting up in the morning and finding a neighborhood girl in their apartment. She’s turned into a zombie and she springs on Luis, Ana’s husband. With a fatal bite on his throat Luis succumbs even though Ana tries to get through on the phone.
After a clichéd scary bathroom episode, Ana escapes into the street. Those of you who have watched ‘Night of the Living Dead’ will realize in the very few minutes towards the beginning that the zombies in this movie are not slow at all. They are powerful and extremely agile.
As Anna drives out of the neighborhood we get a fairly good overhead shot of the place. Of cars running into cars and subsequent explosions in the gas station. It’s like watching the entire thing from a distant reminding you of a news coverage.
She comes upon a tough cop Kenneth, the resourceful Michael and Andre and his pregnant wife. Together they take refuge in a Mall.
In the Mall they come upon 3 security men-head security guard CJ, and his subordinates Terry and Bart. After a while another truck comes in with survivors and they are lead in much to the reluctance of CJ. They are Norma, Steve and his girlfriend Monica, dog lover Nicole and her dad Frank, Tucker, an old man named Glen, and a sick bloated woman.
Together they paint SOS symbols on the roof, yet the copter misses spotting them.
The old original had a dig on consumerism, when the zombies were shown storming the mall and very much awkward while on the stairs or just looking at the windows. Even the survivors start hording stuff for themselves.
Here also we see the survivors making themselves at home and bonding. Kenneth plays chess with Andy on the opposite roof. Later on Andy’s ace shooting skills are challenged when he asked to shoot the zombies on the ground and they are called by various celebrity names like Jay Leno, Burt Reynolds, Rosie O’Donnell, etc.
There are some touchy moments too when the bitten bloated woman dies and comes back as a zombie, it is that point that Ana realizes that just a bite from a zombie is a death sentence, which meant Frank who was bitten too was doomed. The dad and daughter Nicole share a sad touchy moment just before Frank dies.
Andre loses his pregnant wife and new born child and in turn shoots at Norma who had shot at his zombie wife. An emotionally broken Andre says: “You want to kill my family”. Norma dies killing Andre but since they die in gunshots they do not become undead. When we look at the child, it’s poignant to see it as a little zombie too.
When food is send to the hungry Andy through the dog Chips, we find zombies ironically finding the way to enter his place. Very soon we find Andy rubbing blood on his writing board. What follows is the group’s escape from the place to Steve’s boat.
Now that’s a flaw. The movie is set in Wisconsin but was shot in Ontario. So where in Wisconsin do you find islands.
The camera effects and special effects are cool and the song at the end and the graphics of casting names also are worth the mention. It’s a remake of an older successful film but still attempts to differ. Which I liked pretty well.
‘Night of the living Dead’ had a waif like girl character who transforms into a strong girl so does Ana’s character. There was 1 strong guy too and here we have the reliable intelligent cop, Kenneth.
Watch this movie, its worth more than the sci fi gizmo flicks of today.