‘Dead’ just as suspenseful this time around

Evan Marmol

“Dawn of the Dead” can hardly be deemed as a long-awaited remake of

its 1979 predecessor, but for those of us who remember, it lives up

to the ghoulish, gory, and heart-racing pace that chilled and

thrilled audiences a quarter of a century ago.

Deviating from the classical staggering, mindless, festering

drones that we have grown accustomed to in zombie flicks; “Dawn of

the Dead” transforms the denizens of a small town, and ostensibly the

whole world, into rampaging beasts with an insatiable desire to

devour human flesh. The few rattled survivors, comprised of a couple

of notable actors including Mekhi Phifer and Ving Rhames, seek

shelter in an uncompromised mall. The tension is palpable, as these

few survivors must decide to live out their existence in a shopping

mall or make a daring attempt to reunite with other survivors.

This film is suspenseful from first bite. I would recommend

grasping the arms of your chair until the palpitations subside, but

this film allows few moments to relax as sequence to sequence is

magnificently horrifying. For its genre, it cannot be faulted in any

aspect. If you are searching for a film that makes you jump and

scream, then “The Dawn of the Dead” is the only choice.

* EVAN MARMOL is Laguna Beach resident. He graduated from UC

Irvine with a degree in psychology and social behavior. He can be

reached at [email protected].