And Then!...And Then!...And Then!

Films: Army of the Dead
Format: Streaming video from NetFlix on various players.

We need to talk about Zack Snyder. He seems like he’s a pretty decent guy. For instance, when Chris D’Elia was accused of sexual predatory behavior, he was removed from Army of the Dead and digitally replaced with Tig Notaro. First, Tig Notaro should replace a lot of people in things. Second, despite the fact that this move cost the production company millions, it was important in the post-#MeToo era to remove predators from whatever we can.

But here’s the thing: Zack Snyder isn’t really that good of a filmmaker. He wants to be, and he has some interesting ideas, but he just doesn’t have the skill to really pull off those ideas in a credible way. Snyder always comes across like he’s making his first movie and he’s a little too young to really know what he’s doing. A lot of his ideas come across as better as ideas, or better handled by a more experienced filmmaker. That’s very much the case with Army of the Dead.

Wednesday Horror: Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Film: Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Format: IFC on rockin’ flatscreen.

I’m generally a little leery of remakes. Sure, there are some that are good and a rare few that transcend the original version, but most of the time, they fall short. This seems to be especially true of horror movies on both ends of that spectrum. They tend to be either great (The Thing, The Fly) or horrible (The Wicker Man and a couple hundred more). So it was probably natural that I went into the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead with some trepidation. Toss in the fact that it was the directorial debut of costume fetishist Zack Snyder, and I was concerned.

The Dawn of the Dead remake is pretty short on plot. Essentially, the zombie holocaust happens and a group of people find themselves locked inside a shopping mall that they barricade to keep out the living dead. More people show up, people die of bites and come back and are killed again. Eventually, the people inside the mall decide that they need to get out and since one of them has access to a boat, they decide to go out into Lake Michigan to a more or less deserted island. There’s a breakout attempt in fortified shuttle busses through thousands of zombies. It’s all about the spectacle here as well as a couple of signature horror moments.