Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Dawn of the Dead is a 2004 American action horror film directed by Zack Snyder, in his feature directorial debut, from a screenplay by James Gunn. A remake of George A. Romero's 1978 film of the same name, the film features an ensemble cast that includes Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer, with Scott Reiniger, Tom Savini, and Ken Foree from the original film appearing in cameos. Set in Milwaukee, its plot follows a group of survivors who try to survive a zombie apocalypse while holed up in a suburban shopping mall.

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. They bought the rights from co-producer Richard P. Rubinstein (who produced the original) and hired Gunn to write the script, which oriented the original's premise around the action genre. Intent on making the remake a straight horror, Snyder took over to direct to keep every aspect of the production as grounded in reality as possible. Filming took place from June to September 2003, on location at a Toronto shopping mall that was slated for demolition. The special makeup effects were created by David LeRoy Anderson, and the music was composed by Tyler Bates in his first collaboration with Snyder.

Dawn of the Dead was theatrically released on March 19, 2004, by Universal Pictures. Despite Romero's distaste for it, the film earned generally positive reviews from critics, who found improvements over the original in terms of acting, production values, and scares, even though they felt it lacked character development, was excessively gory, and indifferent to Romero's preoccupation with American consumerism. The film was a commercial success, grossing $102.3 million worldwide on a $26 million budget. Retrospective reviews have called it Snyder's best film, and it has made several lists of the best horror and zombie films. A spiritual successor, Army of the Dead, was released in 2021.