When I watched Night of the Living Dead as a teen, I thought it was the worst movie I'd ever seen. Since then, I've built up a bit more tolerance for the subject. It helped that [REC] proved to be a genuinely scary example of the subgenre. And hey, maybe better, more modern production values would go a long way. That's one reason I chose this remake over the '78 George A. Romero cult classic. That and I thought I ought to see at least one thing directed by Zack Snyder.
The story, set in the Milwaukee area, gets off to a quiet start, with Nurse Ana (Sarah Polley) having only the slightest clue that anything's wrong when a bite victim awaits a head scan. True to the title, only in the morning does she become aware that a lot of people in the neighborhood, well, just aren't themselves anymore. Her escapade leads her to fellow normals equally aware of the problem, starting with a cop (Ving Rhames). Together, they seek refuge in a recently mostly abandoned mall, but this is hardly a long-term solution, and the number of enemies right outside keeps growing....
I couldn't help feeling that this takes place in a parallel universe, because nobody says "zombie," "undead," "living dead," "walking dead," or "ghoul." In fact, everybody seems to have no prior concept of such a phenomenon, so they take a while to figure out that biting spreads it (and then assume the bitten don't stand a chance to pull thru). And no, it does not appear to be set many decades ago.
In this case, the revenants generally don't shamble; they move as fast as uninjured folk. They still show basically sub-primate intelligence, driven entirely by a hunger directed only at human meat (not just brains). The resistors pack a surprising amount of weapons and ammunition, but it's not enough to clear the streets.
As I understand to be typical for Z-word fare, there's a considerable amount of interpersonal conflict among the fully living. They have different ideas of what's the safest course of action and of how much to stick their necks out for others. Some come across as such selfish jerks that we pretty much count on them to die.
I won't describe all the (would-be) survivors, and few of the actors have been in anything bigger. Just know that they're a moderately diverse bunch, from what little we know about them. You may think it a weakness that nobody gets fully fleshed out (NPI), but I see an advantage to cookie-cutter characters in horror: We can easily picture people we know in their stead.
So how does the grossness compare to NotLD? Well, on one hand, the risen corpses are fresher overall, and we never get a good look at them eating. OTOH, there's more graphic violence against both types of people. Adding to the R rating are almost as many F-bombs as spent shells, plus a couple unnecessary sex scenes during quieter moments.
Scary? Oddly enough, I thought early scenes were scariest, before Ana had a gun or knew anyone who did. I was more apt to find it sad, tho not as ultimately hopeless for heroes as NotLD. When I realized that one party member was pregnant, I thought, "Oh no, is this the one where...?" Mercifully, it wasn't quite what I anticipated.
Watching this flick during a pandemic is a little odd. I almost envied the alternate world for having a mere epidemic, except that it was reportedly on the verge of going beyond. I could relate to how hard it was to get reliable information from news sources or reliable aid from the government.
Naturally, I'm still not a fan of the subgenre. Nevertheless, I could respect the work of the people involved. It did get my heart racing now and then.
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