Dawn of the Dead (2004)
This film is seen as one of the first movies to introduce the fast zombie. Zack Synder’s remake of the 1978 Romero classic had a little more fun with its zombies. There’s actually zombified celebrity look-alikes that survivors play a Where’s Waldo alternative with their sniper friend from across the Mall parking lot. Big names like Jay Leno and Burt Reynolds get the boils on their faces, and blood splattered everywhere as their head were blown clean off.
Snyder’s zombies also seem like the slow moving type from afar, but the second they hear a noise or you end up in their sights, they come at you with unrelenting speed. Snyder even gives his zombies facial reactions. Two examples are when in particular when Michael Kelly’s CJ gets a shocked reaction from a zombie before blowing a hole through it, and another as a zombie gives a confused look to the gas tank he picks up before CJ shoots it.
Snyder was thankfully given a lot of praise for his remake and many appreciated his changes and additions to the genre.
