Josh's Review of DAWNING OF THE DEAD

After a terrorist group steals a virus from a British lab and unleash it, people around the world - who have been exposed - quickly turn into flesh eating zombies.

At first, I was intrigued by the setting which the previews teased - that being in a television studio. Those who are fans of the original Dawn of the Dead might remember that that film likewise started in a TV studio where government officials were being interviewed before some of the characters escaped and ran to the mall. But sadly, this movie doesn't hold a candle to this classic that it clearly steals some of it's source material from. This movie suffers from grainy visuals, bad editing, and several clichés, one of which includes two brothers who can’t stop arguing with each other long enough to save themselves from the zombie apocalypse. In some places, the plot seems to want to be a goofy comedy in the vain of Shawn of the Dead, but even in that regard it fails.

Instead of being an intelligent horror movie with characters we can care about and hope will escape the zombie apocalypse, the audience is treated to endless scenes of blood and gore, mixed with low-budget attempts at the film trying to be a poor man's action thriller. The one bright spot in this blood-soaked mess of a movie is actress Ruth Galliers, whose Katya, a television news reporter, manages to get the story of the zombie apocalypse out while trying to survive in the TV studio. Though the plot and story are quite bad, Galliers still manages to give a good performance and make the audience want to care about her, even while the rest of the movie is as mindless as the zombies in it.

Overall grade: D

Dawning of the Dead: Staring Ruth Galliers and Kristofer Dayne. It arrives on VOD on December 5.