I was unimpressed with George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” and “Day of the Dead” yet I had a tiny bit of hope as most seem to think “Dawn of the Dead” is the best of his zombie films. I watched it and came away thinking that it might be the worst out of his original zombie trilogy. Much like the zombies in it, this is a lifeless film.

As the zombie epidemic continues, a band of survivors decide to seek refuge in an abandoned shopping centre. The survivors find ways to prevent more zombies from entering the site before clearing the area of them. However, the arrival of more people might just threaten the survivors’ chances of staying safe.

As almost always seems to be the case with zombie films, I couldn’t care less about the survivors. Films like this force us to spend a lot of time watching a small group of people yet they never find a way to get us to really care about any of them. The dialog throughout the film is very dull. The zombies look somewhat impressive although some of the gory effects look rather dated. It’s a shame that zombie films somehow manage to make the living dead more empathetic than the living.

“Dawn of the Dead” is often cited as not only a terrific horror picture but also a brilliant satire of consumerism but all I saw when I looked at the screen was a bland movie about some people hiding from mindless monsters. If you are into zombie movies then this is probably worth checking out but I just don’t get the appeal of these films; they always seem far too predictable. My only defence of the zombie movie formula is that it isn’t as overused as the slasher film formula.