Dawn of the Dead is a loose remake of George A. Romero's 1978 film. The remake and original share a similar premise and central location, but the story differs significantly. It was released in 2004 and stars Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer, and features cameos from original cast members Ken Foree, Scott Reiniger, and Tom Savini. It was directed by Zack Snyder and written by James Gunn.

An unknown virus causes the dead to rise and devour the flesh of the living. Ana (Polley), whose husband is infected with the virus, escapes the chaos-torn suburbs to a shopping mall where she takes refuge with several other survivors, including a policeman (Rhames), a salesman (Weber), a drug dealer (Phifer) and his pregnant wife. As the mall becomes surrounded by more and more of the dead, they realize they need to escape once more.

Tagline:When there`s no more room in hell,the dead will walk the Earth

Heavily derided by fans and critics before its release , on release the film received mixed to positive reactions from both . Particular praise was given to the 10 minute pre-credit sequence. This segment was played on TV the week before the film was released, a practice that has become common since.

Others felt that the film did not retain the social satire and poignancy of the original. Romero himself, while having strong reservations about some elements of the film, stated that he thought the film was better than he'd anticipated.

In the original film the zombies moved very slowly and were most menacing when they collected in large groups. In the remake they are capable of moving much faster, even running at times, and appear to have unlimited endurance (at one point chasing a vehicle for miles through a city). Many admirers of the original (and Romero himself) protested this change, feeling that it limited the impact of the undead . This is somewhat borne out by the fact that the remake has almost no close up shots of zombies that last more than a second or two. Snyder mentions this problem in the commentary track of the new version's DVD, pointing out that they seem too human when the camera lingers upon them for longer.

In the original, the plague spread slowly over a period of weeks and months. In the remake, it springs up worldwide overnight. In the original, anyone who dies of any reason returns after an hour or two. In the remake, only those infected die and are re-animated within an hour,but those that die from the essential wound are back after a period of less than a minute.