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Parents' Guide to

Dawn of the Dead

By Nell Minow, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Extremely gory horror movie; not for kids.

Movie R 2004 110 minutes
Dawn of the Dead Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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age 15+

Based on 11 parent reviews

Raritysfans
Raritysfans Adult
August 1, 2020
age 18+

Black Friday

This movie is the foresight of 2020 and the 2010s Black Friday craze. Of course lots of zombie gore and a mall. If you love this and the 1978 version watch Dan Bell on Youtube.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much swearing
Too much consumerism
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
christian2011
christian2011 Adult
May 18, 2012
age 18+

Mature Audience only Zombie film.

Dawn of the Dead is an extremely bloody/gory zombie horror film which shows the main character Ana, whom escapes with other survivors and find theirselves protection in a mall. Mostly all the characters die in very graphic and gruesome ways, like a woman gets shot to death by another, one woman gets chainsawed halfway down from her shoulder, and an infected woman gives birth to a zombified baby, which is then killed. There's alot of strong profanity in this film; the f-word is used frequently. There are some sexual situations between a couple.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
See all 11 parent reviews

What's the Story?

A remake of George A. Romero's 1978 zombie film, DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004), begins much the same as the original. For unknown reasons, people across the country are turning into bloodthirsty, animated corpses with rotting visages only an undertaker could love. The morning after the outbreak of a mysterious "virus," an unlikely group of humans still capable of thought and speech converge on an empty shopping mall outside Milwaukee to escape the marauding zombies, who were until then the friends, families, neighbors of the survivors. As they fortify their defenses against the peril outside the mall walls, they must also face the threats they pose to one another. Unspecified days pass in a haze of mall enjoyment and zombie sniping until the remaining survivors opt to make a break for the nearby marina in order to escape by boat to a hopefully deserted island in Lake Michigan.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (11 ):
Kids say (24 ):

This remake of George A. Romero's 1978 sequel to Night of the Living Dead soups up the zombies, cranks up the gross factor to 11, and has a lot of cheeky in-jokes about its predecessor. In comparison with the original, out are the shrieking blondes and rampaging looters, in are smart, controlled Ana (Sarah Polley as a believable nurse not afraid to wield a fire poker) and Kenneth (Ving Rhames), who is exactly the kind of cop you want walking beside you if you are facing scores of the undead.

The zombies are a bit spryer in this film, and the pregnancy of one of the main characters is not the life-giving promise it was in the first movie. But the ending is what differs most from the original. If you're a fan of the horror genre, then this flick is a welcome, if derivative, fright-fest in the school of Romero's classics.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the different approaches taken by the survivors and the range of choices that they make. Are there times when the moral answer is at odds with the instinct to survive?

  • If you've seen the original 1978 Dawn of the Dead, how do you think this version compares?

  • Why do you think movies and books about the undead are so popular?

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