I know. You looked and then you looked again. And you’re reading this review wondering, if that grinning happy face is a mistake. Dawn of the Dead? It has to be a mistake. As incredible as that rating is for you to see, it is equally incredible for me to give. Gory horror is not my thing. In fact, the only reason I saw this movie in the first place was because I figured with Ving Rhames and Mehki Pfifer, this has to be one horror flick where at least one brother makes it out alive (since I don’t do spoilers, you’ll have to see it for yourself to find out).

My expectations for this were very low, but it won me over. My ratings are based on the movies’ ability to deliver on its promise and this one delivered. It was bloody. It was gory. It was gross. It was good. Having said that it was also well-written and well-directed. The dialogue is a cut above usually movie horror It is humorous and witty and not in that tired, self-deprecating Scream sort of way. The movie doesn’t take itself too seriously but it doesn’t veer too far into campiness either.

The plot is simple and the movie wastes no time delving straight into it. For reasons that are never explained, killer cannibal zombies are taking over the world turning humans into the living dead with one fatal bite. A ragged collection of survivors escape to the only place capable of providing sanctuary: the mall (as it has so often in my own life … sans the zombies, of course). Policeman Kenneth (Ving Rhames), nurse Ana (Sarah Polley), job-hopping nice guy Mike (Jake Weber), soon-to-be dad (Mehki Pfifer), his pregnant wife Luda (Inna Korobkina), sarcastic ass Steve (Ty Burrell) and surly security guard CJ (Michael Kelly) are the principal survivors. Locked in the Crossroads Mall, they have to keep the zombies out as they struggle to stay alive.

First time director Zach Snyder uses the music wonderfully to underscore the irony. Mehki Pfifer walks alone down a dim mall hallway while All By Myself chimes gently through the muzak. As the group frantically flees into an elevator, their stunned silence is interrupted by Air Supply’s hokey All Out of Love sounds even hokier morphed into elevator music.

I didn’t see the original, so I’m judging this one on its own merits. While I can’t say whether or not it does George Romero’s 1978 version any justice, I can say unequivocally that this is a movie that will have the NRA chomping at the bit! Talk about an ode to the Second Amendment. A feisty group of Midwestern survivors has to battle the undead the only way they know how: by shooting them in the head. There is nothing they can’t do with a boatload of guns and a truckload of ammo. “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition!”

Highly entertaining and highly recommended.