Dawn of the DeadMovie Reviews

Poster art for "Dawn of the Dead."

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So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 58 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
17 not for kids
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    Don't leave before the final frame -- if you're still breathing. Read full review

  • 80
    Washington Post | Desson Thomson

    The movie has many of the elements that made the first "Dawn" so darkly entertaining. Read full review

  • 80
    Washington Post | Michael O'Sullivan

    Yes, it's essentially a remake of a sequel, albeit a sequel that happens to be one of the greatest horror movies ever made, but it more than surpasses the original. Read full review

  • 80
    Los Angeles Times | Manohla Dargis

    Good zombie fun, the remake of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead is the best proof in ages that cannibalizing old material sometimes works fiendishly well. Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    It's silly, witty and good-natured, not scary so much as icky, and not horrifying or horrible but consistently amusing. Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    My only complaint is that its plot flatlines compared to the 1979 version, which was trickier, wittier and smarter. Romero was not above finding parallels between zombies and mall shoppers. Read full review

  • 63
    USA Today | Mike Clark

    Overall, this Dead is zippier than 1995's retake on "Village of the Damned" and somewhat less junky than the recent remake of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Read full review

  • 50
    The Hollywood Reporter | Michael Rechtshaffen

    When there's a whole mess of zombie killing to be done, who cares about reflective writing or that time-wasting element of suspense? Read full review

  • 50
    Variety | Scott Foundas

    More palatable than "Texas," Dawn also seems even less necessary, given how effectively the original was reworked last year in Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later." Read full review

  • 30
    The New York Times | A.O. Scott

    The eventual video game is bound to be a lot more fun -- and less slowed down by bad dialogue -- than this "Dead." Read full review


Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says not for kids Extremely gory horror movie; not for kids.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this movie is extremely violent, gory, and scary. Most of the characters die terrible and explicit deaths. The squeamish will be particularly disturbed by a scene of childbirth and the resulting mayhem. Characters amuse themselves by shooting zombies milling in the parking lot around the mall. There are two explicit sexual situations, including a tender one between a married couple.
  • 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? How would you handle this variance?
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: Cannibalism, near constant intense peril, grotesque childbirth, death of characters, extremely graphic violence. Very scary.
  • sex false5 Sex: Explicit sexual references and situations, nudity.
  • language false5 Language: Extremely strong language.
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Cigarette smoking, reference to alcohol.

Dawn of the Dead Movie Ratings + Reviews

Fans say

Go 74 fan reviews

Critics say

So-so See all critic reviews

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