George A. Romero’s Attack on Zack Snyder’s Most Underrated Film Ended Up Hurting Them Both
Zombie cinema’s godfather George A. Romero didn’t mince words, blasting Zack Snyder’s turbocharged Dawn of the Dead remake—an audacious overhaul of the 1978 classic that amped up the stakes and split fans.
George A. Romero basically invented modern movie zombies, so when someone remakes one of his movies, he pays attention. Zack Snyder did just that with his 2004 take on Romero's 1978 classic 'Dawn of the Dead'—and while Snyder walked away with a career-launching hit, Romero was not impressed.
Romero vs. Snyder: What rubbed the legend the wrong way
Romero talked about Snyder's remake more than once, and his issues weren’t subtle. In a BFI chat, he knocked the look and behavior of the undead—too uniform, too sporty, and, yes, too fast. He preferred giving zombies personality and variety (he even liked tossing in oddballs like nuns), not a horde of blue jeans and running shoes charging like sprinters.
The bigger gripe came later. In a 2013 interview with The Telegraph, Romero said Snyder's version stripped out the social bite that defined the original. His '78 film was built around satire, using the then-new phenomenon of the American shopping mall as the setting and the point. In Pennsylvania, where he shot, that mall was the first one they had ever seen, and he structured the whole story around what that meant culturally. As he put it:
'I sort of thought it lost its reason for being... I didn't think the remake had it.'
What Snyder changed—and why it played anyway
Snyder absolutely deviated from the source. He swapped slow, shambling dread for full-tilt, fast-moving monsters and leaned into action-horror. That shift, plus slicker visuals and a bigger budget, gave the remake a propulsive, modern energy. It isn’t chasing Romero’s satire; it’s chasing your pulse. Whether you miss the commentary probably depends on why you show up to a zombie movie in the first place.
The friction in plain English
Romero saw his 'Dawn' as a sharp joke about consumer culture that needed that specific time and place to land. Snyder made a crowd-pleasing survival thriller that kept the mall but ditched the sermon. Both can exist, but if you’re the guy who invented the thing, watching someone else rewire it is always going to sting.
Quick facts if you want to revisit it
- Title: Dawn of the Dead (2004)
- Director: Zack Snyder
- Cast: Sarah Polley, Kim Poirier, Ty Burrell
- IMDb: 7.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 77%
- Worldwide box office: $102 million
- Studio: Universal Pictures
- Where to watch: currently streaming on Starz
- Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978): available to rent on Amazon in the US