Fear not, gentle readers: I promise that this review won’t devolve into another bitchy tirade of the dubious nature of film remakes. If anything, this one’s going to stay nice and positive! Honest!

With the Dawn of the Dead remake due out in a few days, Anchor Bay has dug the long out-of-print original from the vaults for remastering (using their Divimax process) and re-release onto a public sure to be zombie-crazed. Sure, it may seem like another case of AB’s double- (soon to be triple-, more on that later) dipping, but for those of us that have the original ‘99 DVD release, or don’t have it at all, it’s a great budget-minded addition.

The second in Romero’s acclaimed Dead trilogy (possibly a quartet, if Twilight of the Dead ever sees release), Dawn of the Dead builds upon ideas established in the original Night of the Living Dead. Taking place an undetermined amount of time after the end of Night (some people think it’s the next day, others think it’s months, even years later), Dawn explores the zombie problem spreading like wildfire, and society starting to crumble under the weight of this new threat. Like Night, Dawn focuses on a group of survivors pitted against the dead and each other barricaded inside and away from the zombie menace.

However, Dawn saw a tightening in Romero’s blend of social commentary, action, and horror. No longer content with subtle allegories towards the decade’s hot topics, Dawn throws subtlety to the wind for a full-on assault, offering outright satire on consumerism. "This was an important place in their lives," helicopter pilot Stephen (David Emge) comments, referring to the hordes of zombies still shuffling aimlessly through the mall. Indeed, the mall is one of the main draws of the film, playing out in parts like a childish capitalist fantasy appealing to our basest nature: the idea of having full run of a shopping mall without any sort of social restraint is darkly appealing. Watching these three-dimensional characters act out our desires is intensely satisfying no matter how many times the movie is viewed.

Interestingly enough, this was also Romero’s first foray into the zombies having distinct personalities. Bill Hinzman’s alpha dog status in Night was a mere glimpse at what Romero develops in Dawn (even more so in Day). While somewhat comical, the zombies have their own visual personality, giving the movie a bigger scope. It seems lees like the plague is effecting an all-white office on casual Friday and more so a cross-section of the population. There’s baseball players, Hare Krishnas, brides, and others to convey that the problem is happening to everyone, everywhere.

For such a classic film, Anchor Bay finally gives us a classic treatment. Remastered in high definition (or Divimax, as they call it), I can honestly say I have NEVER seen it look this good. Colors in the anamorphic picture are well saturated and clean, and black levels are dead-on. Even better, I saw extremely little print damage, maybe a speckle here or there. Compared to the ’99 release, this disc is light years ahead in quality. Hell, check out a comparison, and you’ll see the difference. Audio is equally pleasing, available in several formats all the way from Dolby Mono (good job!) all the way to a positively stunning DTS 5.1 mix. No matter what the format, the audio was exceptionally clean and bold, guaranteeing a great experience no matter what.

Now let’s talk extras, because there’s no shortage on this sucker. First, we’ve got full-length audio commentary from George Romero, assistant director and wife Chris Romero, and Tom Savini, all moderated by the DVD’s producer Perry Martin. They cover everything from their opinions on CGI, to shooting overnight at the mall so as not to interfere with daytime shoppers, to George and Chris arguing over when they were married. They even bring up George’s notorious dog Buster, whom they’ve locked in the basement in order to keep him from barking! Besides that, we’re given TV spots, theatrical trailers (which have been remastered as well), radio spots, a gallery of posters and newspaper ads, a George Romero bio, and a comic book preview (which is literally a one screen ad for the Dawn comic book! Lame!) Compared to the fairly bare-bones ‘99 edition, this is pretty loaded!

However, those of you might be wondering if it’s even worth bothering picking this up, with AB releasing a deluxe box set later on in 2004. Well, yes and no. The 3-disc box is supposed to include the U.S. Theatrical cut, a Director’s Cut, and a disc full of extras. While this may be a set for "completists," one can also argue that there’s about a dozen cuts of Dawn floating around, all pretty much the same, so the differences between a regular cut and a director’s cut could be slim at best. Seeing as how this one-disc edition is available for a song (I’ve seen it for as little as 12 bucks at Best Buy and online), it would be silly NOT to pick it up. You still get the great movie, with the same great Savini effects, and the same great Goblin score. Knowing that there’s probably never going to be a true "uncut" edition (the movie has undergone countless edits for a zillion different markets), this disc is a nice compromise.