The recent film "Dawn of the Dead" is the remake to George A. Romero’s 1978 cult classic of the same name.

The remake, however, was not directed by Romero, but by Zack Snyder, making his directorial debut. Even though both versions follow the same name and the same premise (zombies take over the world and the last few survivors hole up in an abandoned shopping mall), each version has a different vibe to it.

The 1978 version begins with a sense of hopelessness and paranoia from the opening credits as we are witnesses to a world struck with fear, panic and mass confusion due to the now-worldwide zombie epidemic. News crews were tongue-tied, hordes of police officers unsuccessfully tried to stop the ambush, and no one could offer a solution. Whereas we believed that the zombie problem was solved at the end of the original "Night of the Living Dead," Romero’s 1978 sequel let us know that it was far from over. Even though the movie begins on a good note, it drags on for an hour or so, giving the characters and the situation sufficient time to develop.

Snyder’s "Dawn" takes a different approach. The movie opens up in a happy mood as the lead character, Ana, leaves work and goes home to her peaceful suburban neighborhood and spends time with her loving husband. He wakes up the next morning and is attacked by a neighboring little girl, who just so happened to be a zombie. He turns into one seconds later and attacks Ana, who narrowly escapes. Apparently, the problem had spread all over the city. From this point on, the action grabs you and never lets go.

The 1978 and 2004 versions can be respectively compared and contrasted when it comes to the characters.

In the original, there were only four survivors, but the movie spent so much time developing them that you would actually care for them as if you already them. This time, there are 10 survivors and more that come along the way.

In this movie we are subject to characters with ulterior motives, such as the situation with Andre, played by Mekhi Phifer, whose Russian wife Luda is pregnant but is also secretly infected from a zombie bite.

The differences in the movies lie mainly in the zombies and the gore equation. Romero’s zombies were slow and walked with a drag. They may look ineffective, but if they got close enough to you they could tear you apart, literally. Snyder’s zombies were very aggressive and sprinted after their victims.

Fortunately, during the original version’s character development process, the survivors ponder an escape plan and have efficient time to use it when the zombies attack. In this movie, the violent zombies ‘bum-rush’ the mall a little earlier than expected and force the survivors to jump into their escape plan. The question is, where will they go?

Check out "Dawn of the Dead" at Cine.