These "2009 DVDTalk Horror Challenge Day #" threads are for the discussion of the films in the 31 Films in 31 Days subset.

General discussion on the 2009 DVDTalk Horror Challenge goes here, your list for the Challenge goes here.

The plan is for everyone to watch this film on the October day in the thread title, and to start discussing it the morning of the following day. You may start discussion early if you want, but the preferred plan is for this to be as much of a group exercise as possible, with all of us viewing it "together" and discussing after.

Of course, you are totally encouraged to participate in these threads even if you haven't watched the movie on the designated day. Even if you haven't watched it in years, or are not participating in the Horror Challenge, please feel free to chime in.

Spoiler tags will not be needed, as it will be expected that anyone here has seen the film.

Do not read this thread if you have not seen the film, unless you don't mind the ending being spoiled for you.

Good movie and one of the better remakes. Great pacing and the was hilarious

I love this movie. It's a great mix of action, gore and humor. I like to turn the volume way up for the scene where CJ blows up the propane tank in the van.

The montage to Johnny Cash's "The Man Comes Around" is a highlight.

I actually liked this more than I thought I would especially considering the original is one of my favorites. Definitely a worthy remake.

I think the zombie baby was my favorite scene. Even though I know that's what it would be, it payed off.

I also appreciated the nods to the original: the Ken Foree cameo and the Gaylen Ross mention.

This was one of those movies that I really, really didn't want to like. I resisted when it was in theaters because I had no interest in seeing yet another remake of a classic film. Much to my surprise, when I finally got around to seeing the film, it was actually pretty good. I definitely wouldn't put it above the original, but I thought a good job was done on this version. Now that I have it on Blu-ray, I should try to watch it for the challenge.

This may sound odd, but this is one of the few movies that I saw multiple times in the theater ... there was one scene that didn't translate well to home video, but I will never forget it on the big screen ...

When Sarah Polley is making her getaway, the scene where the ambulance comes careening down the road and crashes into the gas station ... man that was something because your eye is drawn to the far left of the screen and you just follow it all the way across until ... boom.

I just caught this a short time ago for the first time and thought it was fun. Agreed with both the above posts regarding favorite scenes.

I really liked what they did with this movie, hence the reason I suggested it for the 31 subset. I think they chose perfectly what elements to keep the same and what elements to change. Making the zombies a lot quicker and intense was a great change. The only thing was that, in a few of the scenes, the zombies felt more like a human chasing someone rather than the zombie mindset (or lack thereof.)

I loved the zombie baby. That whole scene in the bedroom was very disturbing.

I liked the casting all around. I can't really think of any of the actors that weren't right for the role.

I, too, liked the cameos/nods to the original. Tom Savini as the Sheriff, Ken Foree as the televangelist, and Scott Reiniger as the general. And then the store name "Gaylen Ross." I'm trying to remember the cast commentary on the original DotD disc and there was someone who mentioned that they would have been in the remake, but wasn't asked. I listenedd to that commentary last year, so I can't quite remember.

Speaking of commentaries, Richard Rubinstein talks quite a bit about this movie in the commentary on the extended version of the original. I'm looking forward to listening to the Zach Snyder commentary on this disc.

Count me in as another who was pleasantly surprised by this when it hit theaters. I was so against seeing this get made; I wanted nothing to do with it. Zack Snyder? Who? Well, fuck him anyways.

Boy, was I wrong.

Snyder made a film that respects the original source material, but managed to become its own thing. Strong casting, well-written roles, great zombie action... he really knocked it out of the park. I left the theater stunned that it was as good as it was. And the one-sheet is one of my favorite recent posters. I love the color scheme.

Mt gf and I both like it, so we were planning on watching my HD DVD copy of it this week for the challenge.

This came out before I had soured on the whole remake trend due to the sheer number of them, so I was actually pretty excited to see it. I wasn't disappointed, even saw it twice in theaters. It's far from perfect but it is a good action style update of the original. The chaos in the opening comes across especially well.

I hated the ending though.

What did you hate about it? Personally, I loved the bleak note it ended on. Hell, it's even darker than the original.

I find it funny that Ty Burrell is such a jerk in this movie, simply because he's usually cast as the slightly-dorky, loveable "best friend" character.

I think they should have ended it at the gunshot. Not exactly uplifting, but it still leaves you wondering what will happen to the others. The film is full of action, so I thought they could've ended things more effectively on a subtle note. Also, C.J. had the right idea throughout and was treated like shit because of it. Unlike what happens in the original, I didn't think they had enough reason to leave the mall here. C.J. dies in the process, but then were blatantly shown he was right in wanting to stay all along and that annoyed me. I mean, it was fairly obvious that it was a bad idea that wouldn't end well, but I didn't need to have it hammered home. Finally, while I'm a fan of the handheld subgenre of horror, I thought it was an uneeded element here. It just didn't fit IMO.

Totally agree, this is perhaps my favorite remake seen so far, unless you count Ben Hur.