IN AN EARLIER POST, I SUMMED UP MY FEELINGS REGARDING THE YET-TO-BE-RELEASED “DAWN OF THE DEAD” REMAKE WITH THE LINE, “ZOMBIES FREAK ME OUT.” Having now seen the movie, I still say zombies freak me out, but a movie where ordinary folks have fun killin’ em is a really good idea.

Director Zack Snyder (I believe he directed “The Grand Illusion”) and screenwriter James Gunn (ghostwriter for “Casablanca”) should have called the movie “Another 28 Days Later,” since the zombies resemble the juiced-up plague victims of that movie moreso than George Romero’s traditionally pokey undead. While Romero fans have criticized this radical change of formula, having zombies who run full-tilt after their human prey is what makes this movie interesting and relevant.

Traditional zombies shuffle about pathetically, slurring under their breath. A mob of them is certainly intimidating, but the fear has more to do with how weird and unworldly a sight they make. On the other hand, the sight of several dozen pissed off-looking zombies sprinting down the street is hardly unfamiliar; they are the angry mobs we see all the time in news footage beamed up from Third World countries. They are the Rwandans, the Haitians, or, more recently, the radical Sunni Muslims, brainwashed by Western-hating clerics, flocking around the burning cars of murdered American security men.

Of course, it would be un-PC to make a movie where Muslims or Africans or North Koreans are portrayed as brain dead cattle crawling over themselves to kill Americans. Maybe even more un-PC to make a movie where thousands of what could be Muslims, Africans, etc., get blasted away in the manner of a video game. “Blackhawk Down” did it first, but took its conflict between American soldiers and Mogadishu gangsters seriously. The loss of any life in “BHD,” even those of the Mogadishans, felt tragic. “Dawn of the Dead,” on the other hand, makes killing those dirty zombies fun. There are lots of shotgun blasts and heads exploding, and lots of zombies getting crushed by cars (Bonus points for three or more in a row.)

Make no mistake: You will not feel relief when our heroes blast an undead; you will cheer. I felt this movie truly nurtured my inner jingoist, the part of me that's tired of seeing those chaotic anti-American mobs on the boob-tube, wishing for a cluster bomb to explode their toothless heads open, and suffering profound disappointment when said bomb failed to fall from the sky. There were actual moments where I found myself saying aloud, "Kill 'em all, Sarah (Polley)!" Kill all the fuckers!"

If only the movie limited itself to “Blackhawk Down 2: Blackeye Dawn.” In the war movie, you didn’t need to try and give characters personality. They were soldiers, trapped in a hellish situation, and character development grew organically out of that. “Dawn of the Dead” brings in so many character “types” that it feels fake. There’s the guy who’s decent for no decent reason; there’s the total jerk; there’s the sensitive guy; the pig. I can think of about four characters who were truly memorable, and the rest were cardboard cut-outs.

On the whole, however, I suppose I enjoyed the movie. The zombie baby was a bit much, but I admire the fact that the father loved it anyway. My only gripe: I left right when the closing credits started, and didn’t find out until later than extra scenes were intercut with the end titles. Apparently, the movie didn’t end where I thought it ended. That explains why it felt like a cop-out, but the question remains: How does the movie end?