If DCEU veterans Zack Snyder and James Gunn were to team up for a movie announced in 2022, then fans would lose their collective minds. Of course, the pair of superhero stalwarts were at very different points in their careers 18 years ago, but their Dawn of the Dead remake still managed to over-deliver.
At the time, Gunn was best known as the guy who wrote the live-action Scooby-Doo movie, while Snyder was making his feature-length directing debut. As far as kicking off a behind the camera career goes, reinventing one of the most beloved and iconic horror hits in history was an ambitious way to go about it.
Not only did Dawn of the Dead blow away any doubts over its need to exist by earning in excess of $100 million at the box office on a budget of $26 million, but it still remains the best-reviewed entry in Snyder’s entire directorial filmography on Rotten Tomatoes, despite the massive fanbase he’s cultivated in the years since.
Some things never go out of fashion, and blood-soaked horror being available to streaming subscribers at the push of a button is definitely one of them, as evidenced yet again by Dawn of the Dead‘s current performance on the HBO Max charts. Per FlixPatrol, the fast-paced, frantic, and relentless zombie thriller has ascended onto HBO Max’s global most-watched list, with Gunn and Snyder fans alike seeking their fix of the dream team over the weekend.
Little did we know that the pair would go on to become such heavy hitters in Hollywood, but their collaboration hinted that great things were in each of their futures.