In theaters

DAWN OF THE DEAD, directed by Zack Snyder, written by James Gunn, based on the original screenplay by George Romero, 100 minutes, rated R.

Once again, the dead have risen at the cineplex, but this time out there’s not a whiff of controversy surrounding their arrival.

“Dawn of the Dead,” Zack Snyder’s excellent, often darkly hilarious remake of George Romero’s 1978 classic horror movie of the same name, is exactly the movie it should have been.

It respects the first film, it builds upon what was there, it takes elements of the story and makes them its own. It works so well, that it stands – or, in this case, slithers, bleeds and crawls – as one of the best horror movies to hit theaters in years.

The film, which screenwriter James Gunn based on Romero’s own screenplay, is an art-house shocker that strikes just the right seriocomic tone.

Snyder and Gunn have fun with their homage, but they also take it seriously enough to make sharp observations on our own zombie culture, which is rarely more apparent than when shopping at a mall. Twenty-six years ago, Romero himself took note of the blank-faced, shuffling, herd mentality associated with consumerism at big box stores, and he lampooned them, turning Americans into the walking dead as no one had before.

The remake of “Dawn” follows suit, and the good news is that it isn’t the joke it could have been in less-careful hands. It’s dead-on, well- crafted, brisk and absurdly gory, but cartoonishly so.

In it, nurse Ana (Sarah Polley) wakes one morning to find her husband being mauled by the girl next door, whose bloody mouth and wild eyes suggest something is wrong with the little darling that goes beyond consuming too much sugar. This child is an undead wreck and her bite, which sinks deep into Ana’s husband’s neck, turns him into a savage, blood-craving zombie who lusts for a kill of his own.

Racing from her home in what proves to be a genuinely thrilling escape scene, Ana quickly discovers that overnight, the world went belly up thanks to a virus that gives the dead a new lease on life. All around her, zombies are rushing for their next meal. Stealing into her car, Ana flees from her once serene slice of suburbia, connects with a beefy cop played by Ving Rhames, and then meets up with Michael (Jake Weber), Andre (Mekhi Pfifer) and his pregnant wife, Luda (Inna Korobkina).

Together, this core group joins a handful of others at the Cross Roads Mall in Milwaukee, where the Muzak plays a numbing rendition of “Don’t Worry Be Happy” while the dead hammer on the doors in a scrambling effort to get inside.

As the movie unfolds, so do the entrails, which spill in such great red tonnage, this mall will never see another white sale.

As a few dozen readers have pointed out through e-mail, there’s an unfortunate lack of intestines and brains being eaten here, which was hardly the case in Romero’s gorier version. Still, no one has complained that there’s a shortage of zombies being gunned down. Since only a bullet to the head can kill these beasts, their heads periodically blow apart – and the zombie movie, revitalized after last year’s “28 Days Later,” continues its nasty high.

Grade: A-

On video and DVD

DIRTY PRETTY THINGS, directed by Stephen Frears, written by Steve Knight, 107 minutes, rated R.

At the Baltic, a once upscale, now seedy hotel that’s no stranger to trouble, the night clerk, Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is tipped by a popular prostitute (Sophie Okonedo) that there might be trouble in one of the guest rooms. Upon examination, Okwe, a Nigerian exile and former doctor rumored to have killed his wife, finds an overflowing toilet in which a recently harvested human heart is blocking the plumbing.

The hotel manager and Okwe’s boss, Sneaky (Sergi Lopez), shrugs off the finding with a casual offer of cash, which the morally steadfast Okwe refuses to accept, and then a cool suggestion that Okwe forget what he saw. “Strangers come to hotels to do dirty things,” Sneaky says. “In the morning, it’s our job to make things pretty again.”

But to what end?

That is what Stephen Frears’ “Dirty Pretty Things” explores. Smart and raw, the movie is an edgy, urban thriller that exposes London’s uglier corners in ways that the city might sooner want you to forget.

Okwe, who works days driving cab and suffers from an acute bout of insomnia, finds his life further complicated by Senay (Audrey Tautou of “Amelie”), the beautiful, illegal Turkish woman hounded by immigration officials who reluctantly rents her couch to Okwe, and eventually gives him her own heart. (Figuratively speaking, of course.)

From this, several surprises bloom – some major, most gruesome. Without giving too much away, they involve certain bloody extracurricular activities that take place at the Baltic under Sneaky’s watch, the sort that can either land you in prison for life or buy you freedom with a forged passport.

The movie lags a bit in the middle, but the ending is a lark. The performances and cinematography are strong, and Frears’ examination of immigrant life – the class of people that want to fade from sight for self, yet who help keep cities such as London going – is at once unsettling, moving and complex.

Grade: A-

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, Thursdays at 5:30 p.m. on WLBZ 2 and WCSH 6, and are archived on RottenTomatoes.com. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

The Video-DVD Corner

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

American Splendor ? A-

Anything Else ? B+

Bad Boys II ? C-

BEYOND BORDERS ? D

Bruce Almighty ? B+

Cold Creek Manor ? D

Dirty Pretty Things ? A-

Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat ? D-

Duplex ? B

The Fighting Temptations ? C

Finding Nemo ? B+

Freaky Friday ? A-

Good Boy! ? C+

Gothika ? D

How to Deal ? C-

House of the Dead ? D

Intolerable Cruelty ? B-

Le Divorce ? C-

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ? A-

Lost in Translation ? A

Looney Tunes: Back in Action ? B-

The Magdalene Sisters ? A-

Matchstick Men ? A-

The Matrix Reloaded ? A-

The Missing ? B+

Mona Lisa Smile ? B-

My Boss’s Daughter ? BOMB

Once Upon a Time in Mexico ? B-

Open Range ? B+

Pieces of April ? B

Pirates of the Caribbean ? A-

Radio ? C

The Rundown ? B

Runaway Jury ? B

Schindler’s List-10th Anniversary ? A+