After witnessing 2024’s Descendants: The Rise of Red, I moderated my expectations for Zombies: Dawn of the Vampires. The series’ fourth installment arrived in July, six years after the original, beloved Zombies. With its initial target audience nearing adulthood, Dawn of the Vampires shifts its narrative focus to a new generation.
As in the first three movies, Meg Donnelly stars as “alien cheer-thing” Addison with Milo Manheim playing her goofy, zombie boyfriend Zed. Now that Addison’s identity crisis has finally been resolved, the duo tackles a new social issue. After a road trip gone wrong, they work to bridge the fierce divide between their accidental friends, the Vampires and the Daywalkers (half-vampire, half-human hybrids). Disney portrays the Vampires in the standard “spooky” and digestible way one would expect, while the Daywalkers are the cheery opposites.
For those of us who have seen a Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM) before, the storyline is quite predictable. It follows the same narrative as its Zombies predecessors, which are similar to both the High School Musical and Descendants sagas before them. This Romeo-and-Juliet trope has resulted in Disney’s crown DCOM jewels—and best believe that they are milking the storyline all they can.
Recently, Disney Channel’s popularity has been on the decline. This can be partially attributed to short-form media’s spike in popularity, which results in Dawn of the Vampires being more social-media-influenced than its precursors. In the many spontaneous musical moments, the dances clearly mimic TikTok dance moves. This isn’t inherently bad—the routines look both impressive and fun to perform. However, it does reflect a shift in Disney’s influence. Rather than directing children’s attention (as in the 2000s), the media giant is now navigating a tide of trends controlled by social-media powers.
Similar to the choreography, the film’s costumes are crafted in a painfully of-the-times fashion. The Vampires and Daywalkers specifically wear a street style stereotypical of a 2020 e-girl or e-boy. Head vampire Victor (Malachi Barton), for example, is dressed in a black-and-red striped T-shirt with a black chain, his hair dramatized by firetruck-red highlights.
Addison, for her part, looks like Zenon from the 1999 DCOM Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century. Both the movie’s stars dress in dark blue and bright pink, looking futuristic yet simultaneously reminiscent of the ’80s. Both girls, as well, are aliens. While Disney hasn’t confirmed any connection, it wouldn’t be unwarranted to think that Addison’s style is an attempt to bring in the lucrative nostalgia factor, capitalizing on both Disney Channel’s early successes and older generations’ nostalgia.
Despite costumes and choreography, Dawn of the Vampires retains the lovable DCOM charm.
As a high school senior, I cannot say that I have the same undying adoration for this soundtrack as I did for the originals in fourth and sixth grade. However, if I were currently in elementary school, I could easily see myself repeatedly shuffling the songs.
The tracks maintain the catchy rhythm and cheery messages of their musical forefathers. The songs fit into the cookie-cutter arcs not only of other Zombies films but of other musical DCOMs. For example, “Together As One” functions as the teamwork finale similar to Descendants 2’s “You and Me” or High School Musical’s “We’re All In This Together.” The lead Daywalker Nova (Freya Skye)’s personal-journey anthem, “My Own Way,” is close to plagiarism of Gabriella Montez’s beloved emotional release “Gotta Go My Own Way” from High School Musical 2. Still, the songs are entertaining—I enjoyed the poppy introduction “Legends In The Making.” (I do, however, think that we could have done without Zed’s premature gym-bro rapping in “Kerosene.”)
By no means is Dawn of the Vampires one of today’s worst children’s movies. Although basic, it does promote cooperation and acceptance. Still, as the giant Disney is, they have the space to experiment with both new franchises and storylines. By drawing out the same sagas, Disney’s new projects are automatically put in comparison with older films. If their future projects stand alone, they would likely face less scrutiny.
For now, the pattern indicates that the fifth Zombies movie will likely follow a predictable plot. However, I’m holding out hope that the next monster adventure brings more originality to Seabrook.
