Horror Movie Review: Day of the Dead – Remake (2008)

Attempting to cash in on the success of the Dawn of the Dead remake, this Day of the Dead reimagining offers nothing fresh or interesting in the zombie genre & shares little with the original movie beyond character names & Bud.

In the town of Leadville, Colorado a foursome of teenagers are getting romantic in an abandoned building. Trevor is pretty desperate to get his leg over but his girlfriend, Nina wants to go somewhere more comfortable. The other 2 teens reluctantly agree to leave as Trevor is their ride home. Kyle though ends up sneezing blood all over his girlfriend so she storms off into the woods & is killed by something unseen.

Back at the town a roadblock has been put in place stopping residents leaving. The army are quarantining the place because of some unknown outbreak. This is where we meet Captain Rhodes, Corporal Sarah Cross & Privates Bud Crain & Salazar. Relations are becoming strained between the army & the residents wanting to leave. Sick people are turned back to town & they are looking to Sarah who happens to be from the town.

Taking Bud with her (who has become instantly smitten with her) she goes to visit her sick mother. When she arrives she interrupts her brother, Trevor getting it on with Mina on the couch & the duo argue revealing Sarah took up & just left the family.

Her mother is sick & Sarah sends her to the hospital with Trevor & Mina. She discovers that Trevor’s friend, Kyle has similar symptoms to her mother so goes to check on him taking Bud with her.

There they discovers the bodies of Kyle’s parents & report it to Rhodes before making their way to the hospital. Once there Sarah meets Dr Logan who is very interested in what she has found at Kyle’s house.

Meanwhile in the waiting room the infected residents all go into a catatonic state before transforming into zombies (rotting flesh & all). Chaos ensures as the zombies attack with super-human strength that also allows them to run fast, jump long distances and…wait for this, climb on the walls & the ceilings. *sarcastic round of applause*

What was it? Normal zombies not scary enough…had to go one better than the Dawn of the Dead remake? What an absolute joke. It’s even more infuriating as the zombie make-up is pretty good with some nice variation & gore.

Running zombies might not be a new thing but this remake takes it too far. All semblance of scares goes out the window the first time a zombie crawls across the roof to get its victim. It is horrible looking & makes no sense especially when you hear what the plan for the virus was originally at the end of the movie.

The Captain Rhodes here (played by Ving Rhames) is poorly used & incredibly lacklustre in comparison. Rhames doesn’t seem like he particularly cares about playing this character compared to the role he played in the Dawn of the Dead remake. There is no passion or fire involved & other than a gory death he has a very minor role.

The main cast of Sarah & Bud work well together & are both well-acted. Bud’s character is used as a homage to the original Bud zombie. Here, Bud gets bitten & eventually transformed but is placid & able to control his instincts to a point. Sarah, who is quick to just accept this, believes it’s because he was a vegetarian in life. Salazar thinks it’s because Bud fancies her…both explanations are stupid as hell.

He’s convincing as a zombie but the transformation happen so quickly it stops making sense.

The film ends in a ball of flame & a poor attempt at a jump scare…seriously; a zombie just jumps in front of the screen & screams. It’s like those horrible YouTube videos that get you to concentrate before flashing up a shot from The Exorcist.

A poorly put together zombie flick that calls itself a reimaging of the classic Romero movie but never offers anything new. Decent acting from some & decent gore effects make parts of it enjoyable but the film as a whole is disappointing.