Wednesday, October 17, 2018
October Horror Challenge 2018 #50: "Day of the Dead: Bloodline"
Um...didn't they already remake "Day of the Dead"? Yes, yes they did, and it was terrible. I usually like remakes, and even I couldn't find much to like in that one. So I guess it's good that they remade it again? Maybe they'll get it right this time. The original "Day of the Dead" used to be my favorite of George Romero's zombie movies. Something about the strong woman in the movie who breaks down under her role as "the strong one" always resonated with me. The movie basically says that when the world is ending, finding a deserted island and settling down and maybe making some babies might just be the best plan. Forget saving the world when there's not much left to save. The other remake basically said "grrr zombies cool heh heh heh." There wasn't much in the way of a message. I'm interested to see which approach this movie will take.
So this movie starts with mass panic and zombies eating everyone, then takes us back a bit so we can see how things began. A medical school soon turns to a house of horrors when the cadavers start coming back to life. One of the medical students soon ends up being this movie's "strong woman," like the character from the original. I was happy to see them use an updated version of that character in this movie.
Overall, I like the characters in this movie better than the ones in the original. I honestly had a hard time liking any of the characters from the original movie except for "strong woman" and Bub, who was one of the zombies. In this movie there are actually several characters that I like (which sucks because I know most if not all of them will die). The gore and zombie effects are great, too. The gore in the original is legendary, but this movie definitely holds its own in that department.
This movie also puts it's own spin on the original movie's plot about what happens when the zombies start to become more sentient. It's incredibly creepy the way they set it up, too. I have some concerns about how deaf and stupid the characters have to be to not notice what's going on for so long, especially the soldiers who are trained in this kind of thing, but the kill scenes are cool enough that I can let that slide.
I also like the way they update the research aspect of the movie. As much as I like Bub from the first movie, it's kinda silly how the doctor is basically keeping him like a pet and no one else knows about it for so long. In this movie, it looks like Zoe, the med student grown up to be head doctor in the bunker, is actually doing quantifiable research and not trying to hide it from anybody. It just seems more believable the way they set things up in this movie.
I know there will be people who hate this movie, and it's definitely not perfect, but neither was the original, and I love it anyway. I kinda came into this movie expecting it to be bad, but it surprised me and I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. There are a lot of great moments that make it well worth checking out.
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