All Souls Day: Dia De Los Muertos takes the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration and uses it for the background of yet another zombie film. This idea is a novel setting for a zombie film, but this is still not all that hot a film.
In the remote Mexican village of Santa Bonita in 1892 a tragedy occurred that wiped out nearly the whole town. In 1952 a family on a road trip stops in Santa Bonita and meets a grisly fate. Flash forward another 53 years (that’s what the screen says, why they didn’t just say 2005 or the present day is beyond me) and a young couple (Marisa Ramirez and Travis Wester) are traveling through Mexico so that the boyfriend can meet the girl’s parents. They happen upon Santa Bonita during the Day of the Dead celebration and have the obligatory car wreck (they always happen in these types of movies) and the town, of course, has no mechanic and they’re stranded (again as happens in these types of movies).
Their car wreck interrupts the local celebration and knocks down some revelers with a coffin and out tumbles a girl with her tongue cut out. They contact the local law enforcement, Sheriff Blanco (David Keith) and he takes the girl into hand. They take up residence in the local hotel where the staff, what little there is, behaves rather strangely. They call their goofy friends to come down to Mexico and party. To make a long story short a Mexican girl must be sacrificed on the Day of the Dead to keep the dead in the ground of Santa Bonita. Unfortunately, the young couple interrupts the ceremony and the stumbly dead rise.
I found the acting a mixed bag. David Keith comes off well, Jeffrey Combs performs well but only in a cameo, and Danny Trejo has a scene where he speaks with his son that I thought he acted well. The problem is that is Trejo’s best scene and the rest of his performance is only so-so, the usual gasping villainy fills the rest. The rest of the cast is a mixed bag. The most grating came from Travis Wester and the goofy couple of friends the hero couple calls down to Mexico.
I thought the zombie in the middle's makeup was pretty good
I kept referring to our young hero couple as okay acting girl and bad acting boy. Another problem is the makeup is a mixed bag too. Some of the zombie makeup looks rather good, but others look like zombie masks. This version is unrated and uncut. I think that the movie appeared first on the Sci/Fi Channel. This version definitely features lots more gore and nudity than the Sci/Fi Channel version. The movie also has the “brightness” of a TV movie and has none of the shadows that could’ve hidden a lot of the less effective makeup.
The movie is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.77:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. For a poor zombie movie, Anchor Bay really lays on the special features. There is a 36-minute documentary on the making of the movie, a 16-minute documentary on the makeup, and a 16-minute documentary about the stunts in the movie. There is also a commentary with director Jeremy Kasten and producer Mark Altman. There’s also a nice booklet in the case. The enthusiasm that the cast, director, and crew show for the project almost makes me want to give the movie a better score. Notice that I said almost.
Sheriff Blanco,get it?
During one scene a zombie bites Wester’s character and they’re concerned that he may “turn.” The goofy couple argues amongst themselves and they say that if this were a movie then he would but since this is real life then they don’t know. That may be funniest line in the movie, however, if this movie is real life then feed me to a zombie.
All Souls Day : Dia De Los Muertos is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD’s database for more information.
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