DVD Review: Day of the Dead

DVD Reviews

By Jeff Swindoll Apr 8, 2008, 19:50 GMT

Sometimes the dead should stay dead. George Romero would roll in his grave if he were in it at this shoddy attempt to cash in on his zombie franchise. This film really doesn’t have much in common with the original except some minor plot points.

The government has cut off a small Colorado town and the locals are getting a bit short with the officials. No one seems to know why the Feds have done this. Corporal Sarah Cross (Mena Survari) is part of the contingent keeping the road blocked but it turns out that his small town is also her hometown. She’s given orders to accompany Captain Rhodes (Ving Rhames), Pvt. Bud Crain (Stark Sands), and Pvt. Salazar (Nick Cannon) to the hospital to try and find some missing doctors. About the time the soldiers get to the hospital all hell breaks loose, as it’s discovered why the soldiers were keeping anyone from leaving. There’s a rapidly spreading virus that causes the infected to become flesh-eating zombies and soon the whole town is infected and chasing after what’s left of the living. First off this really isn’t a remake of the George Romero classic – at least not in my humble opinion. As you may recall, Day of the Dead is the third in Romero’s zombie franchise and is about a group of scientists and soldiers living in a bunker in a world overrun by the living dead. It was a very bleak affair. This remakes connection to that film is that it has an underground bunker that our characters find in the last fourth of the film and one of the characters starts off human and becomes a zombie but retains some of his humanity. In the original a scientist was experimenting on one of the dead to try and communicate with him. Fans will recall the name of the zombie and note a similar character’s name above to figure out who gets zombified. Actually that might be a third connection in that some of the characters in this new do have the same names as those in the superior version, but that’s definitely where the similarities end. This new film has the zombie contagion spreading via a virus. The infected have flu-like symptoms, a bloody nose, sit staring for a few moments, then they snarl, immediately begin to rot, and their lame ass transformation is complete. Sigh. What’s worse is that the dead become what I call the hyperactive dead in that they climb on ceilings and hop around in super speed. Sigh, again. Honestly, most everything about this sequel smells like rotten zombie flesh. In some ways this one might even be worse then the cheap dreck called Day of the Dead 2: Contagion in that it had potential with the cast and budget to actually be something and only succeeded in failing. This film has nothing to do with the Dawn of the Dead remake and it’s easy to see why a proposed theatrical run for this turkey was cancelled and it was dumped directly to DVD. Day of the Dead is presented in fullscreen. Special features include a commentary with director Steve Miner, writer Jeffrey Reddick, editor Nate Easterling, and cast members Michael Welch, Stark Sands, and Christa Campbell. Next is 14 minutes of “On the Set” footage and a 6-minute alternate ending (which has a character killed in the theatrical ending survive). Next are a collection of trailers (2 minute International Trailer, 2 minute Unrated Trailer, and 2 minute Theatrical Trailer) and 15 minutes of cast interviews. Finally there are previews for other First Look Studios DVDs. Every dog has its day, but this dog should’ve stayed dead. What’s most depressing is that they had some names in the cast, a budget that was more than what Romero had in the original (Romero had 3.5 million, Miner had 18 million), and they still managed to screw the pooch. I suppose that some will find it an entertaining rental, but fans of Romero’s will hate it with a passion. I bet you couldn’t guess which one I was. Day of the Dead is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.