Day of the Dead: Bloodline

Director - Hector Hernandex Vicens (The Corpse of Anna Fritz, Pol Cia)
Starring - Sophie Skelton (Outlander, So Awkward), Johnathon Schaech (Legends of Tomorrow, The Forsaken), and Jeff Gum (American Family, New Girl)
Release Date - 2018
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "Join the undying war"

Rating (out of 5):

     I've been a George A. Romero fan for as long as I can remember.  I can remember watching Savini's remake of Night of the Living Dead with my grandmother when I was little and I then rented the original shortly after.  The remake is a spectacular and an amazing film in it's own right but the original has damn near perfect tension and atmosphere.  A few years later a friend had Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead on tape.  We watched the Dead Trilogy that weekend and I fell in love with Dawn.  However, when I tossed in Day I remember becoming uneasy and uncomfortable.  I couldn't finish the film.  I was 9 and made up an excuse to watch something else again.  It would be a few years before I got the balls to watch Day of the Dead but when I did I loved it.  In fact, I loved it so much that when I started my horror movie sleeve Bub was the first one I had tattooed.  I was open minded to the idea of Day being remade yet again.  The first sequel and remake to Day was big turds covered in zombie make up.  I was lucky enough to receive a review copy and prayed to Odin that this film would be better.
     The film follows a military compound in the middle of a zombie outbreak.  Most of the world's population has been turned into the undead with a small military outpost and a group of survivors trying to make the best of things when a young child becomes sick.  A female doctor and a few soldiers make a special trip to her old clinic to find the medicine they need but accidentally take back a special zombie who was once a man who tried to rape the doctor.  He is unlike the other rotters and can actually think and reason.  He sneaks into their compound and starts killing people before he is caught.  She uses his blood to find a cure but that turns out to be more dangerous than she expected resulting in him getting loose and the outpost becomes overrun with the undead.
     Day of the Dead: Bloodline tried to keep looks and feel of the original classic alive but took too many liberties with some of the characters which was a huge turn off for fans.  The film could have been another decent Wal-Mart horror flick that rides the line of mediocrity but tried to be a movie it couldn't.  The acting in this one isn't bad but the characters just didn't go the distance like the original cast did.  In the original film you have unforgettable performances from Lori Cardille, Joe Pilato, Terry Alexander, Jarlath Conroy, and Gary Howard Klar with Howard Sherman taking on the role of Bub.  This cast created characters that still entertain to this day regardless of how many times you've seen the film.  Sadly, the cast we get with this film create easily forgettable characters that are carbon copies of almost every zombie apocalypse film you've seen in the last five years.  The story for this one somewhat resembles the original story following a military team and a group of survivors and scientists working together to survive with an asshole soldier in control of it all.  However, in this film the asshole soldier is not intimidating at all and the scientist angle is completely removed.  Instead we have the female doctor researching a cure and found a zombie that is somewhere between living and the undead.  The story would have worked if they would have abandoned the whole Day of the Dead angle and it made it their own.  The film has a solid amount of action but the viewer spends too much time comparing it to the classic instead of watching it as a stand alone film.  Finally, the film has several on screen kills that are bloody and fantastic.  If there is one positive note about this film its that it has some fantastic gore.  The practical effects are on point and the blood is plenty.  Overall, Day of the Dead: Bloodline does not live up to it's name.  The film is a let down but it is bloody.  If you are looking for gore and nothing else then this one is for you.