Day of the Dead (2008)
Starring: Mena Suvari, Nick Cannon, Michael Welch, AnnaLynne McCord, Stark Sands
Directed By: Steve Miner
Written By: George A. Romero (original script), Jeffrey Reddick
Grade: C-
The film describes itself as a re-imagining of George Romero’s Day of the Dead. The remake, as in most cases, really wasn’t needed. Normally I would appreciate a remake that doesn’t follow the original shot to shot as some differentiation hints at something new brought to the table. Steve Miner’s Day of the Dead really isn’t a remake. It seems like he would have been better off not trying to pawn this off as one and avoid having to obtain the rights for the film. I am assuming that he just wanted to capitalize on the brand name to attract an audience. There are only a few very small and insignificant similarities to the original film. Especially with certain commonalities in zombie films that seem to be universal this is surprising. Day of the Dead seemed to have less in common than you could attribute most non-remakes to, which doesn’t seem to fit.
A small Colorado town is occupied by the army for precautionary measures. It is assumed that this is just a test, but when nearly the whole town seems to be sick it is evident that something is wrong. The entire hospital is filled up. As Sarah (Suvari), her brother, Trevor (Welch), and his girlfriend, Nina (McCord) wait in the hospital, the conditions of the sick quickly change. Their faces drop and look completely blank as their flesh begins to deteriorate and their zombie impulses take over, attacking everyone in sight. Sarah, Trevor, Nina, and a few of the other army operatives including newcomer, Bud Crain (Sands), and the aggressive and self-righteous, Salazar (Cannon), manage to escape. However, they still aren’t safe as countless crowds of zombies that are awaiting for them outside. They attempt to trap and kill as many zombies as possible. Along the way their numbers begin to decrease as they start turning to zombies. As they attempt to stay alive they come closer to where the outbreak originated.
Nick Cannon certainly gave the worst performance of the film and is unintentionally laughable through this. A lot of the dialogue that he is given is very stereotypical and over the top. His character was only given ghetto slang, trying to make him seem like a badass. Being in the military it seems like he would have at least some discipline and would be slightly less conceited and less likely to undermine others. Mena Suvari wasn’t necessarily great, but she was much better than the majority of the cast and was believable as the small town soldier trying to protect her family and her town. I enjoy Stark Sands a lot as the newcomer to the military and was still awkward but much more likeable than most of the characters we were shown. His zombie transition showed a wildness while still seeming confused and degraded, showing the person he was before he was bitten. Michael Welch as Sarah’s brother did pretty decently as well. He was fighting and trying to take charge of the situation. AnnaLynne McCord was alright, but she didn’t have any conviction in the lines she was producing, which made her performance seem overacted and overdramatic, not making it very realistic.
Throughout the whole film, I only found two very distant connections to the original film. The first similarity is when Sarah stops Salazar from shooting Bud once he is bitten by one of the zombies. They put bleach on it and Sarah says that if he isn’t okay than she will be the one to shoot him herself. In the original film, Sarah believes she has caught the disease before it affects one of her fellow researchers and stands in front of another military man attempting to shoot him, claiming that she will be the one to shoot him if he becomes a zombie. This is really just one situation, covering a mere few minutes. The second similarity is that the zombies retain some of their old instincts that they had when they were human. This is more relevant than the first common situation that I mentioned. In the original, it is through training, manipulation, reward, and research that this revelation is realized. How obsessed the doctor becomes with this progress and his urge to return these zombies to a more civilized form was far more interesting. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a character or instance such as this in the 2008 version. There is an observation that Bud is safer than most zombies and doesn’t seem to be tempted in to devouring his friends. As a human he was a vegetarian so any meat, but especially human meat, just isn’t appetizing to him. While he is still belittled and antagonized by him, he keeps a bit more dignity in tact than he would have otherwise. However, simply him being a vegetarian doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t have that dying hunger inside of him at all. Even having him savagely ripping apart and consuming plants would give us a better image than the lack of the hunger we were shown. He was primitive, but aside from that didn’t show true zombie qualities. However, with so many things already been done in zombie films, it can be hard to find something new. Although it wasn’t taken very far and could have done a lot more good for the film the presence of this vegetarian zombie is probably the only risk the entire film takes. I appreciated that they tried to do something different through this to imply that zombies don’t have to be monstrous and even though there wasn’t a ton done with this sometimes you have to just take what you can get.
Bud’s crush on Sarah was present in his zombie form as well. I thought this added a great touch in his zombie character and could have taken a sick and very interesting turn by pairing them off together. Especially with his lack of concern for human flesh, she would most likely remain to be human, but the image and state of mind of them being together could have given a lot of possibilities to the film. Especially if another zombie attacked her, this could show a battle between what he loves/what he used to be and the betrayal of the more vicious side of the creature of his own kind. Even if it didn’t go this far, but took Fido’s route in giving us an awkward but strangely charming connection between this vastly different beings it would have benefited vastly. Instead, this story line never gets that far and is resorted to the punch line to Salazar’s jokes and Sarah refuses to even acknowledge this.
The miniscule connections that this film makes to the occurrences in the original are completely out of context and most likely just stuck in there to try to get off as a remake. Without this, zombies would be the only thing the same in the two films. While Day of the Dead is not the best film, it is much worse as a remake than it is if you judge it by itself. It does get a bit dull and drags at times. There isn’t anything that really separates it from any other zombie film either. Although, there aren’t hugely notable deaths the gore and action is definitely there. We get flesh bitten in to, blood squirting out, and decapitated heads rolling about. As a direct to DVD zombie film it really wasn’t so bad. The zombie’s image and behavior are really the high points. Again nothing we haven’t seen before, but a good foundation that kept some of the weaker points such as some of the dialogue, Cannon’s acting in particular, and a very typical zombie atmosphere from affecting the film as much as they could have. The film has a mostly serious tone, which lets us know that the filmmaker’s weren’t really in on the joke and laughs that the film produces. Now, I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to see this film, but it is not a horrible movie. The direct to DVD status should imply that it is mediocre, but still satisfies some of the expectations that zombie films must have. Day of the Dead is not a remake, but a slightly average zombie flick that suffers in some areas but can be mildly enjoyable if you realize what you are dealing with.
