Day of the Dead: Bloodline is a 2018 action zombie horror film directed by Hector Hernandez Vicens (The Corpse of Anna Fritz), starring Johnathon Schaech (Prom Night), Sophie Skelton (Ren), Marcus Vanco (Unbroken), and Jeff Gum (The Forgiven). It’s a remake of George A. Romero’s 1985 Day of the Dead and follows a small group of military personnel and survivalists dwell in an underground bunker as they seek to find a cure in a world overrun by zombies.

Plot: The story of course is the generic zombie tale, with an interesting twist. There’s this woman who’s caught up in the zombie apocalypse but is pursued by a special zombie who’s intelligent had has a fixation with her. The whole idea behind the zombie obsessing over her is actually pretty interesting and even how the film builds up to it is interesting. However, of course, the film fucks it up and in a major way. It’s predictable down to a T and doesn’t deviate. The story itself doesn’t make sense. The original Day of the Dead did have a subplot where they focused on a man reeducating a zombie to be smart. This take is actually more believable considering the zombie’s higher antibody count. Much of the film’s scenes are pushed through the dumb decisions of our main heroine. There’s some internal conflicts with the group of survivors but none of it goes anywhere. Without those dumb decisions there’s no story. There’s even this romance between Zoe and this other guy and you don’t buy it. It’s just forced into the story. Hell, Zoe has no character development in the slightest. And don’t get me started on the climax and ending. Basically the story is interesting but bland. It’s like eating Jumbalaya. The sausages are spicey but the rice itself is bland. (2 out of 5)

Characters: Completely forgettable. Aside from the annoying main protagonist and the special zombie obsessing over her really the other characters you’re not going to remember. Some feel useless, some die off, some are misused. The film follows medical student Zoe who gets caught up in the zombie apocalypse during a party. Zoe has all the problems of a forced female lead. She has no personality, she’s not likable, she tries too hard to be “strong”, just a mess of a character with no depth. Every second on the screen I prayed that some poor bastard zombie would just bite the shit out of her and end the movie. That being said. Max is a fucking poor excuse of a character as well. Yeah, the idea behind a smart zombie is cool but at the same time he’s just as bad a character. It would’ve made sense if he’d been her husband and got infected so that way her empathy towards him would make sense, their connection would make sense. But he’s this creep from the start who just obsesses over Zoe for no apparent reason. Miguel Salazar is the hero of the film, although he’s presented as an asshole. Nearly every scene he has with Zoe is tension filled due to him utilizing common sense and Zoe just being plan stupid. Everything she does gets people killed and she shows no regret in the slightest. Miguel gets the job done and saves lives. I actually liked the character Baca. (2 out of 5)

Cast: Despite the dumbass, forgettable characters the casting and performances are actually pretty good. The main lead is Sophie Skelton and I can’t hate her performance. She’s decent despite the “strong” female lead character. I was actually more impressed with Johnathon Schaech’s performance as Max. Yes, for the majority of the film he doesn’t talk. But it’s always awesome seeing an actor be intriguing (or atleast entertaining) without dialogue. The cast also includes Marcus Vanco, Jeff Gum, Mark Rhino Smith, Cristina Serafini, Lillian Blankenship, Shari Watson, Atanas Sreberev, Ulyana Chan, Nathan Cooper and Vladimir Mihailov. (3 out of 5)

Visuals: Despite many downfalls of the film, the movie actually looks pretty good with its high production value, good use of practical effects, and atmosphere. The zombie makeup look great (but honestly its pretty hard to fuck up zombie makeup effects nowadays). I can say that I was really impressed with the design of zombie Max. Aside from being a zombie he was pretty creepy. The cinematography is good, which actually surprised me for a film like this. Of course, there’s a shit ton of gore but that comes with zombie films. The action sequences are okay but lack intensity. (3 out of 5)

Score: The score is actually pretty good. Not memorable mind you, but it’s actually pretty good. Frederik Wiedmann’s composition is surprising and although I haven’t heard much of his film work, his animated films and television projects are awesome. The sound design isn’t bad. Max has thing where he growls and roars but doesn’t really talk. I don’t understand the whole thing with him growling and roaring like he’s the Wolfman. (3 out of 5)

Writing: The film’s director is Hèctor Hernández Vicens and he’s left me quite unimpressed. It’s obvious that he was trying to be faithful to George Romero’s original film which he succeeds, but that’s not saying much because the original film was bad. There’s a lot about the writing that makes the film suffer, but it’s expected of a shitty script. With all the zombie films and television shows it’s getting hard to come up with nicknames for zombies but I liked Rotter. Here’s some of the highlights that fuck this film. Despite the fact that the majority of the film is set in this military installation, when everything jumps off there’s no military presence around. For as big as the camp of survivors are there’s literally no reason for any area to be without two or three characters. Max has an unusually high antibody count. Why isn’t he at the CDC home office being tested? Why’s he being treated by a medical student? That’s just dumb. There’s tons of troupes that ruin the experience. The soldiers are incompetent often getting themselves killed due to stupidity or being useless in combat. When zombies attack, they just pop up everywhere for no reason. Also, they lack consistency often doing things that don’t run with their design. The dialogue is fucking terrible. I can say that the film does pay homage to the original. (2 out of 5)

The Verdict: In the end, Day of the Dead: Bloodline is without a doubt one of the worst films of 2018. It’s an interesting premise but the amateurish approach to the writing and direction is just laughable. Yes, the visual effects, performances, and the music are good. But it’s the bad writing, the bad dialogue, the forgetable characters, and the predictable story that just makes this movie a possible watch and not a definite one. Is it better than the original? Yes, but not by much. Day of the Dead: Bloodline gets 3 out of 5.