The tagline on the poster for the film: "Love Means Never Having to Say You're Zombie", makes just about as much sense as this film does.
“Fear goes viral in this terrifying retelling of George A. Romero’s zombie horror classic. Five years after an epidemic nearly wiped out the world’s population, Dr. Zoe Parker lives in an underground bunker among a small group of military personnel and survivalists, working on a cure while fighting armies of the undead. When a dangerous patient from Zoe’s past infiltrates the bunker, he just might hold the key to saving humanity…or ending it.”
George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and subsequent sequels introduced the world to the undead zombie we now know today. What Romero sought to achieve was to use this as an allegory and social commentary on society. This commentary evolved throughout his films, shifting the view that Man is the true monster. This view was more prominent in his original Day of the Dead, and a film that touts itself as a reimaging of this has some awfully big shoes to fill.
What Day of the Dead: Bloodline gets right is the fact that there are zombies and soldiers. That’s about it. Every other nuance of the story, the theme, what ties it to George Romero are all thrown away in favor of generic acting, a dull plot, with the most forgettable characters in history. This almost seems like a college film, with classmates as actors, with the unbelievable audacity to use George Romero’s name to sell copies.
Instead of using George Romero’s theme, and the trend on making the undead remember their past lives, this film takes a creepy rapist, and turns him into the one who can remember his life, making his sole goal in the film to finish raping the main character. Instead of an almost portrayal of innocence that Romero injects into his version, there is nothing here that makes the story interesting and ensures a single dimension that it never deviates from.
The one thing that the film does well is gore. There are some very impressive scenes of zombies eating flesh, ripping off body parts, eating intestines, all the good ole’ fashioned things you’d want to see in a zombie film. That being said, a certain stylistic choice they chose to incorporate left me scratching my head in disbelief, as a single puncture to human skin causes an explosive geyser of blood totaling way more than could possibly be in a human body. It makes no sense, and is just silly to witness, taking you out of whatever investment you could possibly have in the film.
As a stand-alone zombie film I may have given it the benefit of the doubt in some areas. It does gore well, has impressive if not sometimes silly effects, with brutal and unrelenting undead. However, the fact that they use George Romero’s name will do nothing but anger his fans, as this is a very poor attempt and adding anything to his legacy.
Video
Day of the Dead: Bloodline is presented in 1080p High Definition Widescreen 2.39:1. The transfer looks very clear, with good use of shadows and darkness to set the tone of the film. It mostly takes place at night, but is surprisingly visible and clear, thanks to some very obvious off screen lighting that makes no sense in terms of film logic.
Audio
The audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. The track sounds very good, with a great use of surrounds as the undead tears through people, and bullets fly throughout. No defects were noticed in the track.
Special Features
Just one extra on the disc:
- Day of the Dead: Bloodline – Reviving Horror
Day of the Dead: Bloodline will definitely have George Romero spinning in his grave, busting out, and coming back to life for revenge. For fans of the original or George, stay as far away as you can. The newer generation who might not be familiar with the original may find some satisfaction in the zombie gore fest, but although they may be dated, stick to the originals.
