Day of the Dead: Bloodline Review
By: Nik S
Director: Hèctor Hernández Vicens
Producer(s): Christa Campbell, Robert Franklin Dudelson
Starring: Johnathon Schaech, Sophie Skelton, Marcus Vanco, Jeff Gum
Production Company: Millennium Films, Saban Capital Group, Campbell Grobman Films
Distributor: Lionsgate Films
Runtime: 90 minutes
Back during the summer of 2013 it was announced that a remake of George A. Romero's Day of the Dead was getting yet another remake (the first being back in 2008). The producers from the Texas Chainsaw 3D obtained the rights and stated that they wanted to make something as close as possible to the original. It was a long process to find writers and a director to helm the new adaptation, about three years, and filming began in June of 2016. They picked Hèctor Hernández Vicens to direct with Mark Tonderai and Lars Jacobson to pen the script. The film was supposed to release in 2017, yet was delayed until January 5, 2018.
Bloodline starts off by having its opening scene that attempts to show the audience that the end of the world is just getting started. A young woman, who we learn shortly is Zoe (Skelton), is hobbling down the street watching people get torn apart by zombies, or 'Rotters' as they call them. The film then cuts to four hours earlier to where it shows Zoe as a student at a local medical college. She has to take a blood sample from a man named Max (Schaech), an obsessed patient who carves her name into his arm. A while later Zoe goes to a party at the college and encounters Max in a morgue who attempts to rape her. One of the bodies comes back to life and attacks Max, starting a zombie outbreak all over campus. Cut forward five years and Zoe is a doctor at a refugee camp, doing scouting missions to find medicine for a sick child. The scouting mission is a complete bust as zombies attack the convoy, one happening to be Zoe's old stalker. Max follows Zoe back to her camp, killing off members to get back to her, but she believes that she can turn him into a cure.
The movie tries to be a love letter to Romero's movies, but there's barely any ties between the 1985 version and Bloodline. The zombies aren't the classic slow stumbling kind, but rather a 28 Days Later variety as they bolt across the screen. Instead of dealing with a multitude of zombies the film focuses primarily on Max with just a few background zombies to kill off secondary characters. Rather than focus on the scares, Bloodline focuses more on an unoriginal story. It tries to be a gore factory (like zombies vomiting out blood) and loses site of the original message about government control. There are no scares, nor does it build up any tension or drama even though there were opportunities for it. There are plenty of times where you're just flabbergasted by the lack of all common sense by the majority of characters. For example, they need blood from a 'living' zombie even though a few minutes ago it was established their hearts don't work anymore, and let the zombies through the main gate one by one (rather than just trapping them) which causes someone to get bit.
The only good actor is Schaech, which isn't saying much since most of his lines are grunts and roars heavily edited in post to sound more evil. Max would have been the type of character Romero would have utilized to the absolute fullest, but Vicens uses the him more as a plot device. The rest of the cast seem like they aren't even trying. Each line seems to be taken on the first cut as if they read the script right before the shoot. It might be forgivable if the lead character was more enjoyable, but she's dull in every aspect of the word. Zoe, both in performance and in script, is lacking any personality and her only drive is to find a cure. Towards the end, Skelton has to do some voice over acting and it seems like she's just reading off of a script. If the rest of the cast were able to bring anything to life into this film (pun intended) the climax might have had some emotional weight to it rather than an empty void of thrills or chills.
There are some decently shot action scenes that have some nice choreography to them, and the makeup on the main zombie is actually pretty good. There is just so much wrong with this movie that it's really hard to recommend it or pick out what they did well with this movie. The original theme was thrown right out the window to focus on a bland story that really goes nowhere. If you're a fan of the original (which isn't Romero's best work, but isn't exactly bad) then I would give this one a hard pass.
Director: Hèctor Hernández Vicens
Producer(s): Christa Campbell, Robert Franklin Dudelson
Starring: Johnathon Schaech, Sophie Skelton, Marcus Vanco, Jeff Gum
Production Company: Millennium Films, Saban Capital Group, Campbell Grobman Films
Distributor: Lionsgate Films
Runtime: 90 minutes
Bloodline starts off by having its opening scene that attempts to show the audience that the end of the world is just getting started. A young woman, who we learn shortly is Zoe (Skelton), is hobbling down the street watching people get torn apart by zombies, or 'Rotters' as they call them. The film then cuts to four hours earlier to where it shows Zoe as a student at a local medical college. She has to take a blood sample from a man named Max (Schaech), an obsessed patient who carves her name into his arm. A while later Zoe goes to a party at the college and encounters Max in a morgue who attempts to rape her. One of the bodies comes back to life and attacks Max, starting a zombie outbreak all over campus. Cut forward five years and Zoe is a doctor at a refugee camp, doing scouting missions to find medicine for a sick child. The scouting mission is a complete bust as zombies attack the convoy, one happening to be Zoe's old stalker. Max follows Zoe back to her camp, killing off members to get back to her, but she believes that she can turn him into a cure.
The movie tries to be a love letter to Romero's movies, but there's barely any ties between the 1985 version and Bloodline. The zombies aren't the classic slow stumbling kind, but rather a 28 Days Later variety as they bolt across the screen. Instead of dealing with a multitude of zombies the film focuses primarily on Max with just a few background zombies to kill off secondary characters. Rather than focus on the scares, Bloodline focuses more on an unoriginal story. It tries to be a gore factory (like zombies vomiting out blood) and loses site of the original message about government control. There are no scares, nor does it build up any tension or drama even though there were opportunities for it. There are plenty of times where you're just flabbergasted by the lack of all common sense by the majority of characters. For example, they need blood from a 'living' zombie even though a few minutes ago it was established their hearts don't work anymore, and let the zombies through the main gate one by one (rather than just trapping them) which causes someone to get bit.
The only good actor is Schaech, which isn't saying much since most of his lines are grunts and roars heavily edited in post to sound more evil. Max would have been the type of character Romero would have utilized to the absolute fullest, but Vicens uses the him more as a plot device. The rest of the cast seem like they aren't even trying. Each line seems to be taken on the first cut as if they read the script right before the shoot. It might be forgivable if the lead character was more enjoyable, but she's dull in every aspect of the word. Zoe, both in performance and in script, is lacking any personality and her only drive is to find a cure. Towards the end, Skelton has to do some voice over acting and it seems like she's just reading off of a script. If the rest of the cast were able to bring anything to life into this film (pun intended) the climax might have had some emotional weight to it rather than an empty void of thrills or chills.
There are some decently shot action scenes that have some nice choreography to them, and the makeup on the main zombie is actually pretty good. There is just so much wrong with this movie that it's really hard to recommend it or pick out what they did well with this movie. The original theme was thrown right out the window to focus on a bland story that really goes nowhere. If you're a fan of the original (which isn't Romero's best work, but isn't exactly bad) then I would give this one a hard pass.
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