REVIEW: Day of the Dead: Bloodline

For the backbone franchise of the zombie genre, George Romero's '_____ of the Dead' series wrapped up in 1985 with Day of the Dead as far as I am concerned.  It was the third official movie, although there were a few films that confused audiences into believing they were canon, such as Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2 and Dan O'Bannon's Return of the Living Dead.  Day of the Dead was the weakest of the three films, but was still entertaining enough.  The films that followed in such forms as Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead gave proof that even though Romero essentially created what we know as the zombie genre he was still quite capable of making poor movies.  With a Night of the Living Dead remake in 1990 that was entirely pointless, as well as remakes of Dawn of the Dead (2004) and Day of the Dead (2008) I found that almost all goodwill for this series was gone.  The only good zombie film from this franchise since 1985 was unexpectedly the Dawn of the Dead remake.  It had some standard silly issues at times, but overall it was a surprising amount of fun.

So, a lot has happened in this franchise since its inception.  Do we really need another run at it?  I'm beginning to feel as though this property has the same redundant legs as Texas Chainsaw or Amityville.  Apparently we do, as director Hector Hernandez Vicens takes us once again to the military base setting of Day of the Dead.  We have humanity cornered down to an existence behind chain link fencing while zombies inhabit the land around them.  The base's young doctor, Zoe (Sophie Skelton), is working on a vaccine for the pathogen that has caused people to turn into zombies.  This involves having to take risks that ultimately cause some problems.  We have visited the plot of actions being driven by the need for a vaccine, most recently last year in The Girl with All the Gifts.  Also thrown into the mix is a zombie that retains some personality traits, another avenue that we hav been down before.

One interesting thing in Bloodline is the creepy relationship that Zoe had with the person who turned into the zombie with the human traits.  There was a time during the film where I really felt like this film was going to do some new and interesting things, bumping up a dynamic that we hadn't necessarily seen before.  Disappointment came pretty quickly as it ended up showing me that it would go down fairly standard roads.  And thus, just like so many '____ of the Dead' movies before it, Bloodline just becomes another faceless, and typical zombie movie.

At the beginning, it was a little difficult to figure out the tone of the movie.  There was a scene where someone gets dragged by zombies down the stairs to a subway followed by a Sam Raimi amount of blood spurting up into the air.  I took this over the top display to mean that the film was tongue in cheek, but that's not what happened.  It seemed as though Vicens was taking this film seriously with some over the top aspects.  What could have been a little flair and personality in the film was ultimately neutered by standard roaring sounds and the need for ninety percent of the deaths be from a zombie attacking from behind and biting into where the neck connects with the shoulder.  I swear there was an instance where the victim turned around for no reason, just for this over-used scene to happen.

Something that can cause a little bewilderment while watching and a furrowing of the brow is the dialogue,  which has people who really seem to be having a hard time making it sound like they have a North American accent.  I ended up having to check IMDB, and, sure enough, a lot of people from overseas.  I'm not saying that international actors shouldn't get jobs, just that maybe attention should be paid to hiring people who can deliver a proper accent.  Or, novel idea, don't make them have to use an accent.

There is a lot of mess.  From the over use of the same sort of kill scene to the belief that a lieutenant would be the highest rank at an armed forces base.  Heck, maybe that's not far-fetched, but the last time I checked, lieutenant was far from the highest pay grade.  Small qualm, I know, but it just felt like perhaps this movie never took a second to think about who was in it, why the people were there, and what solid motivators for them would be.  Zoe ends up endangering a number of people because a little girl is sick with pneumonia.  Sure, the girl is innocent and adorable, but Zoe's actions don't make a lot of sense in terms of the survival of humanity.

This movie is just sort of a no-go.  Don't bother.  It is incredibly generic and there really isn't anything that makes it stick out as a unique movie.  George Romero showed that zombie movies could be really awful.  He made a few such films.  He also showed that a good one could focus on just a few people who we could understand and relate to.  Nothing fancy is needed, just a point of connection.  That's something that many movies, including Day of the Dead: Bloodline, neglect.