It’s the rise of the creeper in Day of the Dead: Bloodline

Ahead of the home video release of Day of the Dead: Bloodline on DVD and blu-ray on Feb. 6, we’ve got the review of the George Romero film remake.

Movie remakes can be a burden or a joy, especially if they cannot live up to the legacy and the hype of the predecessor. Some can, at times, even outshine the original and make its own reputation, like John Carpenter’s The Thing for example. But that aside, I just enjoy seeing another person’s point of view, while praying they don’t screw it up at the same time.

That was not the case when I watched Day of the Dead: Bloodline. Did it start off slow? Yes it did. But once it rose up and gathered its legs (after 9 min. 45 sec. into the movie), it’s a full sprint and I was not disappointed. The opening sequence was especially enjoyable and visceral. Once I saw someone getting snatched off of their bike, through a window by a zombie, I felt a little tingle.

There are similarities to the original but the best thing to do, in my opinion, is to look at it as though you’d never seen the original. That way you don’t have an opinionated eye when something happens that doesn’t line up with the original version.

As far as the characters go, in Bloodline, Zoe a med student played by Sophie Skelton plays a dual role as Sarah and Dr. Frankenstein from the original film. Max, played by Johnathon Schaech is Bub. Baca, Zoe’s love interest, played by Marcus Vanco is Miguel from the original.

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And lastly, the guy we all love to hate, Rhodes is played by Jeff Gum. Except in this film, Rhodes does not exist, so Rhodes is Miguel but isn’t Baca. That’s supposed to be Miguel, Sarah’s love interest from the original, but instead is Zoe’s. Make sense? Anyway, Miguel and Baca are brothers and Miguel is in charge of the facility.

After the outbreak, very few humans have survived and Zoe and other survivors are protected by a small group of soldiers. Zoe’s goal and purpose are to help the sick within the facility and also work on a cure for the “rotter” infection. Limited medical supplies force Zoe and a team of soldiers to venture further out than normal.

As usual, nothing good ever happens when you set out to do good in these films. But surprisingly they pulled it off in stunning fashion without a hitch; which I thought was very odd at first but I ran with it anyway. Nah, I’m just kidding. Things could not have gone worse on this outing, especially when Zoe ran into her old creeper, Max! Oh, I didn’t tell you about Max? Long story short, Max was in love with Zoe, but she wasn’t interested, also he tried to rape her so there’s that.

Max, because of the antibodies within his blood is still a rotter, but now he’s more of a hybrid. He can still think and make sense of things, but still, a rotter is a rotter, is a zombie. For me, this made his character deadlier, even though his motivation was his desire to finish what he started with Zoe. A creeper zombie is something I never expected to happen, but oh my god did they pull this one off, no joke this time.

I don’t know how much of Max’s mannerisms were the actors or CGI generated, but it brought eerie life to a dead character, pun intended. I am excited about what they did with the Max/Bub character, especially the creeper part, not the rape part though. But when he licked the side of Zoe’s face (cringes) I was excited and disgusted at the same time, because this is not normal in the zombie genre and I liked the fresh take.

I won’t give away much more in the film because I hate to ruin other filmgoers’ expectations and experiences. I really hope you guys take a moment to watch this film, as it was a very refreshing addition to the horror and zombie community and I’m looking forward to more films from the director, Hector Hernandez Vicens. In the meantime, let me know what you thought of it after you’ve seen it. Until then, Auf Wiedersehen.

Next: Friday the 13th: The Game is adding Roy Burns!

Day of the Dead: Bloodline arrives on blu-ray and DVD on Feb. 6, 2018.