Macabre...ish Horror Review: Day of the Dead

Day of the Dead, 2008/ 1 hr 27 min.

A mysterious virus strikes a small Colorado town and the military is called in, led by Capt. Rhodes (Ving Rhames) to quarantine it. A member of the detail, Cpl Sarah Cross/Bowman (Mena Suvari) happens to be from that town and checks on her sick mother and rebellious brother. Also with her squad is gregarious, part time bully, Salazar (Nick Cannon). Starry eyed vegetarian, Bud Crain (Stark Sands), which is actually an important detail in the movie.

Symptoms of the virus are allergy to flu  like symptoms, nose bleed, then a frozen, catatonic state that leads to sudden monstrous transformation into a zombie.

The situation is rapidly out of control because these are fast, strong and smart zombies with extraordinary abilities like, the ability to crawl across the ceiling. The biggest infestation is the hospital because most of the sick are there and they all turn at once and it’s a blood bath. And when the zombies are burned, they incinerate, very vampire-like.

The truth of the infection is discovered in a lab located in a bunker, complete with the first victims, the scientists who created it. And they are the smartest zombies yet, they plot and think, retaining some of what they once were, which make them much harder to kill. And about this infection was created to paralyze the neural transmitters for 6 to 7 hours, this was made for times of war.

I really enjoy the physical effects in this movie and this version of fast zombies. The zombie kills are good and often hilarious. It’s gruesome and gory. It is some times over the top with the giant zombie leaps, scurrying up walls and across ceilings.

This is one of 3 zombie movies Ving Rhames is in but is the only one where he’s attacked by zombies.