DAY OF THE DEAD: BLOODLINE (2018)

Studio:       Lionsgate
Director:    Hector Hernandez Vicens
Writer:       Mark Tonderai, Lars Jacobson
Producer:  Yariv Lerner, Boaz Davidson, Les Weldon, Jeff Rice, Lati Grobman, Christa Campbell, James Dudelson
Stars:     Johnathon Schaech, Sophie Skelton, Marcus Vanco, Jeff Gum, Lilian Blankenship, Mark Rhino Smith, Rachel O’Meara

Review Score:

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Summary:

A medical student confined to a military bunker discovers that a past connection to a ravenous zombie may lead to the cure for an undead epidemic.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Struggling medical student Zoe flees amidst the chaos as a sudden zombie outbreak begins spreading worldwide.

Four Hours Earlier – Whittendale University Medical Center – Dr. Beeman convinces Zoe to draw a weekly blood sample from Zoe’s regular patient Max, even though Zoe is routinely unsettled by Max’s obsessive behavior towards her. Max is forced to leave after revealing that he carved Zoe’s name into his arm.

Before joining her fellow students at a party upstairs, Zoe goes to the morgue. Max traps Zoe and prepares to sexually assault her. A cadaver suddenly reanimates and viciously attacks Max.

Zoe rushes to warn everyone at the party. However, people including Dr. Beeman begin transforming into zombies and attacking others as the undead infection quickly spreads. Zoe sees several of her friends die horribly before escaping.

Five Years Later – Zoe continues researching the infection at High Rock Bunker, a combination refugee camp and recon military station dedicated to gathering “rotter” data for the CDC, even though no one has heard from HQ in over a year. Lt. Miguel Salazar sternly oversees a crew that includes researcher Elyse, soldiers Alphonse, Lucy, and Frank, and Miguel’s brother Baca, who is romantically involved with Zoe.

Zoe discovers that young civilian Lily is suffering from a fever that threatens to infect others in the bunker. Zoe pleads with Miguel to send her on a medical supply run to Whittendale so she can treat Lily and protect everyone else. Miguel reluctantly agrees by assigning Baca to lead the strike team.

Before leaving, Baca attempts to get physically intimate with Zoe. Zoe pushes Baca away when she experiences a flashback of Max assaulting her.

The strike team becomes momentarily stranded on the run when one of their Humvees breaks down. The team eventually makes it to Whittendale to retrieve the supplies, but a zombie kills Frank during the operation.

Meanwhile, Zoe stops by her former research room to retrieve family photos. Although she does not recognize him at first, Zoe encounters Max as a sentient rotter. Max chases Zoe before secretly stowing away on the underside of one of the Humvees.

The team returns to the bunker, unknowingly bringing Max past the perimeter gates. Max kills a soldier and infiltrates the facility.

Miguel angrily reprimands Zoe, who also takes heat from Frank’s widow Elle. Perched in an overhead ventilation shaft, Max jealously spies Zoe with Baca. Max then kills maintenance man Steve when he comes to investigate a noise in the vent.

When Steve doesn’t show up for his mess hall shift, Miguel tasks Steve’s girlfriend Wendy, who is also Lily’s mother, with finding him. Wendy discovers Steve’s body before Max attacks and turns her into a rotter.

Max chases Zoe. Zoe activates a red alert. Zoe is astonished when she realizes Max recognizes her. Zoe advises the soldiers to capture Max instead of killing him, which Miguel refuses. Zoe proves to Miguel that Max will not bite her. Zoe contends that Max’s blood may be the key to creating a vaccine since Max did not fully transform into a mindless rotter. Miguel reluctantly allows Max to be taken captive for Zoe’s research.

To complete her research, Zoe convinces Baca that she needs live virus samples from rotters around the perimeter fence to compare against Max. Baca assembles a team to retrieve two rotters, but the horde pushes past the fence and overwhelms the soldiers.

Miguel confronts captive Max. Miguel sees Zoe’s name carved into Max’s arm and concludes Max must have been Zoe’s boyfriend.

Elyse returns from the rotter retrieval operation with a bite wound. Although Zoe pleads for time to develop a vaccine, Miguel shoots Elyse in the head before threatening Zoe at gunpoint. Miguel gives Zoe 12 hours until he will execute Max.

Baca confronts his brother over Miguel’s treatment of Zoe. Miguel tells Baca about the name carved on Max’s arm.

Baca confronts Zoe for the truth about Max. Zoe reveals that Max tried to rape her, and she sees him as a reminder of the worst day of her life. Zoe implores Baca to trust her or else she will go it alone.

Max attacks Lucy when she comes too close to him in the lab. While Alphonse pulls Lucy away, Max steals his shackle keys from Alphonse’s belt.

Max frees himself and escapes the lab, prompting another red alert throughout the bunker. While everyone else moves to evacuate, Zoe goes deeper into the bunker to search for Lily.

Lily flees from her mother Wendy, who is now a rotter. Max kills Wendy and takes Lily captive.

Zoe confronts Max as he holds Lily hostage. Max releases Lily in order to grab Zoe. Max opens the main gate doors, allowing rotters to overrun the bunker.

Soldiers arrive at the gate and begin shooting at the encroaching horde. Max flees outside in the ensuing commotion. Lily also escapes outside with Zoe following after her.

Alphonse is forced to execute Lucy after she is bitten. Baca is also bitten. Before he can shoot his brother, rotters tear apart Miguel.

Zoe rescues Lily. Max confronts Zoe in the greenhouse. Zoe decapitates Max.

As the chaos subsides, Baca prepares to shoot himself when Zoe interrupts. Zoe convinces Baca that she can stop the virus.

Zoe successfully develops the vaccine and cures Baca as her first human test subject. As normal life resumes at the bunker, Zoe makes a radio broadcast announcing that she can inoculate other survivors against the undead virus.

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Review:

Two kinds of “Day of the Dead” fans exist in this world: those who’ve never seen the 2008 remake starring Mena Suvari, and those who did, but have understandably forgotten it since.

As unmemorable as that movie may be, its negligibility barely compares to that of 2005’s “Day of the Dead 2: Contagium.”  A rightfully ignored sequel of sorts to George A. Romero’s 1985 classic, “Contagium” came from the people also responsible for the awful anthology “Creepshow 3” (review here).  Why flush one franchise opportunity down the toilet when you can ruin two titles in the same licensing deal, right?

If that’s their operating philosophy, it makes sense that these same producers of the 2005 and 2008 “Day of the Dead” films would dig up the corpse they killed only to bury it again.  So it comes to pass that Taurus Entertainment, whose work is so sloppy that end credits misspell their name, takes an equally odious third stab at failure.  Overly eager to elbow Steve Miner’s remake as well as “Contagium” out of its way, “Day of the Dead: Bloodline” mounts a persuasive ‘For Your Consideration’ campaign in the category of “Worst Movie to Bear the ‘Day of the Dead’ Name.”

Romero’s 1985 original opened with a sweeping helicopter sequence.  Panoramic vistas depicted zombie hordes shambling in wide-open spaces.  Imagery illustrated the depth of devastation, establishing where the world was in its outbreak timeline before title credits concluded.

“Day of the Dead: Bloodline” opens with a montage where one zombie gnaws on a lone man.  A close-up then cuts to a newscaster watching two panicking people run across what is clearly a film studio backlot.  We’re not even introduced to the military bunker where much of the movie unfolds and the initial sense of claustrophobia comes from how a tight budgetary belt cheaply confines scope.

A flashback to four hours earlier shows struggling med student Zoe.  In the midst of conducting research, Zoe pauses to smile at family photos taped above her microscope.  With fantastically organic pinches of character development like this, how can anyone not be instantly bonded to her emotionally?

Zoe would rather cut all contact with her regular patient Max.  Sporting a Poindexter hair part and cold-eyed whisper, it’s no wonder Max’s unsettling vibe makes Zoe uneasy.  But, as Zoe’s superior reiterates, Max’s antibodies are 100x the normal level, and they need to study his samples.  (See where this is headed?  The movie telegraphs so many plot points, Alexander Graham Bell should be credited as a co-writer.)

Zoe’s stalker suspicions are confirmed when Max tries to rape her.  If not for a serendipitously sudden zombie outbreak, Max might have gotten away with it too.  Max ends up mauled, Zoe eventually escapes, and the rest of the population is quickly consumed by the undead.

Five years later, the world remains overrun by “rotters,” because zombies aren’t a reference point in this fiction, requiring the script to pointlessly concoct another unique name.  Zoe continues researching the virus at a bunker that is part refugee camp and part military station.  Lt. Miguel fills in for the first film’s Col. Rhodes while Baca plays the part of Zoe’s love interest.  Despite never doing anything dramatically engaging with their relationship, “Bloodline” never lets anyone forget Baca’s sibling status by referring to him as Miguel’s brother no less than three times.

Also five years later, Max hasn’t moved from the spot where Zoe left him.  Forced to return to her former medical center for supplies, Zoe faces her old foe in undead form.  Not only do Max’s aforementioned antibodies afford him enough sentience to resume his psychotic pursuit of Zoe, he also retains the wherewithal to stow away on the underside of a Humvee and hitch a ride back to the bunker.

With those pieces on the board, the remaining plays make their own moves.  Max stirs havoc in the facility.  However, his blood holds the key to creating a vaccine.  Contentious confrontations pit everyone against each other for assorted reasons.  Finally, the pot comes to a boil in an underwhelming climax where every thread unspools exactly like any dimwitted dunce could predict.

“Day of the Dead: Bloodline” laughably touts itself as “a bold new reimagining of the George A. Romero classic.”  The only thing bold about it is the collective chutzpah of ten executive producers, seven producers, and one co-producer thinking they could pawn this off and not be called out for peddling plop.

Nothing about the film feels natural.  Fabricated sets read as fake as the forced personalities.  Dubbed dialogue and stilted speaking styles accentuate amateurish acting.  Characters such as Zoe and Baca exhibit all the chemistry of oil and water.  It’s sad to see director Hector Hernandez Vicens, who took creative risks on his previous project “The Corpse of Anna Fritz” (review here), cull such flat passion from his cast as everything plays straight down an uninspired line.

Strip out the dubious “Day of the Dead” association and all that remains is an indistinct zombie flick that looks like a made-for-cable quickie.  We need another one of those like we need this team to try reinventing “Day of the Dead” a fourth time.

Review Score:  30

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