Day of the Dead remake

Call me a snob, but it is very rare for me to sit down and watch a "straight to DVD" movie. I've been burnt too many times in the past. This time around it was the promise of zombies that got me to give the "Day of the Dead" remake a chance. The fact it starred a couple of unrecognizable names (Mena Suvari and Ving Rhames) also gave it some promise.

Oh how I regret putting this film into the DVD player. Whilst referred to as a remake, the 2008 Day of the Dead shares next to nothing in common with the 1985 George Romero original. Where as the original followed the story of a group of survivors hiding away in an underground military installation while learning what they can about the zombie plague, the remake is pure teen horror pulp. Mena Suvari is a military officer called back to her home town to help quarantine the area after an out break of the 'flu'. Turns out, it's not the flu, but something more sinister, that eventually starts turning people into zombies. Ving Rhames plays a higher ranking officer, with his character in no way connected to his character from the Dawn of the Dead remake.

The movie quickly dissolves into an excuse for Mena Survari to run around town, shooting zombies, before finally making her way to an underground military base toward the end of the film, finding the source of the 'virus', killing a few more zombies, and then skipping town with a couple of other survivors.

This movie was rubbish. Looks like it was filmed over three days on a shoe string budget. Yes, Mena Survari is cute, but that can only get a movie so far. The only similarities between the remake and the original are that both films feature zombies, and both films include an underground military base.

I'll give it a whopping 0.5 pickles out of 5. Avoid it like a zombie plague.