This could very well be the most disliked zombie movie ever. The reason is of course the title, since the movie doesn’t have any connection what so ever to Romero’s masterpiece. There are, however, some references to Romero and his work, but to call the movie a tribute of sorts doesn’t begin to excuse the use of the title “Day of the Dead”. If one can look beyond what most likely is a marketing decision on the filmmaker’s part, the movie isn’t nearly as bad as it’s made out to be. Sure, like most zombie movies it’s amateurish in more ways than one, but should we hold something like that against the many classics of the genre? (Romero himself has been captured on tape saying that the original Night of the Living Dead is amateurish.)

The theme here is death and immortality, and the philosophical contemplation thereof is tenuous at best. The zombie concept in itself is more original than most, and includes three stages or generations of zombies. At least I haven’t seen anything like this before and it allows both a “personal horror” angle in the movie (as the protagonists are transformed into the undead), some sort of a mutant monster concept that kind of works ok, and more regular flesh eating ghouls. Something for everyone’s taste?

The movie starts out, like many other zombie movies, with some rather good zombie mayhem including a military response. Then the story kicks in years later and the attempt on drama it is admittedly both boring and silly, even if the setting of a mental asylum is also somewhat original. After the characters have been introduced properly, things start to evolve slowly. The movie of course ends in total zombie mayhem, gore and violence, which one would think most zombie movie fanatics should be able to enjoy. The ending is also according to all genre conventions. But alas, the fans simply can’t see beyond the blatant misuse of the Romero title, so there you have it.