Based partly on the 1985 George Romero movie of the same name, 2008’s Day Of The Dead is a zombie outbreak film directed by Steve Miner and written by Jeffrey Reddick. The movie stars Mena Suvari, Michael Welch, AnnaLyse McCord, Ving Rhames Nick Cannon & Christa Campbell. Shot mostly in Bulgaria with some scenes in Los Angeles the film was made on a budget of $18 million.

In a small town in Colorado 2 teenage couples are making out in an abandoned building near the woods. One of the boys Kyle bleeds on his girlfriend while they are kissing which grosses her out. They decide to head back to their homes but the grossed out girl decide to walk back through the woods during which she is attacked by a zombie (not completely shown). After dropping Kyle back at his home the others – Trevor & Nina are making out in the former’s house, while his mother is lying sick with a bad cold in her bedroom. Meanwhile at the outskirts of the town an angry man confronts the military at the roadblock which has cut of the people of the town from going out. The man is upset because he wants to take his sick son to a hospital in a nearby city but Captain Rhodes will not let them through. Corporal Sarah Cross sees that the man’s wife is known to her and convinced the couple to take their son to the hospital in town.

Sarah takes Bud, a soldier in love with her, to her house to check on her brother Trevor & their mom and catches her brother & Nina making out. On seeing her mom really ill Sarah takes Bud with her to check on Kyle who has the same symptoms as her mom. When they arrive at Kyle’s house, they find the mauled bodies of his parents stashed behind a curtain, with Kyle nowhere to be found. They radio Captain Rhodes and take Nina, Trevor, and their mom to the local hospital, where several people have been brought in ill. There Sarah talks to Dr. Logan on Rhodes insistence. Suddenly all the sick in hospital stop moving, becoming catatonic but revert to violent zombies in a few minutes. hey have super-human strength that allows them to run, jump long distances and even crawl on the ceiling. Nina & Trevor escape the attack and make their way to the radio station. Sarah, another soldier Salazar and Bud become trapped in a room after Rhodes is attacked and in turn bites Bud. At the radio station the couple at the roadblock minus their now zombie son are taking refuge with the station’s DJ. Pretty soon the DJ turns and is killed and so does the woman, who kills & eats some of her husband. Trevor & Nina makes it outside and are rescued by Sarah, Salazar & Bud who have stocked up on guns & ammo.

Bud turns but seems to be able to think for himself and not bite his friends. Sarah believes Bud does not attack because he was a vegetarian, but Salazar speculates that Bud is attracted to Sarah. At an underground bunker they are reunited with Dr. Logan and learn about a government project directed by Dr. Engel which accidentally created the virus that turned the townspeople into zombies. The research was funded by the military to actually create a bio-weapon that renders suspects inert for a few hours which will allow easy capture without bloodshed but the virus mutated. The group explores the bunker, but Dr. Engel attacks and kills Logan. Later, Salazar is ambushed and killed by zombies, giving Sarah a chance to escape and reunite with Trevor and Nina. In the room where they are hiding they find several large gas cylinders. Sarah decides to lure the zombies into the storeroom and burn them with the cylinders. They begin modifying the cylinders into a giant flamethrower. Sarah lures the group of zombies to chase her but not before Bud shoots at Engel, causing the zombies to rip him apart first. Sarah then leads the zombies to the room where Trevor and Nina are hiding, and they torch the zombies. The three escape the bunker, and drive off into the night. The movie ends with a surviving zombie jumping in front of the camera in screamer fashion.

Some scares, good makeup – movie sucks though. I’m not sure how much I like super fast, crawling on walls and ceiling zombies. I prefer the slower moving versions we have all come to know & love. The movie was universally panned. I give it a 5.5 outta 10!