As is the case with any genre or subgenre, the key to allowing it to live on is to examine it from different perspectives and hopefully break some new ground. For the past fifteen years or so, zombies – and, to a lesser extent, vampires that sparkle – have been all the rage. But after digesting them in countless movies, video games and TV shows, even this longtime Resident Evil fan has admittedly experienced fatigue.
Of course, none of this would’ve been possible if George Romero didn’t pave the way back in 1968 with Night of the Living Dead. In the time since, he’d concocted several beloved sequels, each of which infused social commentary with unimaginable horror. That being said, it’s no wonder why the late director is still able to make new fans to this day.
Now, I’m not sure if there’s a record for such a thing off the top of my head, but I can’t think of any other filmmaker who has seen his work lend itself to so many remakes. And while it remains to be seen if Day of the Dead: Bloodline will achieve the heights that Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead did, we’ll be keeping our eye on this one, regardless.
Obviously, this particular remake isn’t looking to do a complete retread, but some respect is being paid to the original. Case in point: Johnathon Schaech’s Max, whom Entertainment Weekly describes as being “a half-human, half-undead ghoul hell-bent on destroying Zoe’s world.” Zoe, of course, being our protagonist.
And while the clip embedded at the top displays a zombie more intelligent than we’re used to seeing, it’s quite obvious that Max is a nod to Bub, the infamous undead that had some measure of intellect. But, oddly enough, it remains to be seen whether the new crew will recreate those educational scenes from the original because, lest we forget, Paul W.S. Anderson, Mr. Originality himself, ripped off that material in Resident Evil: Extinction. If so, we could see some younger moviegoers calling this the ripoff.
Day of the Dead: Bloodline arrives in theaters, and on VOD and Digital HD on January 5, 2018.
