Day of the Dead - The Need to Feed (DVD, 2008, Lenticular Keyart)

After the surprising quality of the 2004 Dawn Of The Dead remake, it was just inevitable that some other filmmaker would come to put their own vision on another of George Romero's zombieworks. This time his third chapter would get the treatment in 2008's Day Of The Dead. But unlike '04's Dawn sticking close to the original vision, Day takes the phrase "reimagining" to a whole new level.

Honestly, aside from a few of the original surnames used, this movie is nothing like the original 1985 Day Of The Dead, From it's location, to it's plot, to the Zombies themselves, this film could have been called anything. But just for a second let's look past the title, and see if there's a good movie in there somewhere, shall we?

DOTD08 takes a new and fresh look at the world of Zombies, but in a more quickened pace. Apparently in this day and age, we don't have time to wait for zombies to dig out of their graves. Hell, we don't even have time for people to die! That's because in DOTD08, the zombies aren't dead. Huh? Nope, it's another one of those "Contagium In The Air Virus" stories we've seen before. Where? Maybe Nightmare City? Demons 1 and 2? 28 Days/Weeks Later? YES, that last one! In fact, this film's premise will remind you of those last films. No longer do we have to wait to get bitten or plain old die, it could happen to anyone in this town at anytime. Talk about a case of ADD filmmaking!

The cast has a few familiar faces that do an adequate job here, including cutie-pie Mena Suvari, stereotypical Nick Cannon, and a phoning-it-in Ving Rhames (possibly playing his brother that he established/mentioned in the previous remake...maybe). But looking at the Zombies themselves, they do give a fresh outlook on the genre that gives mixed results. First, they rot instantly. From the moment you freeze-up from the virus to the time you awaken hungry for flesh, you look weeks dead in an instant. Also like 28D/WL you gain superhuman strength causing great ability to jump high and even climb ceilings....

(I wanna interupt myself right here: Alot of reviewers of this film have mentioned ad nauseum about some "Zombie Spidermen" in the film. I want to debunk that right now. There is one scene, lasting 3 seconds, where one zombie, ONE, jumps up, breaks his arms and legs through the ceiling, hangs on to the underneath rafter beams, grabs hold of the next group, moves one space like a jungle gym, and then falls on his victim. THAT'S IT! This comment has bothered me since I've seen the movie because I envisioned an army of wall-crawling nightcrawlers due to these comments. It's just not so.)

....and boy are they flammable! Overall, the effects are pretty damn decent and do keep your eyes busy. But if you're looking for any social commentary that Romero or even DOTD04 provided, forget it. This is just Zombie carnage, and honestly not much of that to begin with. Director Steve Miner, who gave us some great Friday The 13th and Halloween sequels, had provided us with a decent Zombie movie, but like Contagium before it, is cursed to panning by using that established name in vain. But if you can Fast Forward through the title sequence, you might enjoy this film better. Comes with some decent extras and a commentary that gives the film just too much credit. Recommended to any fan of the 28 series who thinks a frantic, running zombie is better than a lumbering one...have you guys ever heard of rigormortis?
(RedSabbath Rating:7.0/10)

I honestly don't want to waste my time with this but I too have watched this film. I do enjoy George Romero zombie flicks and after watching this I thought this was a joke. More disappointed actually cause all I got was some rookie director coming up with a 'remake' of one of the master's well known title and jacking it all up. A rookie in the sense of trying to capture the dark, gritty, viciousness of the zombie epidemic as envisioned by Romero in his earlier films. Steve Miner has directed episodes of Dawson's Creek, (which explains some of this film's truly boring dialog and Ken and Barbie type characters) and Smallville (which has effectively turned Superman into a soap opera).What Miner has done here is show us that he can capture all of the plot lines, and zombie behavior previously shown in a dozen zombie flicks, put Mena Suvari (of American Beauty) in the lead and make a horrible horror movie.

While this film might appeal to young folks who don't understand the art as developed by Romero, those who do will undoubtedly turn away from this one after the first half hour. It only takes that long to get an idea of the poor characters. Suvari plays an army Corporal (who carries a gun with no bullets. Why even pull it out?) Ving Rhames has a small part, perhaps wise enough to not stick around. Suvari's character is remarkably calm in the face of danger despite her seemingly bad decision making. The rest of the cast are like refugees from a Dawson's Creek episode. Nick Cannon (Mariah Cary's husband) plays the part of the bad a.., machismo Army Private, and while not giving a particularly good performance, due in part to the horrible script, Cannon does manage to bring some charisma and toughness to the character.

The zombies seem to do extraordinary things one moment (like crawl on ceilings and run real fast-like the Dawn of the Dead remake), but when it comes to attacking the lead actors they seem inept. This picture doesn't do any justice to the zombie film genre. It ranks down there with the very low budget. The title was used to possibly draw attention to it's existence, nothing more.

This reworked/updated version of Day of the Dead is not even worthy to bear the title. Aside from a few names, this film bears almost no resemblance to the classic Romero film. For those of us that prefer the classic slow-moving zombie, you won't find that here. Not only do these zombies run, but they also climb on walls similar to characters in Japanese style remakes like The Ring or The Grudge. The satire and political undertones that Romero is known for in the original Dead films is non-existent in this film. The script seems hastily thrown together, and pacing and scene cuts are choppy. All FX are done digitally, with the digital blood looking very comic and unreal, even though the story attempts to be serious. The acting is mediocre at best, the cast is composed mostly of the young teenager types associated with modern horror films, Nick Cannon and Mena Suvari deliver forced performances, and the cast as a whole seems to lack any real chemistry on screen. Even the cover of the DVD itself is a rather digital image of what appears to be a zombie puking. Nothing like the classic Romero cover. All sub-plots from the original film are either missing or significantly altered, most notably the "Bub" sub-plot.

My recommendation is this: if you are a fan of the modern day, cliche style horror film, then by all means give this a go, you may enjoy it.

If you are a fan of the classic zombie film, and modern day films can't compare to what was done in the 70's, then watch this at your own discretion. You will not be impressed, and if you're like me, you'll have to go back and watch the original just to help forget about this poor excuse for a remake.

This film has zero notable moments, and is in league with House of the Dead on the crap scale.

One more thing: It is not too often that I completely slam a film. But I really thought that this was one of the most awful films I have ever seen. I was reluctant to even finish it, but I used it as the subject of an essay I was writing at the time.

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Like most zombie movies, this started out with a unknown virus that was spreading through a small town. People were getting sick left and right and coughing up blood. After several hours, the sick people all around the same time went into a trance like state and then started to transform into the undead. One of the main actors was a girl who played in "American Pie", she was currently in the armed forces and was on alert in her home town to help direct people where to go and keep the peace. Eventually most of the town gets infected and the people who didn't were scrambling for their lives. These dead zombie creatures have the taste for blood and do just about anything to get their prey. This is what I thought was cool about it, they aren't like the normal slow, dumb zombies in most flicks, these zombies actually are smart and think, have super speed, can climb on walls and ceilings. ( Kinda Freaky Actually ) Well in the end the only way to kill them was too shoot them in the head, or burn them up with fire. Otherwise nothing would stop them. I was very happy with this movie and would give it an A+ for the special effects, A+ for the make-up/zombies, C for some of the characters acting ( most were good ). Overall for the movie, I would give it a B+. Hope this helps you out a little bit.

Day Of The Dead: Need To Feed sucks! It was only slightly better than Day of the Dead 2: Contagium. They deviate completely form George Romero's original premise of how the zombies came about, except that you have to shoot them in the head to kill them. George Romero should not have allowed thia movie to be made, because surely he owns a copyright on the name, 'Day of the Dead'!