OK so the only reason I even considered seeing this film was because I discovered Ellie Cornell was in it. I love her in Halloween 4 and 5 and than she took a very long break and came back with a very monotone performance in ultra trashy camp fest House of the dead. So I fgured she was in it and could ensure the film some laughs. Sadly, she's only in the first ten minutes though. but the film manages to be unintentionally funny on it's own and in some respects just not that bad. Besides the fact that the characters are dumb as doornails the film features a decent premise, an attractive cast and some good makeup. The direction is pretty bad, but the cinematography and score are surprisingly confident. A young couple on the way to a family gathering get into a small accident in a small town in Mexico. They become stranded there when they find a tortured young woman and their car won't start. they are instructed to stay at the town's hotel for the night while the day of the dead celebration commences. yada-yada- yada. Their friends come and the dead come to life. Nothing to original with a decent crypt- esquire twist. But You've gotta love the hammy dialogue and acting especially between the women in this film, or the old woman with a crazy axe. For the film's biggest laugh check out the blonde girl's escape from the house. Pure camp here people, love it or hate. It is what it is.
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rcavellero5 March 2006
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lastliberal17 March 2009I have to be honest. I only watched this because of Danny Trejo. I would watch paint dry if he was the one painting. He only has a small part of the film, even though he was the primary star.
For a zombie film, it was a disappointment.
There were several beauties in the film like Nichole Hiltz, Laura Harring, Marisa Ramirez, and Ellie Cornell. Unfortunately, we didn't get any titillation as we would expect in a B horror film.
The zombie action was pretty lame for the most part. There was very little blood except at the end. I would have expected more. It just seemed that it was basically a story about revenge. -
jamjohnx32 May 2007A boring Saturday afternoon had me sitting down by the TV to watch whatever was on, with a lack of anything better to do. This movie just happened to be coming on.
All Soul's Day starts off South of the Border, apparently deep in the past. Evil Man has had his gold stolen by Cowering Man. Evil man kills Cowering Man under the promise that he won't harm his family. Since the man is evil, we already know he's lying. Remember Evil Man's face, because his significance won't be revealed until the last 10 minutes of the movie, as we take a trip into the future, which is apparently still in the past! Here, we are introduced to to a middle-class Caucasian family, which consists of the bigot father, the submissive mother, the typical teenage daughter, and her annoying, handicapped younger brother. They stay at the inn of a rural town (we're still south of the border, and don't expect the setting to change) for the night. The people inside are freaky (a old lady who likes depicting scenes in a cardboard box), and the bigot father literally rents his family a room out himself. The teenage daughter (the only likable character, which is a bad sign for her) goes to take a bath, but is freaked out by something in the bathroom. Upon returning to her room, she is frightened by a young boy in a skeleton mask, and flees the inn, only to run into a crowd of zombies that deliver an undead beatdown.
Jump about 40 or 50 years into the future, and we're finally in a present. An arrogant white guy and his Mexican girlfriend are on the way to her parent's home when they stop in the same rural town and crash when avoiding a crowd of people carrying a coffin. A woman with her tongue cut out flops out of the coffin as the people flee and the arrogant boyfriend goes to get help for her from the flamboyantly suspicious sheriff. Things only continue to get weirder when the couple decide to stay at a familiar inn, with the same strange people inside (the same old woman, depicting another scene in the cardboard box). They decide to wait for friends, but things only get worse. The girlfriend sees a vision in one of the rooms, full of screaming and bloody hand prints, which seems to be the reaction the parents had when their kids went missing, yet it abruptly stops. It's never explained what really happened, or why she had the vision. And you'll find that a lot of things aren't really explained in this movie.
Eventually the two friends arrive, which is a black guy and his blonde girlfriend. Oh, we know how long THEY'RE going to live. They needed someone to kill off in this movie, and unfortunately it had to be the blondes and the minorities.
Not long afterward, the girlfriend is abducted by the townspeople and is being used for a sacrificed. She is saved by the arrogant boyfriend, in which the Sheriff reveals that they must sacrifice a Mexican to stop an oncoming zombie assault. Okay, why they needed a Mexican and how exactly a sacrifice would stop the zombies is never explained (like I said earlier in the movie). The sheriff is finally revealed to be the handicapped son (who suddenly isn't handicapped anymore) of the family that stayed in town so many years ago. Okay, I'm not even sure how to tackle that. There's just too many things wrong with it, that are unexplained. But it doesn't really matter because he's killed off a few minutes later anyway.
So anyways, the zombie onslaught begins and the group of four must now find a way to get out with their lives, after locking themselves in the inn. This is where the ridiculousness of the movie really shines. At one point, while trying to escape, the blonde suddenly transforms from her selfish, bubbly ways and becomes Super Blonde, displaying a sudden zombie butt-kicking power you'd never know she had. Now, this wouldn't be so bad if the movie wasn't taking itself seriously, since the girl is now flipping on rooftops and somersaulting off of zombie's heads, which is comical being such an abrupt and unexpected event. Unfortunately, the movie does continue to take itself seriously, and the ridiculous factor and sudden stupidity of the characters will make you slap your own head as if you just made the dumbest decision in the world (which inevitably leads to the character's death).
It's near the very end of the movie that the story's real plot kicks in, which explains the zombie problem thats been plaguing the town for a century. I'm not going to spoil that, but it is full of holes that are never explained, and it tries to make you feel sympathy for the zombies, until you realize that they've been killing innocent people for no real reason for the past few decades.
This eventually leads to the solution of the problem, which is so ridiculous that you'll wonder why no one had ever done this in the 100 years that the town has had the zombie infestation. Typically, all is well, and the slain characters are not even mentioned in mourning or passing.
The movie may be good for a laugh or two due to the sheer amount of things that can't be taken seriously in it (super blonde being my favorite), but it fails as a thriller. It's plot, while not laughable, leaves much to be desired, and the overall events are just waaaay too predictable. If it's one thing that really got on my nerves, it was the fact that so much was left unexplained. -
Matador0712 June 2005You know, you have to work hard to turn out a "movie" (and I use the term loosely) this bad. And the Sci-Fi Channel has managed to do it a number of times, raising again the question of whether they are farming out their writing and directing duties to family members...or perhaps family pets.
This particular stinker was advertised as a zombie movie, and eventually they did have a few zombies bumbling around, albeit completely illogically and with the rules of their existence changing every 30 seconds as apparently a new hack writer (or perhaps Fluffy the family chihuahua) took over to further mangle this drivel. To say that it was a complete and utter mess, and a magnificently boring one at that, would be an understatement.
The plot, what there is of it, is completely nonsensical and bounces randomly around from one idea to the next blowing holes in itself left and right. Its as if they were making it up as they went along, and were very drunk through the whole process and kept on forgetting their train of thought. And that of course is what always bothers me the most about these turds the Sci-Fi channel turns out -- a lack of money can perhaps explain flat acting or laughable special effects, but the complete lack of coherence on some of these clunkers is just embarrassing.
The casting is bizarre as well, with a random collection of rookies, a veteran character actor, and one of Sci-Fi's wooden stock actors (David Keith) hilariously playing a man who would have to have been at least 60-65 (based on a completely pointless early flashback). The hilarious part? Keith is 50, and looks 40-45. But they randomly insert him in a pointless and nonsensical part apparently completely unaware of how old his character had to be based on their own "plot", and not even bothering with silly things like makeup. Or logic. They also feature an old woman, who again according to their own timeline would have to have been at least 130. And we won't even get into the complete forehead-slapping resolution of the bad guy's character. If the movie hadn't beaten me into my own drooling stupefied zombie-trance by that point, I might have found the whole mess hilarious. Maybe.
I still think this has to rank a half step behind "Skeleton Man" as the all-time worst clunker the Sci-Fi channel has turned out. But it gave it a good effort. Some movies are so bad they wrap around and become entertaining. Not this thing -- its just horrible and deadly boring to boot. Should not even qualify for moviedom at all, but just amateur hour. Bad amateurs too. So just a warning -- no matter how pathetic your life is, no matter if you are imprisoned for life in Siberia and your only other entertainment option is watching 24 hour reruns of transvestite midgets dancing the macarena, there is simply no conceivable way I can recommend ANYTHING in this movie to anyone. Do your brain a favor and save two hours of your life. Watch paint dry. Count the number of hair follicles on your dog's tail. Do SOMETHING, anything else but damage your eyes watching this garbage. -
Flickkiller11 June 2005I just watched this chunk on Sci Fi and it's just about as bad as you might expect. The story might have worked if it weren't so talky and unimaginative. Everything on Sci Fi is talky but this has the most annoying lead character ever. And is sounds to me like they have encouraged him to improvise...not a good idea. Then, when things seem unbearable, more bad acting comes along with his friends. There is no mood, or pacing, it drags and stumbles and it makes one wonder if anyone was actually supervising this dog. The zombies have okay make up but who cares when you hate the people they are trying to eat. And their are probably six action scenes in the whole thing. It reminds me of a kids at cowboys and Indians where the storytellers don't have any concept of the audience. Who is the audience anyway. I blame sci fi for this one, it seems like their only criteria somewhat high production values and a David Keith. I say check out Bloody Bill if you want this story done better.
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opietaylor6912 June 2005Okay..the Sci Fi channel saw fit to get rid of MST3K, Thriller, and a host of actually well made programs, only to replace them with putrid crap called "made for Sci-Fi" movies. Seriously, has even one of them been watchable? Ed Wood made better horror movies. Low budgets, and bad acting abound. This feces of a movie is poorly directed, poorly written, and incredibly boring. I could have produced better special effects in my basement. Compared to "Sci Fi Channel" movies, "Lifetime" movies, as horrible as they are, are Emmy winners. Yes, as much as they suck, I'd rather watch Melissa Gilbert and Meredith Baxter Birney movies than anything that's "made for Sci- Fi". Not that the Sci Fi channel is a total loss, at least they still air the "Twilight Zone" and "Kolchak". (Now, if they'd just quit trying to make movies, and bring back Night Gallery)
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movieman_kev1 May 2007Vargas (Danny Trejo) sells out the people of the town he's a despot of when he lets them all get blown up in exchange for immortality. Fast forward 50 years and we find a family complete with sexy slutty daughter and asshole son who stops at the aforementioned town to check into a inn after a long day of traveling only to never check out. Fast forward yet another 50 years, and we're introduced to another couple who's car brakes down so they have to stay at the same inn To say that this film is disjointed is putting it mildly. To say the only actors worth anything at all (Trejo, Jeffrey Combs) are all underused in this movie, is a travesty. Writer Mark Altman sandwiched this film in between House of the Dead and House of the dead 2, and if that, my friends, doesn't say everything about what to expect from this movie, I don't know what else to say. You know what? I may have not liked Director Kasten's previous "the Attic Expeditions", but that film, as bad as it may be, still runs circles around this one.
My Grade: D
Eye Candy: Danielle Burgio and Mircea Monroe provide the T&A, while Marisa Ramirez only shows her breasts -
lockedout7 July 2006EXCELLENCE is what you should have expected.
I mean why wouldn't you? With such mavericks of creativity like Mark A. Altman (forget Clerks, Free Enterprise is where it's at. Kevin Smith who?) and Jeremy Kasten (director of the musical short Gayosity, which one crafty IMDb contributor reminds us that the five songs, all elaborate production numbers, were written, shot, scored and laid into the film in less than 24 hours), how could this project have gone wrong? Well, worry not. It didn't! Everyone is in great form here. The cast is pitch perfect. Travis Wester reminds me of a young Matthew Perry but the real winner here is Marisa Ramirez who hits it home with a perfectly layered, nuanced performance that had me on the verge of tears not once but twice. I only hope that their heads don't get TOO big on the success of this picture that they won't return for the sequel. Don't you hate it when that happens? I don't want to say too much more because its hard to really say anything at all without giving everything away. If you thought House of the Dead was good, you're SERIOUSLY in for the shock of your life (which is a good thing!).
If you're serious about cinema, go to your local videostore and demand they get you copy of All Souls Day: Dia de los Muertos post haste! If that fails, call up your local cable or satellite provider and ask them when it might air on one of their channels. If they have no idea what you're talking about, just refer them to this review and read it for them (they will totally get it after that).
To the producers: Bravo! Hats off to all ten of you producers, you are all truly inspiring. If you would like to get in contact with me about sending a film crew to my house to film a commercial about how much I love the movie, my contact details are available in my IMDb profile. -
poolandrews8 December 2006All Souls Day: Dia de los Muetos sees loving couple Alicia (Marisa Ramirez) & Joss (Travis Wester) having a very bad day, for a start they are driving through Mexico together, they almost run into a bunch of Mexicans performing a funeral march, they then discover that Esmerelda (Danielle Burgio) the person in the coffin is still alive & has had her tongue cut out, they discover that the local Sheriff (David Keith) is in on it, their crashed car won't restart & to their utmost horror they learn that they have prevented a ritual that keeps the flesh eating dead from rising from their graves & that they are very much on the menu! Can things can any worse for them? Watch it to find out...
Directed by Jeremy Kasten I thought All Souls Day: Dia de los Muertos was pretty bad as far as straight to video/TV low budget horror shot on digital crap goes. The script by Mark A. Altman has the usual glaring continuity errors, it has awful character's that have no personality or motivation for what they do, stupid narrative & plot devices, scenes where people/zombies completely change their behaviour to suit the screenplay rather than what a normal person/zombie would have done & the first 40 odd minutes is a total snooze-fest that is painful to watch. You know I could go on & on about all the stupid scenes in this film, I could go on about all the illogical decisions these lame character's make that defy any reasonable sense but I can't be bothered, I really can't. I love the horror genre particularly ones from the 70's, 80's & 90's & I have to say that apart from some of the big budget Hollywood stuff like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2004) remake I am extremely disappointed with the horror genre in the 21st century. There are so many really bad low budget rubbishy horror films out there it's untrue, OK I don't think All Souls Day: Dia de los Muertos is the worst by any stretch of the imagination but it's another dull, boring, forgettable & dumb teen horror that's only saved by a few decent zombie scenes during the second half which in my opinion was too little too late, basically it's a load of crap.
Director Kasten does a nice job actually & it's quite well made with some nice moments but you get the impression he was let down by the script. OK, I can't not mention it anymore, why the hell does Erica drive back to her dead boyfriend & open the car door so all the zombies can kill her? I'm sorry but this scene is jut absurd, you would drive away. I mean you'd be upset for sure but you would drive away & save yourself, right? Then there's the scene when Alicia suddenly tuns into Keanu Reeves from the The Matrix (1999) & starts doing gravity defying back-flips & leaps along with some pretty nifty martial arts moves, there are plenty of other stupid bits as well like when someone starts to masturbate while talking to Alicia but they sort of stand out. There's a few decent gore scenes, someone has their eye ripped out, there's a severed tongue, some zombies are shot in the head & there's some ripped off limbs.
With a supposed budget of about $1,200,000 All Souls Day: Dia de los Muertos is surprisingly well made & has a certain professional look t it that belies it's low budget. The zombies look OK & the special effects are alright. The acting is poor, again it's just another bland collection of annoying teenage victims. Having said that there's a few 'name' actors here, Danny Trejo, David Keith & sadly the magnificent Jeffrey Combs who deserves better than this although he has the good sense to be killed off early on.
All Souls Day: Dia de los Muertos (in actual fact all souls day is on the 2nd of November rather than the 1st as this film would have you believe, just about shows how much effort & research went into it) is another average at best, utterly crap at worst low budget horror film that isn't worth spending your hard earned money on. Not recommended. -
claire-simkiss5 February 2008i honestly don't think its fair to say awful things bout this type of genre, I mean because some might say AWFUL or TERRIBLE.. Doesn't mean its not trying to entertain with its low budget... WHY not try it? I got loads of zombie films.. I love them all because of their individuality.. please just try not to be so quick to judge. I enjoy all types of the zombie genre and i really get upset when even the worst zombie films get put down, Because the actors are talents of the new era and have to start somewhere right? O.k thats the moan out the way, I did like the plot and the story, but as with budget it falls to the mercy of acting... enough said.. thanks for reading and hope you enjoy the film
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3-D26 February 2006I'm a huge fan of zombie movies, but this film was just not good. The zombies were lame, there was an extreme LACK of gore (zombie movies should be FILLED with it), and the storyline was utterly terrible.
There is not one thing about this movie that is good. It is quickly going to go into obscurity, because I really don't see how people could LIKE this dumb movie. I am in awe. I'll give it a couple points, just for having zombies in it, even if they were pathetic zombies.
The body count is very low, there is really not much gore at all, and ARRGGHHHH I just hate this stupid movie. Zombie fans, trust me, skip this one. It's a disgrace to zombie flicks. -
steve1266 June 2005I saw this film at San Francisco's Indy Fest. The story takes place in a mysterious Mexican village during three time periods - the 1800's, 1950's, and present day. The zombie attacks in the 1950's are hysterical. We need more zombie period films! There are a couple of groaners, but it's really fun. Danny Trejo appears as the lead heavy and creeped the crap out of me. David Keith and Jeffrey Combs knock it out of the park. The young cast from the present day sequence is pretty standard, but the bitchy cheerleader steals the show. The filmmakers spoke at the end of the festival and said they shot the film in 17 days. Pretty cool what they accomplished.
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First of I give this movie 1 more point than a five for Danny Trejo's bed scene.
When I first rented this movie, I did not know it was a Sci-Fi channel attempt. When I say Attempt I mean failed attempt. What's wrong with this movie? Everything having to do with the Zombie Mythology- 1. Some walk, some lag.. & Some Jump! 2. When you are bitten, You are not infected. 3. Not scary nor bloddy 4. Wait to be let in the house, instead of tearing through the walls. This is just some of the odd facts. The movie is full of them.
Let's recall. In the beginning we see an American family headed by Jeffrey Combs driving into a small unknown Mexican Village. This happens in 1952. Before we know what's going on ,the daughter is in the street and attacked by zombies. End of segment.
53 years later, we are introduced to Joss and Alicia who crash into town and literally screw up a sacrifice. The girl in question is Esmeralda(minus her tongue) Our couple meet up with the town sheriff, played by David Kieth, who by my calculations should be way over 50 years old, since he was the son of Jeffery Combs.
That's pretty much the premise for this movie. How can we use that to make a good Zombie Flick? You can't. That is my point. Somehow this movie also forces Danny Trejo to play the villain with some crappy legend that just doesn't make sense.
From here on it's all downhill story wise. I thought I revisited House of The Dead all over again. Same lame gymnastics scenes , actors you just want to be eaten and dialog so bad it hurts.
The gore is amateur at best. I rented it and presume there was more on DVD than T.V. The girls are hot(especially Marisa Ramirez) , but the zombies suck. After a while you forget this is actually a zombie flick.
The two parts I did enjoy are the sheriff's station scene where Joss faces "Zombie" Esmeralda(cool action scene) and my favorite ,where Danny Trejo is torn to bits by the Zombies. Some might compare to "Day Of The Dead" when Rickles, Torrez, Steel and Capt. Rhoads are torn apart by the dead, but I best compare it to to the 80's slasher classic "Maniac" when Frank is torn apart(limb from limb) by his Manequinns, because they too are his victims. Just like the dead are Danny's. Most gory part of the movie and worth the 5 points alone. I paid two bucks to rent it and got to keep it for 5 days. Not bad, but you really have to LOVE horror flicks to stomach this mess. -
Vampenguin12 March 2006This film is a complete waste of time and money, and this is coming from someone who usually enjoys sub-par zombie films. House of the Dead for instance, was a terrible movie, but was still fun to watch. This is a different story! Thankfully I only rented it, but Id still like to have that couple bucks back. For the first half or so, it introduced, and ruined, what could have been a decent zombie scenario, about the dead returning to life on the Mexican holiday of Dia de los Muertos. At first, it seemed half-decent for what it was, but once the zombies showed up, they preceded to use every worn-out cliché in the book. One of the "highlights" was a zombie getting shotgunned point blank....and FALLING OVER. No blood, no gore, he just fell over. Near the end there was a bit of OK gore, and a somewhat cool ending but nothing worth wasting your time for.
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I saw this movie at the hole in the Head horror Festival and thought it was cool. The writer and the director came and talked after and said that they were making a different zombie movie - like from before Romero and that is definitely what it is. There are a bunch of good scares, nice action and the acting is good and the zombies are really cool but the best part is that it is in Mexico and that all the spookieness comes from that. Also there is a mystery going on in the town from when it started that the couple who get trapped there have to figure out to leave - which is well done and not lame or phony.
The makeup is good and there's also some naked girls all painted up to be killed in a ritual. Danny Trayo is excellent as the bad guy and he does a real exorcist scene that stole the movie. -
Being only the second reviewer, I'm sure I won't be the last with the Sci-fi Channel having shown this film the night before.
Unlike the other reviewer, I will give my opinion, but will do it without making bold statements without backing them up.
To start off, 'All Souls Day' comes at a time when the Zombie film is splashing all over big screens and small. With George A. Romero's 'Land of the Dead' on it's way in a couple weeks, and a small handful of decently-made living-dead films making an impact on today's audiences, Sci-fi channel presented it's audiences with the 'World Premiere' of 'All Souls Day' (this was NOT a made for Sci-Fi film). Crunched in between the likes of Romero's 'Day of the Dead', 'Resident Evil' and 'Return of the Living Dead 3', 'All Souls Day' followed the all-too-simple formula of twenty-somethings holed up in a building, fighting against the recently-risen-dead'. Sure, it was a hotel in Mexico, and not a house, and the premise of why the dead were rising had it's creative qualities, but, all-in-all, 'All Souls Day' fell short of entertaining it's audience.
Of the actors cast for 'All Souls Day', Jeffrey Combs and Danny Trejos appeared to be the only two who could accentuate upon their characters, leaving the other actors giving ill-attempts at line delivery. Sure, Combs and Trejos were the bookending characters to this bland film, but it was one of very few redeeming qualities which made this film even bearable enough to watch. And, as I have learned as an Independent Filmmaker, if you are going to work with kids, make sure you spend some time picking ones which can pace their line deliveries and not sound like they're reading out of a 'Curious George' book.
As an AVID Zombie Film collector and lover of the particular genre, I always enjoy seeing a new walking dead film available on the market. This, of course, brings me to the fact that, as a Special FX Artist, I am always looking for those innovative, creative scenes where the dead rise and wreck havoc on the living. 'All Souls Day' began slow, remained slow through the first three-quarters of the film, then finally gave the audience a glimpse at some pretty 'neat' looking zombie FX. Sure, most were masks, but there were a sparse few which gave me a little tingle of excitement down my spine. As was very evident, though, my disappointment overrode the excitement when 'All Souls Day' wanted to add it's flashy attempts at 'Dawn of the Dead' (remake) and 'Resident Evil' battle scenes. I couldn't help but laugh when a small 'martial arts' sequence was thrown in, only to have the girl torn apart five minutes later.
As was simply stated earlier, the storyline for 'All Souls Day' had an interesting premise, but writer, nor director, were able to clean up the 'mess' they had on their hands. Like a number of horror films out there, a number of scenes were thrown in as an attempt for selling points: i.e. make-out/sex scenes thrown in awkward places, cheesy martial arts. And, with all set in place, and layered together, 'All Souls Day' fell apart before it even got going...Sorta like a derailing train.
So, yes, I will purchase this film on DVD when it comes out in stores because I am a collector, but, as a Zombie/Film Critic, 'All Soul Days' doesn't even hold a popcorn quality to it; unfortunately for such genre veterans as Combs and Trejos. -
OK first of all when i saw the TV spot for this movie i thought it would be good but it turned out that this movie was a total let down bad acting and bad directing i mean the gore was a nice but not really good and the death of Tyler was bad i mean the girl stands there with the shotgun in hand and just watches as he get mauled by zombies and the girl in the car doesn't even open up the car door to let him in also why did he get on the side of the car with the most zombies and whats the deal with David Keith being needed in this movie and Travis Wester i mean Marisa Ramriz is hot and so is Nichole Hiltz but they were not needed for such a movie neither were Danny Trejo or Ellle Cornell and Jeffery Combs these actors are good but the movie didt show it i bet they got paid a lot just to be on screen.
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capkronos27 May 2007In the 19th Century, Vargas Diaz (Danny Trejo, the bartender in all three FROM DUSK TILL DAWN movies) discovers the "tomb of the goddess of death" in a small Mexican village. He hires townspeople to help retrieve the treasure, promising to split the profits with them. Instead, he lures every citizen of the village into the mine where the valuables were located and blows it up. After doing in eight of his faithful men with poisoned win to ensure a 100% profit margin, he gets involved in a gunfight and accidentally shoots his own young son.
Around a hundred years later (in 1952), Thomas White (Jeffrey Combs) and his family; wife (Ellie Cornell, from HALLOWEEN 4 and 5), 19-year-old blonde teen daughter and young son in arm braces (from polio), take a pit stop in the same small town on their way to the beach. They go to a hotel and notice the people there are acting incredibly strange (and no one has signed the guest book for almost a decade), but decide to stay anyway. Son Ricky ends up being possessed by an evil spirit. Daughter Lilly (who's nice enough to treat viewers to a topless bathtub scene first) is attacked by an elderly woman downstairs, only to stumble outside and be devoured by zombies (i.e. the resurrected people killed in the mine). And the parents, well we learn later that they were just hacked to pieces with a hatchet.
Fifty-three years later (*yawn*), newly-engaged college students Alicia (Marisa Ramirez) and Joss (Travis Webster) are traveling through Mexico in route to visiting her parents. They wreck their car in the same small town where all this bad s--t is taking place during (gasp!) Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead to us Yanks), when all the dead are rumored to walk the Earth. Immediately, the duo discover a distraught young woman named Esmeralda who has had her tongue removed. Thankfully, a friendly American sheriff (David Keith) is in town and ready to take control of the situation. Unfortunately, he's also the same possessed little boy from 1952, all grown up and committing his own human sacrifice rituals. He kills Esmeralda for giving him too much trouble and then plots to sacrifice Alicia, because apparently only a beautiful young Mexican woman will work in the ceremonies.
Alicia and Joss check into a local hotel decorated with altars, crosses and skulls, where Former Miss USA Laura Harring (also in David Lynch's MULHOLLAND DR.) and some old psychic woman mope around, acts strange and offer up drugged wine and bread to sedate their guests. Joss, who is arrogant, obnoxious and pretty irritating all around, phones his black pre-med friend Tyler and Tyler's blonde "vacuous cheerleader" girlfriend Erica (Nichole Hiltz, from MAY) to come down and pick them up. He and Alicia promptly screw (I guess finding mutilated people in the road really turns them on), more weird stuff happens, Tyler and Erica arrive, the four make small talk (lame "trendy" SCREAM-like dialogue with horror movie references; ugh) and then the zombies finally show up to try to eat everyone. You go zombies. Eat 'em all up. Please. In an all-too-familiar NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD situation, they board up the doors and windows while the mini zombie army try to get inside. Oh yeah, and wouldn't ya know it... Vargas is still alive and well at 150 years old and living in a secret room in the hotel (he is who the ghouls are really trying to get at). Alicia put it best when she solemnly intones, "This place is f--ked up! These people are crazy!"
The whole thing is pretty mindless and fails to generate any atmosphere despite the setting and some good make-up fx. It also comes complete with one of the dumbest horror movie character actions in recent memory. Hell, it almost tops the girl-who-jumps-into-a-fiery-inferno-to-be-with-her-dead-boyfriend scene in CHILDREN OF THE CORN 5. After Tyler is attacked by a few dozen flesh-munching ghouls, Erica drives away to a safe distance and can clearly see her boyfriend is history. So instead of just driving off like any normal person would do, she puts the car in reverse, goes right back into the middle of the pack of zombies, opens the passenger side door and tries to yank his dead body back into the car with her!! Thankfully, she quickly gets her throat ripped out for being such a stupid bitch.
Well, in any case, ALL SOULS DAY is not a very good later-day showcase for horror icon Jeffrey Combs, who had appeared in the director's previous effort THE ATTIC EXPEDITIONS (2001). His performance is fine (and it's always nice to see him in anything), but he doesn't get to do or say anything noteworthy during his short time on screen. Hell, even his death is off-screen and he isn't even seen as a zombie. Newcomer Ramirez shows some potential (and has no problems with nudity). It debuted on the Sci-Fi Channel. -
michaelRokeefe28 October 2005The walking dead prey on the living in a small town in Mexico. College kids unintentionally interfere with the celebration of "Dia De Los Muentos"...the Mexican Day of the Dead. The dead return to walk the Earth to rejoin their loved ones once more. This trip across the border proves to be more than anyone bargained for. Its not easy to find a way to survive a town of agonized zombies. The past determines the future. Acting is atrocious. Some of the special effects are a little grisly. And some of the cast members are strictly eye candy and about the only reason to watch this lumbering zombie flick. In the cast are: Mircea Monroe, Marisa Ramirez, Nichole Hiltz and Travis Wester with veteran actors David Keith and Danny Trejo.
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This is your usual absolutely trashy horror movie that is just total garbage, however some of these actually manage to be fun. This one is sadly not quite one of those. It has an interesting premise and it also stars Jeffrey Combs, David Keith and Travis Wester which is surprising to see these actors after seeing how bad the movie was.
After a short intro sequence with a family we get introduced to two teenagers who are absolutely unlikeable and you can't wait for them to die. After that the plot develops and the pacing gets pretty slow with a few jumpscares in between that are not well made and mostly look cheap. There are some flashbacks showing how the character portrayed by Danny Trejo tyrannized the towns people, but that's not engaging enough to be interesting.
Overall despite having a fun idea and a great cast this movie was rather bad. [3,5/10] -
Gunnar_R_Ingibjargarson8 February 2019During a day of the death celebration in Mexico a young couple get stuck in small Mexico town.
Very badly done b-horror movie with horrible badly-done zombies. -
morrison-dylan-fan18 October 2018With Halloween coming up,I asked a family friend about what Horror flicks he was after and got a list. Picking up The Black Waters of Echo's Pond (2009) I checked the next title on the list,and found that it also co-starred Mircea Monroe,which led to me going for a Monroe double bill.
View on the film:
Greeting the viewer with a naked Mircea Monroe and Jeffrey Combs in 50's dad mode, director Jeremy Kasten makes his film directing debut with a slick slice of running zombie antics, chewing on the zombies being taken out with roundhouse kicks, and their slimy eating habits. Keeping the very good cast (which includes Laura Harring/ Marisa Ramirez and Laz Alonso) held up in one hotel, Kasten uses shadows of the zombies on the wall to draw up the limitations the gang have to escape.Taking place during the Day of the Dead in Mexico, the screenplay Mark A. Altman at first looks like it will have the horror be based around the event, as the opening offers glimpses to the history of the town with the event. Disappointingly,Altman quickly puts historical links aside to munch on zombie shocks, pushed on by the characters randomly acting very stupid on the Day of the Dead. -
phibesdr17 June 2005I don't know what movie some of you guys saw but I checked out All Souls Day at a midnight screening recently in L.A. and I dug it big time. Obviously, made on a low budget, I thought it was a completely different kind of zombie movie going from the old west to the 50s to today. Was there enough gore for me? There's never enough. Were the kids annoying? At times, sure. But it was a fresh, original zombie film with some cool zombie action and enough hot chicks for eye candy. Seeing Jeffrey Combs and Ellie Cornell on screen together was worth the price of admission and I'm sure the sci-fi channel cut this thing to hell with commercials every five minutes. One of the best scenes with David Keith(I can't believe the words best scene and David Keith are coming out of my mouth) I'm sure got shredded on TV and it was great. I definitely say look for it on the midnite movie circuit because it's a really good zombie movie more like Night of the Living Dead than a 28 Days Later.
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bfluk00111 June 2005I just caught this flick on the sci-fi channel and I have to admit that I really enjoyed it. It is basically your standard "Group of horny college gets get ambushed by unspeakable and seemingly unstoppable evil" type of scenario that haunts most direct-to-video horror films but this one had a certain charm to it. The acting was rather passable for a cast of b-listers and unknowns, the directing was good and the big climax of the film, while somewhat lame somehow managed to have an air of originality to it. True, the acting was pretty cheesy in a couple parts, the story had it's weak points, and the soundtrack flat out sucked(sloppy cut-ins and poorly timed crescendos are inexcusable in my opinion)This is definitely a movie I would recommend on a weekend trip to the video store. It is nice to see that it's still possible to put out a creative zombie movie without using viruses, and running zombies.
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patrick_panda3 January 2012WOW- Just WOW. Story is awesome, acting is spot on, camera work is not shaky at all, you really connect with the characters, no stereotypes at all and the white boy does not run like a girl...don't forget about the big plot twist at the end... NOT!.. I wish there was an MST3K version of this movie. I wish I was watching ScyFi channel instead. I also did not see anything that validated a MA rating. This movie stole 2 hours of my soul. Lets put it this way.. I found the candle burning in the opposite room from my TV more interesting than watching this movie. BOOOOOOOOO!!! Mike Nelson..Crow..Sirvo- you should be all over this one.