User reviews

Gosh, and I didn't even know that they were turning George A. Romero's masterpiece into a spin-off series. I happened to stumble upon this 2021 SyFy Channel series "Day of the Dead" by random luck. And being a huge zombie fan, of course I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch it.

But everything is not swell and dandy here, and it certainly is not up to par with the 1985 classic masterpiece from Romero himself. Sure, this 2021 series "Day of the Dead" is watchable, but don't go expecting too much from creators Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas.

Now, the problem with the "Day of the Dead" series is the construction of the episodes. The creators try to weave together multiple storylines into one combined narrative, but it is not always with great success. Most of the time, the narrative and the flow of the series feels irratic and chaotic, with not much coherency to it. One moment you are here and when something interesting is about to happen you are moved to another story arch. So there is a lot of build up situations that leads to frustration rather than excitement and fulfillment.

The series also suffers from being 'just another generic zombie series'. We have had the likes of "The Walking Dead", "Fear the Walking Dead", "The Walking Dead: World Beyond", "Z Nation", "S. O. Z. Soldados o Zombies" and "The Bite", and probably others that I can't remember as well. So as "Day of the Dead" fails to make itself stand out from any of these series, it just becomes another one in the heap.

Visually then "Day of the Dead" is a mixed bag of nuts. Some of the special effects and zombie make-up is good, while others is just obviously rubber and latex masks. And those makes makes it cringeworthy to watch.

Now, they have an interesting and diverse ensemble of casted actors and actresses in the series, which definitely helps lift up the series with its other shortcomings.

Sure, I will keep watching it, as I am a huge zombie fan, but this just wasn't as great as I had hoped it would be.

"Day of the Dead" is not something I would recommend you rush out to get a chance to watch, because it certainly is nowhere near the levels of entertainment as seen in the original 1985 movie, nor does it really match or rival most of the other zombie series out there.

My rating of "Day of the Dead", sadly, lands on a bland five out of ten stars. I will keep watching this of course, and hope the series will lift itself up and become better with time.

The latter won out!

Bad acting, higgledy-piggledy direction and the same old same old with not a lot new to bring to the table is a bit underwhelming.

I will say however that some of the zombie effects and gore are not too shabby for a Scifi Channel production so maybe there is hope?

Such a shame, as a big zombo fan this is rather disappointing!

Maybe it will get better as it goes along but I doubt it so can only give it 4 hatchets on the horror scale at present after the first episode but it is early days, however a pilot should grab the viewer and showcase its best values which this has done weakly -We shall see!

One of the most idiotic zombie movies I have seen. Terrible acting. Terrible makeup. In fact, everything in this series is terrible. I watched it to support a Canadian film (Disclaimer: I am Canadian) but boy this is unwatchable. In the opening, someone chose to risk his life by trying to escape via a riding lawnmower when he can easily outrun the limping zombies. The zombies are amateurish thanks to badly-done prosthetics.

Outside some of the character names, this bares no resemblance to Romero's classic other than it has zombies.

It does have a lot of cliched, unlikeable characters who act like idiots. It's got bad acting and the lame "zombies breaking out of the cemetery" who somehow were able to break through their sealed caskets and six feet of earth. Some of the cemetery zombies are breaking out of the ground with blood in their mouth. Why? Some have been buried yet have tons of blood gushing out of them.

They're chasing one of the dummies and instead of running from these slow moving zombies, he gets on his lawn mower, which goes as fast as the zombies do. Huh?

That scene explains everything stupid about this awful show. One episode, that was enough for me.

I gave it three rather than one stars because unlike what some of the people here are saying, the zombie make up is good. That's the only positive thing to say about this mess.

Its Zombies. I love them. This show had potential to be something. From the creepy music, bloody effects and the zombies, it was good. But the acting? It was really bad and cheesy at times. Your typical SYFY show from 10 years ago acting. Maybe, just maybe if there is a season 2, someone can get the acting to a better spot.

The producers of the show did not know if they want to make a zombie comedy or something with a "serious" tone - in the end we get a bad mix of both that does not work at all, on both levels. The dialogues are also all cliche in and too many times cringe worthy, same goes for the "humor". The only, a little redeeming feature of Day of the Dead are the masks and some little gore here and there. But that's simply not enough to spend my time on this show. Also, "Day of the Dead" has nothing to do with the story of Romero's Day of the Dead.

It is what it is... it's a romp with zombies and several goofy characters. There was some annoying cringe character development (?) early on.... but with that out of the way it's gotten better and the fun is there. From what I could tell... Romero isn't associated or mentioned anywhere in the actual aired credits... only in the early marketing or ads in places, which I found interesting. The "inspired by" is mostly a homage but legally I guess they can't attach his name to it. Surprised they got the rights to name it as they did. Maybe they changed their minds and they were able to keep the name but they had to remove the "inspired by" in the opening credits. Anyway... not to be taken seriously... some reviews are unrealistically harsh for the core purpose of this show. Just go with it.

I really wanted, and tried to like this But it's just plain stupid . You've got a lame election going on, A loser about to get married, A nutty funeral home, And several other things at the same time. Oh yeah, plus there's some zombies walking around Eating people . If you can find a central story somewhere in there you're a better Person than I am.

Campy, light-hearted, enjoyable, good special effects, scares at just the right times. If you want to take a load off your mind, watch this series. You'll laugh and jump (but not too high).

I really don't get why this is getting hate. It doesn't take itself to serious and I have chuckled at a few parts. Ok it's not exactly Romeros DOTD which I'm a huge fan of but it is ok.

Painful to watch.

It's super slow, the actors are not convincing enough. Their reactions to things happening are not what you'd expect... Almost all men are dicks.

1) How do the zombies get out of their coffins?

2) How can the bodies be bleeding in the cemetery when their bodies are drained of bodily fluids at the funeral home?

3) Girl walks right by light switches in basement with her cellphone flashlight!!

4) Need to bring back Z Nation!!!!! At least it made more sense with humor!!!!

I literally saw a SNL sketch just before I started watching this show it took me a second to realize I wasn't watching a SNL sketch anymore. The acting is that bad. And if it is supposed to be funny then they should actually get comedic writers or writers for that matter.

This show is bad. I would give it a hard pass if I was you.

A bunch of young beautiful guys get saved by a some young beautiful women. From some zombies who look like the make up came from a dollar store. All the old people get killed by the zombies, so it just young peole for days. Yada yada yada.

When I started watching the opening scene, I thought to myself, 'this is so badly put together it must have been made in Toronto!' I was wrong though, it was made in Vancouver. Same difference.

Bad acting, bad direction, bad script writing, bad editing. Bad production values. This ones got it all folks. So if this follows the usual pattern it will run for four or five seasons of what at best can be called mediocrity.

Meanwhile, good shows which are engaging and well crafted get cancelled after a season or two.

As a small town begins to be overrun with zombies a group of people must face the horror head-on.

One of the directors of the excellent The Void (2016) Steven Kostanski, delivers a reimagining of modern horror classic Day of the Dead (1985) with lacklustre results. Based on the opening episode, as a fresh-faced cast come face to face with the dead in a flashback, it glaringly is on a budget, which wouldn't be a problem, or fall short of expectations if it wasn't being sold as Day of the Dead.

The make-up effects and music are surprisingly effective. The cast do a fine job and appear to be having fun, Keenan Tracey, Daniel Doheny, and Natalie Malaika are notable.

It appears to utilise George A. Romero's character names, akin to Day of the Dead (2008) but the tone is reminiscent of Night of the Living Dead 3D (2006) and Night of the Living Dead 3D: Re-Animation (2012), particularly the mortuary setups, with a touch of Return of the Living Dead Part II and Zombie Night (2013).

Greddy town officials and workers are straight out of Forest Of The Dead (2007). Shoehorning in every trope in the genre, writers Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas offer a new slant with the dead body chained in a cavern but the production appears to be SYFY cynical attempt to cash in on a classic. Plodding, familiar and falling short as both a homage and a gimmick. There are debatably better or certainly enough TV zombie series of varying degrees of quality already out there. Kostanski can and has delivered imaginative and resourceful work; but this sadly and surprisingly isn't one of them.

As a low budget zombie TV series, it is adequate, but as a series connected to Romero's work, it's extraordinarily empty.

Which is a very good thing, as if there's one person we don't want spinning in his grave it's him.

It's nothing like the film it's supposed to be based on, although there are a few small nods, and it's not up there with Z Nation or the early walking dead. But it is fun, and I find myself binging the whole series whilst stuck at home due to a train strike and a little hangover.

Basically it's the story of a small town hit by a zombie outbreak, and comes across a bit like Northern Exposure meets Shaun of the Dead. The characters are just the right side of over the top, there is some great gore and the story just flies along. I'm not sure why there is so much hating on the acting, I thought the cast were fine.

It's not a classic by any means, but if you like a little zombie action, and you set your expectations to a medium level, you'll probably enjoy it.

Within the first several minutes stupid teens babble about 'boning' the mother of one of them. In another scene, a young woman's unattractive boss hits on her as mindlessly as it's possible to do. Nothing is done with makeup, dialogue, mise-en-scene, or anything, really.

Skip this junk.

I really enjoyed this first episode and it had my attention at every moment. I liked the characters and I especially liked seeing how they were connected to each other and learning the back stories and conflicts. It was a little slow after the show flashed back to "earlier that day" but this was very expected as it is the pilot and the show is bringing everything together for the series and showing a background of how it started and the characters. I definitely think this is going to be a great show and I can't wait to Watch it on Friday nights!!

I don't know what this series should be, serious or funny? Seriously, I doubt very much about how it was done ?! Funny, I don't see anything funny in calling it stupid humor that kind of comes up.

This is just another series in bad production and with poor acting...

It's not an award winning tv but it's stupidly entertaining you need to turn your brain of to enjoy, I'm a person who over thinks but not when it comes to zombie movies or tv..... it's not the walking dead but it's still better than the spin offs plus how many worse programmes are on tv these day's that get renewed it's dumb but so what not everything can be winners....

but give it a chance you might actually enjoy it..

Their is a reason for the question mark. While the first episode was so bad the 2nd and first are better?

Maybe I just like zombie movies and programs and got tired of the Walking and I'm giving this show more of a chance than it deserves but at least their are characters I like and really really don't and look forward to seeing them become zombie chow.

Watched two episodes and gave up. Bad on so many levels. Cheaply produced, acted, wrote, and so is CGI/Make-up.

Weak and pointless. Feminists are the saviours once more.