User reviews

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.

I 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.

You 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.

I 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.

Okay..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)

Vargas (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

EXCELLENCE 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.

i 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

I'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.

This 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.

3/10

I 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.

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.

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.

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]

During 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.

I 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.

I 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.