“Dawn of the Living Dead”
Day 4 of the 2025 31-Days of Horror
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Renee and Jeffrey buy a house near the Mexican border only to discover a family was murdered there. They unknowingly unleash a curse that raises zombies.
Originally titled “Curse of the Maya”, I imagine because the family who was murdered were supposed to be Mayan. Renee (Amanda Bauman), who was recently discharged from psychiatric care, starts having nightmares, visions, and hallucinations almost immediately after moving into their new home and her fiancé (Joe Estevez) acts like he doesn’t believe her. It is just weird that people buy and move into a house that is full of the previous owners belongings, yet bring none of their own. There is clearly something supernatural afoot, a mysterious corn field, moons that multiply, and, of course, zombies. Enter the random creepy, hunky guy (David Heavener, who is also the writer/director) whose job is to maintenance the windmills. Then the audience learns that Renee lost her daughter less than a month ago and relapsed into her non-specified addiction, and that her fiancé was her mentor/sponsor/doctor throughout her care, which doesn’t really add much to the film, except that Renee is searching for something to believe in. Additionally, creepy, hunky guy tells us that the house they’ve bought was a safe house for illegal immigrants. And, my goodness, there is not a likable character among them!
The make up and gore effects aren’t too bad. The writing makes little sense, characters actions and motivations are all over the place, and they bastardize Dia de los Muertos. Also, as it turn out, this is a “great white savior” type of film, as the white woman, who does a few days of reading, suddenly has a deep understanding of what is happening and saves their eternal souls.
As much as I enjoy zombie movies, especially fun twists on zombie movies, I struggled with this one. There was just too much misogyny, racism, and little in the way of redeeming qualities among the characters.
Sadly, I don’t recommend this movie.
