Day of the Dead (2008) was a remake of sorts of the 1985 movie, however, it veered drastically from the original movie, despite maintaining some of the elements, situations and characters. The original Sarah Bowman of the 1985 film (Lori Cardille) is instead replaced by Mena Suvari as Army Corporal Sarah Cross, who is assigned to a military lock down of an 'infected town' in Colorado. There is no apocalyptic zombie plague like in the original, in fact this is not even part of the Dead series, in that no one yet knows of the living dead, and the way they become infected is completely different. In this incarnation, it is a military developed airborne virus designed to paralyze enemy soldiers for 6-8 hours and had mutated into killing people with 'flu like symptoms' and turning them into amped up zombies who can climb the ceiling and run like mad.
Probably the biggest disappointment to fans of Dawn of the Dead (2004) was using actor Ving Rhames to play a completely different character than he did in Dawn of the Dead (2004). Instead of the heroic police officer Kenneth, Rhames plays an unsympathetic Army Captain, a nod to the Captain Rhodes (Joe Pilato) of the first movie, thus any fan, curious to see if Kenneth or anyone else from Dawn of the Dead (2004) actually survived, was in for a crushing let down.
The film was released direct to DVD (as is usual for low budgeted films shot in Bulgaria) in April 2008.
Used by Captain Rhodes (Ving Rhames), Salazar (Nick Cannon) and Corporal Sarah Cross (Mena Suvari). Note: Sarah Cross is called "Corporal Cross" by Captain Rhodes and the nametape "Cross" is on her uniform, but in the credits she is listed as "Sarah Bowman". Strangely, every time they are fired, the Beretta's sound like they have silencers on them.
Nina (AnnaLynne McCord) has a Smith & Wesson Model 30 with nickle finish and pachmyer grips tucked in the back of her jeans which wiggles when she walks, prompting her boyfriend Trevor to mention how 'Hot' she looks packing heat.
Liberated from the Gun Shop, one has a ribbed short barrel, and the other is a standard Cruiser with plain barrel. Both shotguns have pistol grips. Used by Salazar (Nick Cannon) and Trevor (Michael Welch).
A Bulgarian Arsenal AR rifle (Actually milled receiver AK47) with black synthetic foregrip, long flash hider and black synthetic Thumbhole Stock is used by Salazar (Nick Cannon) and Nina (AnnaLynne McCord).
Built up from AK47s, these are the fake M16s seen in many low budget sci fi/horror movies that are filmed in Eastern Europe, in this case, Sofia, Bulgaria.
There are many bolt action rifles, shotguns and pistols in this store. According to the scriptwriters, it's easy to walk out of a gunshop in "Colorado" with fully automatic Machine guns. Apparently the screenwriters don't know much about gun stores in America.
Being that this movie was filmed in Sofia, Bulgaria, the filmmakers used Eastern European BDU uniforms which closely resemble American ones but the color scheme and cut is slightly different.
Different posters were used for different DVD & Video Markets. Since the film did not get a Theatrical release in the U.S. there was no poster developed for that.
