I was prepared to just go along with “All Souls Day.” The opening scenes aren’t great but they were just different enough for me to remain open. The film begins in 1892 in some broadly drawn Mexican village called Santa Bonita. Costumed villagers are out in the dusty streets celebrating the Day of the Dead (the November 1st festival when the deceased get to visit their relatives). I know right away that this will not be a good film, but I’m open to possibly enjoying it. The giveaway is the opening scene where costumed extras wearing colorful masks are dancing around in celebration – and I don’t believe them. But the cinematography and lighting are nice and the setting is authentic enough…

There’s some drama surrounding stolen gold and the perpetrator is forced to commit suicide. Later the majority of the town folk (the unconvincing costumed revelers) are buried alive inside a cave.

Now it’s 1952 and the squabbling White family is driving through Mexico on a dark deserted road. Thomas (Jeffrey Combs) and Sarah (Ellie Cornell) are on vacation with their kids after their son’s bout with polio. Son Ricky (Noah Luke) is learning the native language while being typically annoying to his older sister Lily (Mircea Monro). Tired and running low on gas, the White’s make the mistake of entering Santa Bonita. This set-up is mildly intriguing; Combs and Cornell are fun as the parents and the period trappings give it an unusual spin. The boy studying Spanish and his crippling fight with polio are surprising character nuances and promise something inspired. Unfortunately this entire portion of the film is just a set-up and one that is entirely unnecessary. The White family stops at a creepy inn where they are ignored by the staff, but decide to spend the night anyway. This proves to be a bad idea as supernatural shenanigans get the best of them and (most) are eaten by zombies.

Cut to present day Mexico where young, annoying love birds Joss (Travis Wester) and Alicia (Marisa Ramirez) are on their way to visit her parents. Cringe-worthy dialogue ensues. (This is the part of the film where “just going along” turns into major work.) They make a detour through Santa Bonita and crash into what looks like a funeral procession. The people scatter, leaving a busted coffin in their wake. Inside the coffin is an unfortunate naked woman who is very much alive and missing her tongue. Joss runs to get some help and almost immediately finds Sheriff Blanco (David Keith). Blanco suggests that the couple stay at the local hotel while he arranges for someone to help fix their vehicle (damaged in the funeral wreck). Since Joss and Alicia are young and horny, they have no problem changing their plans and staying at the hotel. In the lobby they meet the mysterious Martia (Laura Harring) who is reticent to give them a room, but eventually allows them stay. After a quick sex scene, the stranded couple decide they are having so much fun in the creepy hotel, they might as well call a couple of their friends. Enter Tyler (Laz Alonzo) and Erica (Nichole Hiltz) who soon prove to be as annoying, if not more so, than Alicia and Joss. Long, convoluted story short: the tongue-less naked woman was to be a sacrifice so that the dead villagers would remain sated. Alicia is eventually kidnapped as a replacement sacrifice - but is saved just in the nick of time by her boyfriend. At this point the dead come back from the grave, or the cave, and they’re ready for revenge. They’re also flesh-eaters because that’s just what the living dead do. Two paragraphs later we finally get to the heart of the story… “All Souls Day” is about four obnoxious young people stuck inside an old hotel and fending off zombies. The whole back story (complete with two prologues and, ugh!, a diary) is merely window dressing for this warhorse of a scenario. The entire Day of the Dead holiday and the culture surrounding it also come off as inauthentic and lazy. The few Hispanic actors involved in this production speak English and have only the slightest of accents. All of this would be distracting if the film were any better.

Fragments aspire to better-than-mediocre: a scene with Danny Trejo as a demonic bed-ridden ghost has a nice bit of sleazy tension. There are also some nice moments with the White family in the “second prologue.” The tongue-less naked woman is appropriately disturbing for a few minutes. But ultimately, what we have here is just another zombie film with good lighting and cartoon characters you hope will be eaten. Soon.

The supporting cast fare better than the leads. Danny Trejo and David Keith are both invested as much as they can be in their roles. Trejo is especially good as the evil Vargas. The always-reliable Jeffrey Combs is appropriately funny and he shares a surprising chemistry with Ellie “Halloween 4” Cornell. The film would have been far more interesting had it taken place with their characters in 1952. The beautiful Laura Harring looks embarrassed; her part is nonsensical and exists merely to dish out exposition. The four leads are very pretty and might even be good actors in certain circumstances. Wester is especially grating as the pseudo hero. His snarky commentary throughout makes it difficult to care much about his plight.

Director Jeremy Kasten and cinematographer Christopher Duddy give the tired narrative some visual punch. There are some well-shot action set pieces and the production has a professional sheen that belies its budget. There’s an over reliance on flashy editing, but it doesn’t harm much. The screenplay by producer Mark A Altman, however, is a mess. It’s at once overly complicated and depressingly simple. In all fairness the film was re-written just days before production, but it’s hard to imagine the basic kids-fighting-zombies set piece was any different in the original draft. The zombies are interesting in a lethargic “Blind Dead” sort of way. It would have been a much braver decision forgo the flesh eating. If they’re simply out for revenge wouldn’t simple murder be enough? The DVD copy touts this version as featuring “additional sex, violence and mayhem never broadcast on television!” A quick search on IMDB revealed that this was first shown on the Sci/Fi channel and, for the record, it’s much better than the typical fare they generally churn out.

Anchor Bay has gone above and beyond with this DVD release. Far beyond. In addition to a crackerjack full color booklet, the disc itself is loaded with extras. Everything you could possibly want to know about this film is covered. The beautiful 1.77:1 transfer has two strong Dolby Digital mixes as well as feature length commentary with Kasten and Altman. There are three featurettes covering the making of the film, the make-up effects and the stunts. Anchor Bay’s supplemental material is sometimes hit and miss, but these featurettes are fairly well done. They might have been more of interest had the film been more of interest. A deleted scene, an extended scene, trailer, storyboard and DVD-ROM of the screenplay are also included. It’s an impressive package for such a slight addition to the zombie genre.

One final note and then I’ll go eat worms… It was a bad idea for Anchor Bay to place a trailer for the original “Dawn of the Dead” before this film. As much as Kasten says he didn’t want Romero zombies, he sure didn’t deviate much from the original “Living Dead” template. Seeing the trailer from “Dawn” with its moderately paced scenes (even for a trailer) made the flashy editing and shopworn plot of “All Souls Day” all the more transparent.