All Souls Day opens in a small Mexican town, Santa Bonita in 1892. It seems the town has discovered an ancient Aztec shrine for the 'Lady of the Dead', with a treasure so valued, you can't even put a price tag on the value. Vargas Diaz has employed the village to help him mine the treasure and has promised to share the money with all those who have taken part in retrieving the treasure. Vargas' one wish was for immortality and felt with a sacrifice, the 'Lady of the Dead' would grant that wish. 01 November is the celebration of, 'Dia de los muertos' or 'Day of the Dead' in Mexico, where the people who have passed on can once again be seen by their loved ones. Vargas encouraged the locals to celebrate, 'Day of the Dead' and as the costumed villagers filed into the mine, he brought the mine down with an explosion, burying the villagers, alive. Flash ahead to 1952 and the White family; Thomas (Jeffery Combs), his wife Sarah (Ellie Cornell) 19-year old daughter, Lily (Mircea Monroe) and young son, Ricky (Noah Luke). Traveling into Mexico, the family decides to spend the night in, you guessed it, Santa Bonita. Forced to share a room with her young brother, Lily takes refuge in a bath, only to be relaxing and suddenly finds the water has been let out of the tub. More than a little pissed that her brother has come into the bathroom and seen her in all her naked glory, she storms into the bedroom and approaches her brother, who is sitting on the bed, under a blanket. When Lily rips the blanket off, she realizes the young boy under the blanket isn't her brother, but is in serious need of medical attention. Pounding on the door to her parent's room and getting no response, Lily continues down the steps and out the door, pleading for help. She's met by a rather large group of costumed 'people' and only after Lily attempts to escape the mob, does she see that these people are definitely not among the living. As Lily is pulled into the munching crowd, we see her young brother looking out the window with an old woman. Flash forward to 2005 and we have young Joss (Travis Wester) and girlfriend Alicia (Marisa Ramierz) traveling through Santa Bonita on their way to visit Alicia's parents. An unfortunate mishap ensues and Joss and Alicia suddenly find themselves face to face with a young woman who is bleeding and dazed, but manages to scrawl in the dirt that they have cut her tongue out to keep her silent. Naturally, Joss rushes to the Sheriff who just happens to be, Ricky White. Sheriff White tells the young travelers that they're basically stuck for the night in Santa Bonita as he helps the young woman into the jail for her own safety. From this point on, it's Joss and Alicia along with two friends who come to their rescue, Tyler (Laz Alonso) and Erica (Nichole Hiltz) battling the undead of Santa Bonita.

The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen, 1.77:1 and overall, the picture looks pretty good for a film that is a direct-to-TV-DVD release. Night scenes are bright enough that you can see what's happening and the colors appear quite solid. One minor complaint I might have is, the lack of subtitles, there are just times when I couldn't quite make out all the dialogue and subtitles/captions would have been nice. There are some good bonus features which include a commentary track from director Jeremy Kasten and writer Mark A Altman, as well as three featurettes; Raising the Dead: The Making of All Souls Day, Faces of Death: The Make-Up Effects of All Souls Day and Jailhouse Rock: The Stunts of All Souls Day. Additional bonus features include; a storyboard gallery, one deleted scene, one extended scene, screenplay (DVD-ROM) and trailers for; All Souls Day, Dawn of the Dead, Near Dark, Demon Hunter and It Waits.

I was rather disappointed with this film. The idea was good, but the end result was poor. I'd heard there was lots of gore and unless I saw a different film than most people are talking about, I didn't think this was chock-full of gore and what there was, wasn't impressive at all. The acting was, OK, but there was far too many holes in the story for even me to ignore. The film clocks in at just around ninety minutes, but those ninety minutes really crawled by for me, I just wasn't interested in what the film was doing, had to say or show, it just bored me. I won't say that might be the case for all viewers and it might be worth a rental to some and this film might even find a true fan, I just won't be one of them.

Buy the All Souls Day on DVD at  Amazon.com