Survival of The Dead
Directed by: George A. Romero
Starring: Alan Van Sprang, Kenneth Welsh, Kathleen Munroe, Richard Fitzpatrick
Released: 2010
Country of Origin: USA
Runtime: 90 min.
Full disclosure: George A. Romero's original Dawn of The Dead is my favorite movie. No matter how many highbrow classics I see, the 1978 zombie masterpiece is the only logical choice for when I have to pick one singular favorite. Along with that, I am a huge zombie fan in general. Done right, the zombie genre can yield some amazing things (28 Days Later, Shaun of The Dead, The Walking Dead comics, Zombieland), done wrong..... well, they still kinda kick ass. I say this because you need to understand that while I bought this film as soon as it was available and I'm sure that I will watch it again, this is one awful movie.
Survival is Romero's sixth entry in the ...Of The Dead series. In case you missed what came before, let me recap:
1. Night of The Living Dead - Romero re-invents the zombie as we know it today and sets the standard for all zombie and survival horror films to come. A band of people hole up in a small house and try and survive the zombie apocalypse and each other.
2. Dawn of The Dead - The mighty zombie film masterpiece. Survivors take refuge in a shopping mall, become too comfortable in their surroundings, and it almost ruins them. It's part horror film, part social commentary on consumerism, and proves why Tom Savini was one of the best horror effects artists of his time. All around awesomeness.
3. Day of The Dead - Introduces the idea of the smart zombie that is able to learn and reason to an extremely limited degree. This one centers on a small underground military outpost as they try to domesticate the undead. Until this point, this one was the worst of the series.
4. Land of The Dead - Dennis Hopper vs. Zombies. Romero continues the concept of the smart zombie, an idea that provides some interesting but flawed results. Rich people hang out in a giant skyscraper completely removed from the real world, where lower class people are the ones that must deal with the constant onslaught of roaming zombies. Not a high mark in the series, but Dennis Hopper is awesome (as he always is) and it provides ninety minutes of watching the trashy hotness that is Asia Argento as she slaughters dead things.
5. Diary of The Dead - Romero, thankfully ditches the idea of smart zombies and brings things back to the beginning as young film-makers document the start of the zombie apocalypse, Blair Witch Project style.
That brings us to number six, Survival of The Dead and by far the worst of series. Almost nothing is good about this film. The acting is horrible, the effects are cheap, the story is lame, and worst of all Romero tries to insert the smart zombie concept back into the franchise. Nothing works as it should but zombies do get blown up, which provided me with enough entertainment that I don't view this as a complete waste of time.
The story involves a small island off the coast of Delaware that is inhabited by two rival clans of Irish folk who fight over whether or not they should kill zombies or try to keep them "alive" in hopes of a cure. In comes a small band of ex-military goons looking for shelter, their leader may be familiar as he appeared in Diary robbing the group of young film-makers. The rest of the film throw various things at you like: bad Irish accents, attempts to change the zombies diet to farm animals, death by fire extinguisher, death by signal flare, underwater zombies, zombie mail carriers, zombie fishing, and zombies riding horseback.
The biggest thing the movie lacks is something that should be essential in this type of film, zombie action. The living dead take a backseat to the human story, which is a huge mistake. For zombies to be effective you need a balance in terms of zombie gore and an engaging human element. If your human story is weak, then an abundance of zombies being blown apart in various bloody ways is needed to mask the shortcomings. Romero provides a minimal zombie element, apart from the obvious fact that everything revolves around a world with zombies, then throws out a brain-less premise that tries to add in the vary element that almost ruined the series to begin with.
FINAL VERDICT: I won't even try to rationalize why I kinda liked it. I shouldn't. It's a very crappy movie and comparing it to Romero's other zombie flicks makes it even more disappointing. I'm a completest and a George A. Romero fanboy, so if he ever makes a seventh entry, I'm sure I will watch and buy it. No matter how bad it is. For the rest of you, should you watch it? No. No. No. Not unless you are as die-hard of a ...of The Dead fan as I am. Even then, it's very iffy territory.
This is very well-written. I didn't notice a single typo!
ReplyDeleteFavorite line: "I say this because you need to understand that while I bought this film as soon as it was available and I'm sure that I will watch it again, this is one awful movie."
What did you think of the Community halloween episode? That's as zombie as i get.
ReplyDeletePrior to 28 Days Later, it seemed like George Romero was the only director you could count on to make a decent zombie movie. Unfortunately, his more recent efforts have shown that he's become kind of irrelevant in a genre that he created. No disrespect to the man, but when the zombie movie spoofs like Shaun Of The Dead and Zombieland end up being far superior films to those that Romero is putting out, I'd say it's a pretty good indication that he should find a new hobby.
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