SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD
Written & Directed by George A. Romero
Produced by Paula Devonshire
Released by Magnolia Pictures
USA/Canada. 90 min. Rated R
With Alan Van Sprang, Kenneth Welsh, Kathleen Munroe, Devon Bostick, Richard Fitzpatrick & Athena Karkanis
 

There are times when a director comes out with a film and it rouses up interest or vitriol equally. The buzz on Survival of the Dead is, at best, mild and, at worst, rather hateful, as if its director, horror legend George A. Romero, had made one of the Star Wars prequels (some would possibly argue that this and his past two films in the “Dead” saga, Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead, would make up that kind of nouveau trilogy). I’m not sure if I would count Romero out yet, at least not entirely. But it’s sad to say from someone who has loved his films dearly that this is the weakest of his six Dead films. (Night of the Living Dead, and Dawn of the Dead are masterpieces for any genre).

The story picks up, in small part, with characters established in Diary. In that film, a group of college kids riding around in a Winnebago flee from flesh-eating zombies and are pulled over by a group of military hard-asses, lead by Sarge “Nicotine” Crocket (Alan Van Sprang). In this film, Sarge and his men come across a video of some crazy Irish guy, Patrick O’Flynn (Kenneth Walsh), who claims he can provide safe passage on his boat to an island off of Delaware. With some hesitation, they venture out to meet him, and after some zombie carnage ensues, they sail off to the island.

In a way, this is Romero’s first Western. (He said he was inspired by “two old curmudgeons fighting over land” in, of all things, William Wyler’s The Big Country). O’Flynn’s group and those loyal to Seamus Muldoon (Richard Fitzpatrick) fight over one ideal: do you shoot the dead or do you keep them “alive” to find if they can be cured or feed on something other than humans? This clash of ideologies sets the plot in horrific motion and leads to the inevitable onslaught of the un-dead, who come after anything and anyone in sight—this includes O’Flynn’s daughter Jane (Kathleen Munroe), a twin (ho-ho). She wants to help her father, kind of—her twin, un-dead sister always got more attention from dad.

There’s some melodrama and a great many scenes of characters yelling their declarations. Van Sprang does this most of all, albeit most entertainingly, while Walsh gets the juiciest scenes to chew, but the film lacks a satirical edge. There was criticism of Romero’s previous Diary for, arguably, going a little too far with the social commentary. Survival is just content to be a simplistic Western, loaded with clichés that borders on the laughable (the audience couldn’t stop laughing at the revelation of the O’Flynn twins), and it seems like Romero has little to say in his usual sharp manner as a satirist.

And yet, Survival becomes recommendable and thrilling if only for die-hard fans of Romero or of horror violence. Some of the violence, sadly, is CGI (where’s make-up maestro Tom Savini when you need him?), but a lot of it comes off as surprising and really hilarious. Romero has a gay-old time with new ways to kill his dead, so to speak—underwater living-dead, zombies riding on horseback, decapitations in clever ways, and even a final shot with two such walking dead in a face-off that is, frankly, unforgettable.

Per usual for a Romero production, the performances are hit or miss (aforementioned actors do what they can while other supporting players do what they can, which isn’t too much), and the homage to the Westerns is only enjoyable on a visual level. But if you need your fix of comic-horror violence and blood and guts, you got it. Along with being released in theaters, the film is now available on VOD and Xbox360 Live. Jack Gattanella
May 28, 2010