Romero's next installment: Survival of the Dead

Necronomicon

Interesting preview of the next Romero 'Dead film here.

I'm not the biggest George Romero fan, but I do know that no one can make zombie movies like he does. Unfortunately in the last few years he's been making some pretty awful zombie movies, including Diary of the Dead which I saw at the Toronto Film Festival a few years ago and really hated. But he's back at the top of his game again with Survival of the Dead. It's not a return to form, but he is back. Somewhat like Steven Soderbergh, Romero has reached a point where he just likes to experiment and do whatever the hell he wants, which includes making a zombie movie that feels more like a western than a post-apocalyptic epic.

Survival of the Dead spins off of a character that first appeared very briefly in Diary of the Dead who is part of a small four-man group of soldiers that are just roaming around trying to survive in a world overrun by zombies. Over on an island off the coast of Deleware, however, things are a bit different. The local town on the island is run by two Irish families - the O'Flynns and the Muldoons. One of the families wants to kill of all the zombies that pop up, the other wants to keep them alive in hopes of finding a cure or discovering that they can survive on something other than human flesh. The head of the O'Flynn family gets kicked off. The soldiers meet up with him and make their way to the island and fight themselves caught in the crossfire.

The plot is a bit hard to describe and that's because it's not the greatest. The two families on the island seemed odd and out-of-place, especially with their thick Irish accents. I got that Romero just wanted an eventual western stand-off between all the men on each side (or kind of like The Godfather, either way), but I couldn't get completely into it. The group of soldiers was, at first, the group I enjoyed seeing the most, but when they get onto the island, the great dynamic they originally had starts to fall apart as it gets mixed in with the two families. It's a bit rough in spots, but of course we're watching this for the zombies, right?

Despite all of those rough edges, I'll admit that I had a good time watching this, it was fun and it's a huge improvement over Diary of the Dead. Romero doesn't stuff it with political messages, instead he just lets the story play out and includes a small amount of voiceover to get his message across. I don't mind that Romero continues to experiment and do whatever he wants, especially if the result is an entertaining bit of zombie cinema, which this is. Survival of the Dead has some great zombie kills and some great comedy. It's Romero just doing what he does best. Worth seeing if you love zombies and it's way better than his last two films.

Was I in the minority in liking Diary of the Dead? Sure the documentary angle isn't exactly fresh anymore, but there were some terrific kills

(bow and arrow )

. Can't help but raise an eyebrow at the description above that it's 'more like a western than a post-apocalyptic epic' but I'll be looking forward to it nonetheless.

mbv

I'm looking forward to this.

I'm one of the few that loved Diary. Was very disappointed with Land though

zero19

Two Irish families? Bound to be hilarious!

Slow Motion

Didn't like diary, but look forward to this, is there a release date?

Necronomicon

Slow Motion wrote: »

Didn't like diary, but look forward to this, is there a release date?

No European release dates are up on IMDB (apart from the Venice Film Festival). It says 2009 for the States, so I'd hope not too far into the new year for us.

Reviews are calling it amongst the years worst films. Anyone looking for some Romero should check out his sons filM Staunton Hill. It's quite good.

Slow Motion

Deleted User wrote: »

Reviews are calling it amongst the years worst films. Anyone looking for some Romero should check out his sons filM Staunton Hill. It's quite good.

Zombie flick? Horror?

Fysh

Meh, Land of the Dead was poor and Diary of the Dead was equally poor but made worse by trying to hide behind horrendously clunky gimmicks. I'm neither so invested in my enjoyment of Romero's earlier films that I feel I have to watch his new films, nor interested in seeing him go back to the well again.

Given that Dawn of the Dead 2004, 28 Days Later & [REC] have all offered interesting new takes on zombies, and we've got Zombieland comic up soon, I don't really get why people still look forward to Romero's new (and decidedly sub-par) output

eamon234

The trailer isn't doing it any favours looks like load of cack imo.

spooky donkey

well i have diary on DVD at home still to watch. But then I saw a trailer for it on another Zombie DVD i have and before I saw the name of the movie I thought this looks sh1t..... Still ill give it a go.... when i get time... lots of time....

Otis Driftwood

Land was pretty crappy,Diary was even crappier,I fear this could be a horrendous pile of piss.

Slow Motion

spooky donkey wrote: »

well i have diary on DVD at home still to watch. But then I saw a trailer for it on another Zombie DVD i have and before I saw the name of the movie I thought this looks sh1t..... Still ill give it a go.... when i get time... lots of time....

Honest, don't bother, you will regret the wasted time, if you must, watch it on fast forward

Kess73

Have to say that I quite liked Diary Of The Dead, but I hated Land Of The Dead with a passion.

Will be casting my gaze over Survival Of The Dead when I get the chance. It does sound like Romero has been watching a lot of Sergio Leone's work though. I wonder will we get a zombie Clint in Survival.


I just hope that Zack Synder gets to make the follow up to his remake of Dawn though. He has often spoken about it in interviews.

Kess73

Survival Of The Dead has a March 15th release date on BluRay for the UK.



http://www.amazon.co.uk/Survival-Dead-Blu-ray-Devon-Bostick/dp/B002VD5S74/ref=pd_sim_d_h__49

Nerin

nedtheshed wrote: »

Land was pretty crappy,Diary was even crappier,I fear this could be a horrendous pile of piss.

i loved land. thought it was a good old fashioned action film. thought diary was lame,turned it off 15-20 minutes in.

spooky donkey

Having heard all teh bad reports on diary of the dead when I finally got around to watching it I thought it was not that bad at all. I think it helped hearing all the bad press.