Except for mayhem, Romero's latest zombie movie is DOA
"Survival of the Dead" is the fifth zombie movie that George A. Romero has written and directed since beginning the cycle with 1968's "Night of the Living Dead." Amazingly, the 70-year-old Romero seems to have learned nothing in all that time.
"Survival of the Dead" is the fifth zombie movie that George A. Romero has written and directed since beginning the cycle with 1968's "Night of the Living Dead." Amazingly, the 70-year-old Romero seems to have learned nothing in all that time.
While he gets credit for inventing the modern zombie movie, Romero's flat direction and dumb dialogue (made worse because he takes this stuff seriously) have long been surpassed by his imitators, especially Zack Snyder and his 2004 remake of Romero's "Dawn of the Dead."
"Survival" is crawling with weird ideas that make no sense. Most of it unfolds on an island off our Atlantic coast - although you might not know that since everyone inexplicably speaks with a thick Irish brogue.
Anyway, two families are feuding over how to treat the zombies in their midst (kill them or train them to be servants?). A unit of rogue American soldiers gets involved, and there are lots of cowboy movie tropes.
For all the lameness of its plotting and dialogue, "Survival of the Dead" is a classic display of non-CGI splatter mayhem. Take that, you ugly arm muncher.
Produced by Paula Devonshire, written and directed by George A. Romero, music by Robert Carli, distributed by Magnolia Pictures.