REVIEW: Survival of the Dead

George A. Romero is the father of the modern day zombie. No one will argue that his work has set the genre in motion to become the wonderful world that we all love to live in today. He transformed the idea of the voodoo zombie into something a bit more creative, scary, and something a lot closer to home. What many people may argue though is the quality of his films over the years. Some say his creativity has gone up while many also say his story telling has gone down.

Let me start off by saying that the fact that we’re seeing Romero try something for the first time in an ACTUAL sequel to one of his other films is an interesting take. By that I of course mean that our lead character Sarge” Crockett (Alan Van Sprang) was actually a minor character in Romero’s previous entry, Diary of the Dead. This is the first time Romero had the ability (or realistically the legal rights) to continue any of his now 6 entries into the “of the Dead” series. (Unless you count the extremely brief appearance of Tom Savini being in Dawn and Land as a zombie.)

Sarge is leading what is left of his military unit on a path to safety. Where that safety is though they currently have no idea and on top of that they are willing to loot and pillage to get there. What they end up fighting is a secure island. The only problem is the island is already inhabited by 2 Irish families who are at war with each other and have their own ideas on what should be done with the dead. The soldiers that we are following quickly fall into the middle of a struggle between these wo clans and leaves them in a state of array trying to figure out both which side to take and how to really survive.

While I’m not sure I enjoy Romero going to CGI for his zombies I will fully give him credit for knowing how to properly use it compared to most of the cgi’d zombie films that are out currently. The kills are gory, the flesh eating is perfect, and as usual Romero has picked a new way for zombies to ‘evolve’ – though I can’t say I like HOW they evolved at the end of the film.

While still not as good as Dawn or Day this is Romero’s best attempt of his last three. It actually help my attention until the end at which point I had to get a little annoyed. First with how the zombies ‘evolve’ in this one and second the way the choice the survivors make on where to go and how to survive. If they had just stayed put it would have been easy to clear out and actually have a safe haven to call their own. The chance they take in their decision seems to be one of the more annoying choices a Romero character has made – specially with how much actually loved the build up to that point.

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