Survival of the Dead
Directed by: George A. RomeroStarring: Alan Van Sprang, Kenneth Welsh, Kathleen Munroe, Devon Bostick Synopsis: A small group of AWOL soldiers wind up on a small island where two warring clans reside, each with their own belief as how to deal with the zombie epidemic. Review:It’s hard to believe that we’re in the sixth decade of George Romero’s brand of zombie movies. Romero is quite literally, the “Grandfather of the Living Dead” and it all began with “Night…” in 1968. This movie revolutionised horror cinema by bringing in a new brand of zombie, one that had cannibalistic tendencies and took over the world through the successive movies shown during the 70s and 80s. Whilst “Dawn…” approached the story full of socio-political humour based upon consumerism, “Day…” reflected the excesses of the 80s. That was where the Dead films stopped, for a time. People like myself cried out for more. There were plenty of imitations but nothing quite like that trilogy. In fact there has never really been anything like that trilogy again. Uncle George R finally returned to his living dead roots with the treatment of his script “Dead Reckoning”; “Land of the Dead”. It wasn’t the “Twilight of the Dead” that many of us were expecting. (God, that title has strange connotations now)Instead it appeared to have a bigger budget, bigger named actors but less gore on theatrical release. The Dead had gone mainstream, but the public didn’t embrace them. A decent film was spoilt by a strange politically correct ending where the dead were seen as having just as much right to be on the planet as the living. “Diary of the Dead” cleverly used modern advances in social networking and technology by showing the footage filmed by students during the initial hours of the zombie outbreak and how they uploaded on to the net, using You Tube like websites. Unfortunately, whilst entertaining in itself, there was a better movie out there; a Spanish movie called [REC]. The Spanish shaky cam film was better and also knocked all the other shaky cam films out of the water too. Why the American public got their panties in a bunch over Paranormal Activity still astounds me given the way [REC] never signposted it's scares. What's that you say? It's got subtitles and was remade with only a fifth of the quality? Anyway, I digress... 
"Survival..." centers on a group of soldiers, who get mixed up in a bizarre feud between the Muldoon and O'Flynn families. One of the soldiers was seen in Diary of the Dead, so this makes "Survival..." a kind of sequel. Alan Van Sprang plays "Nicotine" Crockett. Van Sprang now belongs to a very exclusive club of actors who've worked with Romero on more than two pictures. Romero tends not to use the same actors in more than one movie. The only other actor to hold this accolade is Joe Pilato who is famous for his superb performance as Captain Rhodes in Day of the Dead (1985).Similarly to Pilato, Van Sprang has a noticeably powerful screen presence. Sadly, Romero didn't captialise on this. Crockett and his gang of soldiers have been ripping off other survivors of their supplies, but his appearance on You Tube carrying out the deed has led to a notoriety meaning that they have to be a bit more careful in what they're doing. Joining this band of "mercenaries" is a young man, whose character is nameless. He seems to be almost a hangover from Diary and provides comic relief.After seeing video footage of Patrick O'Flynn luring unsuspecting souls to Plum island, an island he has been expelled from because he disagreed with the Muldoon policy of keeping dead relatives, the group decide to see what the fuss is about. O'Flynn is luring survivors to the harbour and stealing their supplies. Despite being the victim, Crockett sees O'Flynn as a fellow pirate and decides to travel over to the island after pacifying O'Flynn and his group. When the soldiers and O'Flynn get to the island, a familiar story plays out, a little like a Western. Despite it's failings, I liked Survival of the Dead. It's an entertaining movie but by Romero standards more superficial than the previous "...of the Dead" movies. Although CGI is used more heavy handedly, it's clear from the first few minutes that the Zombie deaths are played for laughs. There has been slapstick and humour in the Dead films before but there is definitely a lighter tone in this movie. For this very reason I am surprised that Survival wasn't released theatrically. Someone missed a trick, as Zombieland was a huge success for a zombie movie. Whilst "Survival..." isn't quite as hip as Zombieland, it holds it's own. My favourite gag is the Fisherman on the roof. 
The main trouble with
Survival of the Dead
is that it hasn't got a clear identity. It feels like it wants to be something it isn't and what it isn't is a Western, however many references there are. Given that Romero rarely has trouble eliciting an emotional response from the audience, I never felt from a character's demise. There are some opportunities for some genuine tension that never feels like it's mined enough. An example being the swim to the ferry that Crockett has to make. It's all very "so what?" at the end. It may be because it's the 25th Anniversary of "Day..." and I'm looking back with nostalgia at a zombie film masterpiece. The effects alone are far superior in "Day..." There's not much of a hint of deep and meanigful subtext in "Survival..." and it's easy to reflect on Romero's past glories.Verdict Despite my reflection on the negative, the film offers much to the casual viewer and the zombie film fan alike. I intend to watch the movie for a second time. I haven't spent much time on the acting or the actors. There is no weak link in the movie, it's just that there is no standout performance. Van Sprang reminds me of Jeffrey Dean Morgan - not a bad thing. I always like Kenneth Welsh in what he is in. Athena Karkanis is also good as the soldier "Tomboy". (Thanks to Romero for making sure that we realised she was a lesbian.) Give the movie a go. 7 out of 10 (Wayfarer)
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