Review of Survival of the Dead (2010) by Trevor C — 24 Jun 2011

It's really horrible compared to all the other Romero zombie flicks, but its definitely better than Diary of the Dead simply because of premise and humor. Right when the movie starts we know that it's going to be comedy over horror, which is a little big disappointing, but not necessarily as bad as it could be. Romero is known for his horror after all, but this is one of the least gritty films he's ever made mainly because all the gore is extremely fake and at many points CG; plus the digital aspect makes it appear less gritty and makes it kind of cleaner looking in a sort of bad way. At one point - at the beginning - a zombie gets its head shot by an assault rifle resulting in its head's mid section being obliterated and its skullcap falling neatly onto its neck. Really over the top. A little TOO over the top, but I accepted it.

There are some decent pop outs, but no real horror and the atmosphere is equally mediocre, but the humor is reasonably likable. The acting is pretty decent with the timing of the movie.

The zombies are bumbling and stupid and the whole 'they're learning' aspect introduced in Day of the Dead is brought back in this addition to the franchise. However, the zombies learn much faster than they do in previous films, which is a little strange, but I guess Romero is really, really interested in his own 'zombie learning' ideas.

It's a pretty decent zombie movie either way, but I guess coming from Romero it's a pretty great disappointment. Sometimes I wish he would go way, way back to the pure atmospheric zombie horror that was Night of the Living Dead. One can only hope...