Review of Survival of the Dead (2010) by Corey B — 18 Feb 2011

Is uninspired the word I am looking for to describe this movie? Maybe. It is disappointing to witness a filmmaker who has created the best (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead) and one of the best (Day of the Dead) zombie movies in film history to create such mediocre work. I was ok with Land of the Dead and unsatisfied with Diary of the Dead, but Survival makes me shake my head in disapproval.

One of the reasons that Romero's original Dead trilogy worked so well is that he made you care for the good guys, and in Survival there's not enough character development to make the viewer invested in any character. The storytelling is lazy (especially leading to the film's climax), and even the zombies are not that interesting. As with any horror film, Survival has its moments (such as a nice flare gun kill), just not enough by far to outweigh the negatives. To sum my opinion up, Survival of the Dead not only falls far under the bar that Romero himself has set, but the film fails to bring anything new to the zombie genre.

Now if Romero happens to read this review, here is my message:

-You have one great zombie movie left in you. Rewatch the original Dead trilogy, see what made it work. Make this zombie movie gritty and/or shoot it on film. Maybe even have it feel like a 60-70's horror film (such as "Night" and "Dawn"). Something worthwhile may happen.