Review of Survival of the Dead (2010) by Balázs G — 21 Jul 2010

SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD is George A. Romero's sixth foray into the undead genre. The tone here is more campy than it is serious, though this straightforward zombie picture with a solid story (even though it borrows heavily from the story of the Hatfields and McCoy's) and convincing enough performances has some seriously gruesome/inventive kills. There are a few zombie kills you've seen before that are shown here, but George A. Romero knows his target horror audience well enough to provide a few new twists on how to kill a zombie!

While the many, many zombie and human kills are quite darkly entertaining, there is an involving story of a couple of AWOL soldiers fleeing an apathetic military post, only to find more survivors and fine a small hope in an island refuge. In the story's beginning, we see the main conflict on an island off of the coast of Delaware, named Plum Island. On this particular island, the O'Flynn's and the Muldoon's are two families whose long-held grudge against one another's business has lasted for generations, and to what ends no one remembers. They don't take kindly to strangers.

George A. Romero can still manage, after FORTY-TWO years of filmmaking, to arouse uneasiness in the viewer by way of sneaky horror jumps, an ambient score, believable performances from his actors, and his requisite black humor and gore. He has already made his masterpiece, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

Do not, under any circumstances, go into this film expecting a film that matches those standards. Even though SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD displays a more intriguing story and better acting and gore, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD basically invented the zombie myth as we know it. No one zombie film besides George A. Romero's first can touch that milestone, and that's a damn-right fact! Be ready for more Critiques and Opinions on Every Movie I Can Get My Hands On!