It’s hard to not want George Romero to succeed. “Night of the Living Dead” was a masterpiece, and while “Dawn of the Dead” had silly music and “Day of the Dead” had an obscene amount of over-acting, both were actually pretty well put together and were effective critiques of society (particularly “Dawn…”). But after fans hit the snooze button during “Land of the Dead” and “Diary of the Dead,” has all really been lost for the horror vet? After the rebirth of zombie films following “28 Days Later,” the interest in seeing a slow-poke zombie film with mediocre acting waned. But there are still fans of the Romero zombie, fans that did enjoy the previous two films (which weren’t all that terrible), fans that hope that his next zombie film might hit that perfect note, just like “Night…” and the preceding two films nearly did. So with that in mind, here comes “Survival of the Dead.”
The new film follows the National Guard characters from “Diary…” as they move to a remote island inhabited by two families. The families represent both sides of the zombie issue – one family believes they should keep their loved ones until there is a cure, the others believe they will not be cured and should be killed. Tensions rise when the Guards come to the island, as the pro-Zombie family believes outsiders should stay away. And why not? More people could mean more zombies, and as the trailer shows, that’s exactly what happens.
While the obvious conflict between the families is somewhat intriguing, it’s not treading any new ground which will likely disappoint some Romero fans. The trailer looks somewhat decent but modest, which is fine for a fan but won’t catch a regular, indifferent movie goer. It doesn’t grab your attention and demand you see it, unlike most pop-horror movies of late. It’s likely that fans of recent zombie-on-speed movies probably won’t dig this any more than the previous two, and critical reaction is mixed. Even some of the more positive reviews admit that some fans probably won’t have the patience for this film. For those not expecting brilliance or crack zombies, there probably will be some fun to be had, if one can ignore the dodgy acting and the really low budget special effects (one scene has a zombie on fire, which looks like the same fire effect from 1973’s “The Crazies”). This writer is interested enough to want to see the film at some point, though it should be noted that more fun was had giggling and correcting the typo “Dairy of the Dead” than watching the trailer.
Those in the UK can get the DVD now, and the film was also released on April 30th through Video-On-Demand thanks to Magnet. If seeing it in a theater is important to you, there will be a limited release on May 28th.