Review: Survival of the Dead

Survival of the Dead (2010)

Genre: Horror

Format: Netflix HD Stream

Director: George A. Romero

For quite some time now, writer/director George A. Romero has never taken a misstep when he continuously presented us with newer films in his Night of the Living Dead series. Sure, Day of the Dead was a bit ho-hum but with such strong recent entries in the forms of Land of the Dead and especially Diary of the Dead, you would think that Romero's future endeavors will only enrich his trademark zombie experience. It is sad to say that Survival of the Dead is not only highly disappointing, it is also one of the worst zombie films ever made.

This movie follows a small group of soldiers who are looking for a place to settle in away from the zombie apocalypse. They are then lured to a small island where two influential families are fighting over what to do about the zombies: one wanted them to be killed off on sight while the other wanted to keep them like cattle to see if the zombies could be trained to become socially functional. The sociopolitical underpinnings that normally come with a Romero zombie film are definitely there but the progression of the plot is rather sloppy and the impending free-for-all zombie rampage at the end of the movie really lacked any real impact. The gore is strong and there are definitely a lot of zombie deaths - a couple of them are quite memorable. The real problem here is that the storyline just doesn't work and the situation just doesn't make much sense at all. It's nearly impossible to associate myself with any of the the three factions found within the story and it seems like Romero might have gotten a bit soft on us when everything ended a bit too neatly.

I was really looking forward to watching this movie and the fact that it was so bad was rather shocking. This is the kind of mistake that can completely ruin a franchise and the worst thing about it is the fact that Romero had written and directed the movie himself. I could understand if someone else took the reign, destroying the movie but that is not the case. I fear that Romero has lost his magic and he should probably stop before he could hurt himself more. Survival of the Dead is the equivalent of a zombie shot in the head - it's now dead and I know that it wouldn't rise back up again.

RATING: 1 out of 5