Survival of the Dead (2010)

Of course, George A. Romero is considered the grandmaster of all things zombie, but the genre has grown much larger than the low budget independent films which he started with over 40 years ago. Now we have scads of novels (both straight ahead horror and bizarrely humorous), more movies than you can shake a gore encrusted stick at, and even a weekly television series on basic cable which are all waving the zombie flag far and wide.

Over the last few years, Romero has come back to his roots as a zombie filmmaker and given us a couple of OK films: Land of the Dead (2005) and Diary of the Dead (2008). He now presents his latest, Survival of the Dead, which is an off-shoot of the film previous. In Diary, we follow a group of students who are documenting their travels in zombieland. Along the way they encounter a group of National Guard soldiers who have gone rogue and are pillaging the land they were sworn to protect. Survival follows that group of military brigands to a small island where the populace is embodying the story of the Hatfields and the McCoys with two families squaring off over long held grudges and the proper way to dispose of the dead. The O'Flynns want to kill their resurrected loved ones and the Muldoons want to teach the dead to eat animals. Well, you can sort of guess how most of this goes down and it is done with a lot of antics.

And "antics" is the right world for this film. While there are some nice moments of tension and the requisite amount of gore, the general tenor of this film is that of slapstick and situational comedy. If this isn't what Romero was trying for, then explain the explosion of the boat house which eliminates the wall and yet leaves everyone inside covered in black face? Or how about the pitchfork in the foot routine which ends in the foot becoming detached from the body? Or a just shot in the head zombie falling into a tub? You get the idea and there is more where that came from.

Overall, Survival is completely different from the other Romero zombie films, which isn't a bad thing. It probably bugs him that he has been pigeonholed in such a way, but at least it has provided him with work. While the general consensus seems to be that this film tarnishes his legend, I found it worthwhile and enjoyable on its own terms. If you don't come looking for the next Night, Dawn, or Day, you should not be too disappointed.