SurvivaloftheDead

Survival of the Dead (2009)

George Romero is back in the director’s chair for another zombie movie, and in spite of what some people say I personally am glad. So lets talk some Survival of the Dead. The movie has 2 intersecting story lines. The first one involves a group of soldiers that are lead by Sarge. This is a character that we have already seen in Diary of the Dead robbing the main characters in that movie. Sarge is trying to keep his people alive when they hear of an island that promises some safety and head there. This brings them into contact with the other story line. This one involves the 2 families that live on the island they are heading to. They have a long-standing feud that has only been made worse by the zombie uprising. Sarge and his group are drawn into the feud, which leads to a real mess being made by the living and taken advantage of by the dead.

There are a lot of things that I like about Survival of the Dead and a few things I don’t like. Lets start with the positive stuff, shall we? I think the story is pretty strong and interesting, even on the 2nd watching. The movie is paced very well and lets you get to know the characters, while wasting little time getting to the good stuff. There is plenty of zombie killing and throat ripping to be had throughout the movie, which is nice. Both the storylines boast strong characters that I wanted to see make it. Of course being a zombie movie that just isn’t going to happen. There are also a couple of twists involving some of the characters and their fates that I didn’t see coming the 1st time I saw the movie. And in spite of knowing what was coming the 2nd time I still found it interesting.

Of course if we are going to talk about the plot of a Romero zombie movie we have to talk a bit about the message. Like or not he is an opinionated guy and that shows in his movies. Unlike Diary of the Dead, which really pounded away at it’s message, Survival isn’t as obvious. I mean I wouldn’t say it was subtle, but the point he movie is trying to make seems to be a natural part of what we are seeing on the screen anyway. This is an antiwar movie that is trying to show that violence and holding onto old grudges isn’t good for anyone. Normally I don’t bother watching movies that want to show me the error of my ways, but toss some zombies doing their “gut munching” in and I’ll drink the Kool Aid.

Speaking of gut munching lets talk about the effects. This is also the only problem that I had with the movie, and it really isn’t that big of a problem. Survival of the Dead does give the audience some pretty cool practical effects. Not only do the zombies munch some people guts, but a horse as well! I mean we have some good old school gut munching going on guys, who could ask for more? I also thought that some of the zombie designs on the featured zombies looked pretty good. I mean this isn’t Day of the Dead, but I’ve never seen a movie match those effects. There are also a few bites that are done with practical effects that look damn nice as well. But alas there is a lot of CGI here too. Now most of it is fairly harmless stuff like bullet hits and muzzle flashes, and is done pretty well. But there are 2 gags that look terrible and that I could have done without. The 1st involves a fire extinguisher and some popping eyeballs. It looked okay until the eyes, but then the gag got far too cartoonish. The 2nd is not long after and involves a flare gun. This gives one of the characters a chance to play cool on screen, but the effect looks terrible. Other than these I can’t think of anything wrong with the movie.

The Blu-Ray release of the Survival of the Dead from Magnolia is packed full of special features. In addition to the commentary track with Romero and some of the crew there are some fantastic extras on the disc. The first on that I want to talk about is called Walking After Midnight. Fan favorite (or at least one of my favorite creature of special features) Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures has really outdone himself with this one. He is on the set from the first night of shooting until the last day, filming the whole time. Unlike many shorter special features this one is more then 70 minutes long, but flies right by. Along the way we get to see interviews with the cast and crew of Survival of the Dead, as well as getting to hear from the man himself George Romero. I know that a lot of fans just watch the movie and put away the disc, but trust me you will want to check this one out.

There are some other cool special features on the Blu-Ray that I wanted to mention in addition to Walking After Midnight. The first is a 9 minute long interview with Romero where he talks about making a movie using CGI effects, as well as some of his frustrations about not being able to create a universe where all of his movies can tie together. I’m a huge Romero nerd so I might be biased here, but I found the interview very interesting. This is also obviously footage that was shot by Felsher, and I’m wondering why it wasn’t used in Walking. There are also a group of really short sequences called A Minute of your Time. There are mostly outtakes from the stuff that Felsher shot and didn’t use in his longer feature. These are interesting, but not something you have to watch. These are just some, but not all the special features that are on the disc, which really is packed with tons of extras that fans will enjoy.

Ever since I first caught Survival of the Dead before it was released on DVD and Blu-Ray I’ve had to defend the movie and myself for liking it. I’m thru with all of that. Bottom line for me is that I like zombie movies and I like Survival of the Dead. If you don’t like it then that is cool with me. That said guys if you like zombie movies and want to spend 90 or so minutes having some fun watching a well made and entertaining one then Survival of the Dead is worth checking out. The fact that the Blu-Ray is packed full of killer special features only makes picking up the disc an even better idea.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer