Survival of the Dead (2009)

Survival of the Dead: Directed by George A. Romero. With Alan Van Sprang, Joshua Peace, Hardee T. Lineham, Dru Viergever. On an island off the coast of North America, local residents simultaneously fight a zombie epidemic while hoping for a cure to return their un-dead relatives back to their human state.

“25 years ago, I sat open-mouthed in awe of the intense visceral horror experience that was George Romerou0026#39;s Day of the Dead; today, I sat jaw agape once more at the directoru0026#39;s latest zombie flick, Survival of the Dead, although for a very different reason: utter disbelief!u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHow could George Romero, the creator of the modern movie zombie, get everything so totally wrong?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWith Survival, it looks like the director has finally taken on board the criticism aimed at his last two films and ditched the heavy-handed social commentary (the messages are still there, but are far less u0026#39;in-your-faceu0026#39;); unfortunately, somewhere during the creative process, heu0026#39;s also unwisely opted to up the level of comedy, meaning that much of this film plays the global zombie threat for laughs.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eRemember how Romero used the slapstick custard pie scene in Dawn of the Dead to momentarily relieve the tension? Well in this one, itu0026#39;s all u0026#39;custard pieu0026#39; and absolutely no tension. During the course of the film, we get to witness several cringe-worthy comedy zombie slayings, a hilarious bitter feud between two stereotypical Irish clans, a zombie woman on horseback, a car ferry strangely moored in six feet of water, zombie fishing, plus loads of other nonsense that beggars belief. Not once, however, do we get a sense of dread. The closest Romero ever comes to delivering the goods is with a couple of cheap jump scares that are accompanied by loud noises and some admittedly splattery gore (that relies a little too heavily on CGI for my liking).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHad Survival of the Dead been made by anyone other than Romero, then I may have rated it as high as 5/10: itu0026#39;s never boring, I suppose. But coming from the guy who practically invented the genre, the film can only be seen as a massive disappointment—easily the worst of his u0026#39;Deadu0026#39; films to date—and therefore fully deserves my lower score of 3/10.”