George A. Romero still brings zombie goods in ‘Survival of the Dead’

When it comes to zombies, you either love ’em or hate ’em. Count me in the love ’em category, but I wasn’t always head over heels for the cinematic walking dead. I used to think zombie movies were kind of boring; I always grew upset that these slow-moving corpses somehow were able to take over the world. Why wouldn’t people just run away?

But then I saw the original Night of the Living Dead, and I have been a dead head ever since. George A. Romero is an iconoclast and visionary. He’s not the best director working, but he knows his craft better than most.

He has stuck to the zombie theme most of his career with only a few interruptions (Creepshow being the best, although zombies make a cameo). His latest is Survival of the Dead, officially known as George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead. The movie stands as a quasi-sequel to Diary of the Dead from a few years ago, but honestly, Survival stands as its own picture.

Alan Van Sprang reprises his role as Sgt. Nicotine Crockett (what a great name!), a National Guardsman who leads a small group of survivors in the wake of a zombie epidemic. They have guns. They are angry. They are trying to survive.

While Crockett and company make their way through the ravages of the United States, an entirely different scene is taking place on Plum Island, off the coast of Delaware. This is where Patrick O’Flynn (the great Kenneth Welsh) and Seamus Muldoon (Richard Fitzpatrick) stand in bitter competition. They are the leaders of two family clans who have called Plum Island home for many years, although they do have Irish accents. The premise of these two warring families is set up like a Hatfield-McCoy rivalry, and the story line gives Romero the chance to add a few spaghetti Western techniques to the zombie fray.

O’Flynn believes zombies should be shot in the head. Muldoon, perhaps with a little religion behind his motives, believes the dead can be saved. The difference of opinion causes a major rift, and the clans begin attacking each other.

When O’Flynn’s own daughter (Kathleen Munroe) turns on him, he is cast off the island with a few of his most loyal supporters. Eventually the outcasts meet up with Crockett and his team, and the retaking of Plum Island becomes their one and only goal.

Set against this entire story is the zombie outbreak. It’s interesting because Romero, as he says in one of the DVD’s special features, doesn’t believe the zombies are necessarily villains in his films. They get in the way, and in Survival of the Dead this is true. They serve as decoration almost, a tertiary, yet still vital, detail to the overall plot.

Survival of the Dead may not convert too many people to the magnificence that is Romero, but the movie supplies plenty of great scenes and surprisingly good acting. It should be considered a strong inclusion in his zombie repertoire.

Van Sprang is a likable hero, and Welsh does some fine work as a battling old man still trying to hold on to what he believes is rightfully his.

The makeup and special effects are impressive, especially for Romero’s low budget. The writing, also by Romero, is not stilted either. The conversations are believable, and the scenes, although certainly contrived, feel as natural as they can be, considering there are zombies knocking on the door.

Survival of the Dead isn’t terribly scary or terribly funny, but it’s a solid film — that happens to feature the walking dead.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead
• 2010
  
• Written and directed by George A. Romero
• Starring Alan Van Sprang, Kenneth Welsh, Richard Fitzpatrick and Kathleen Munroe
• Running time: 90 minutes
• Rated R for strong zombie violence/gore, language and brief sexuality
• Rating:

Revised