George A. Romero is known as the father of the zombie movie. It makes sense...his Night of the Living Dead is a classic, and the movie that kick-started the modern zombie movie. His second movie, Dawn of the Dead, is usually considered his best movie, and also helped to introduce more of a social message into zombie movies. Personally, I like Night of the Living Dead better, and I like Snyder's Dawn of the Dead better...but that's neither here nor there.
It's no secret that Romero's zombie movies have been in a steady decline recently. I liked Land of the Dead, but I didn't love it. It appears as though I'm in the minority of people who enjoyed Diary of the Dead...but, again, I didn't love it. The message was extremely heavy-handed, and I really only enjoyed the movie because of some of the characters involved.
I can say, with no amount of uncertainty, that Survival of the Dead is Romero's worst movie. It follows a minor character from Diary of the Dead...one of the jackass soldiers that showed up and took the RV. It didn't help the movie that this guy was one of the worst actors I have ever seen. I actually started to watch this movie with Daniel...but he forced me to shut it off after he delivered a terrible line in the worst way possible: "You're dangerous kid, but not as dangerous as me." It should be noted that he said this to some punk kid, who was not a great actor, himself.
Jackass
Needless to say, I went back and watched the entire movie at a later date.
I wish I had not done that.
I guess the story wasn't terrible. It was set up like a modern western, but with zombies. I know...it sounds pretty cool. The majority of the movie took place on an island that housed two warring families. One of the families believed that zombies could not be cured and should be killed. The other family believed that zombies could be taught to be useful members in society. They also believed that zombies could be taught to eat something other than human flesh (they believed that zombies would also feast on horses). While we start on the side of the first family (zombies must be killed), we begin to see the point of the second family when we see zombies bringing mail in from mailboxes and whatnot.
The movie ends in classic western fashion...a showdown between the two families in a corral. A gunfight while using bales of hay, trees and fences for cover. With, of course, zombies roaming around.
When I write it out, it doesn't sound that bad. Trust me...it is. As I mentioned, the acting is atrocious. The story, while not terrible, didn't have much depth to it. The zombies looked decent, but the death scenes were terrible. Instead of using exploding blood capsules, they opted for CGI blood splatter, which looked awful.
Still...it's Romero. If you're a fan of Romero, you're going to watch it regardless. But this is just not a good movie. There are other good zombie movies that have been released over the past couple of years...watch one of those, instead. Colin showed what a zombie movie can be, even with next to no money.
I was unable to embed the trailer, but you can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLTBnzJ7nRA
