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Survival of the Dead
USA 2009
produced by Paula Devonshire, D.J. Carson (executive), Michael Doherty (executive), Dan Fireman (executive), Peter Grunwald (executive), Ara Katz (executive), Art Spigel (executive) for Devonshire Productions, Artfire Films, Romero-Grunwald Productions/20th Century Fox
directed by George A. Romero
starring Kenneth Welsh, Alan Van Sprang, Devon Bostick, Richard Fitzpatrick, Stefano DiMatteo (as Stefano Colacitti), Athena Karkanis, Kathleen Munroe, Julian Richings, Joris Jarsky, Wayne Robson, George Strouboulopoulos, Heather Allin, Matt Birman, Michael Rhoades, Jerry Schaefer, Zeljko Kecojevic, Pete Zedlacher, Wayne Curnew, Eric Woolfe, Philippa Domville, Craig Dawson, Salar Madadi, Mitch Risman, Ho Chow, Steven Barton, Michelle Ernst-Mester, Robert Miles, Dru Viergever
written by George A. Romero, music by Robert Carli, visual effects by Spin VFX
George A. Romero's Living Dead-series
review by Mike Haberfelner
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The carnivorous dead have pretty much run over the world, and those
humans not dead yet have gathered in small groups to pretty much fend for
themselves. Sarge Crocket (Alan Van Berg) and his gang of mercenaries -
all deserters from the US-Army - do quite well in that respect, but then
they are lured to an allegedly paradise-like island by one Patrick O'Flynn
(Kenneth Welsh), which is supposed to be zombie-free. But actually,
O'Flynn only needs Sarge and his gang to help him in his fight against
island patriarch Seamus Muldoon (Richard Fitzpatrick). Thing is, on their island,
there has
been bad blood between the O'Flynns and the Muldoons for centuries, and
it's rather a conincidence that presently they are fighting over the fate
of their dead: O'Flynn wants to get rid of them for good by shooting them
in the head while Muldoon wants to keep them alive but teach them to not
eat humans but animals - not too successfully though. Though they have
no desire to fight yet another war, Sarge and company become involved in
this one, siding with O'Flynn, and after much to and fro, a big shootout between the O'Flynns
and the Muldoons emerges that leaves hardly anyone standing, not even
O'Flynn and Muldoon, but sure enough, they all return as zombies. Sarge
and what's left of his crew make it off the island just in time, and sail
off in search of another paradise - unaware of the fact that Muldoon's
experiment to feed the zombies something other than humans has finally
paid off when they are fed horses. O'Flynn and Muldoon, now zombies,
have enough memories left in themselves to do what they did best when
still alive: Duelling each other. After the disappointing Diary
of the Dead - of which this one is a direct sequel -, Survival
of the Dead is a quite entertaining and intelligent piece of zombie
cinema, and actually one of the better films in director George A.Romero's
series about the living dead: The plot is layered with subtle (and
sometimes not so subtle) satire instead of dead serious (and somehow
ridiculous) socio-political commentary (as was Diary
of the Dead), Romero's representation of zombies and zombie action
shows a comic streak often painfully missing from the genre, and the many
Western motives woven into the story make a pleasant change from the usual
zombie formula. All that said, Survival of the Dead is still not a
perfect film, mainly because of quite a few narrative flaws: Mainly there
is no reason for the character Muldoon to insist on keeping the
carnivorous and rotting corpses alive, this simply makes no sense and thus
the audience fails to see his motives. Then there's one of the lead
characters, your typical handsome young guy played by Devon Bostick, that fails to have any narrative
necessity, instead he just diverts from the main plot. And finally, the
references to Diary of the Dead
seem to be as forced upon the story as they are unnecessary, especially
since Survival of the Dead is far superior to that film. All that
said, Survival of the Dead is still a very watchable film and
definitely one of the best zombie movies produced in the 2000's - not that
there would be too much of a serious competition though.
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