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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.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
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