2010 Review #50: Survival of the Dead

Survival of the Dead

Rated R
( strong zombie violence/gore, language and brief sexuality)
1 hour 30 minutes

Storyline:
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.

Written and Directed By: George A. Romero

Cast:
Alan Van Sprang
Kenneth Welsh
Kathleen Munroe
Devon Bostwick

Critics Grade:
30%
(Survival of the Dead offers glimmers of Romero's savage wit, but not nearly enough to make up for his unusually uninspired directing and a lack of new ideas)

My Grade:
C-

It's pretty much at the point where once you have seen one or two zombie movies you have seen them all. George A. Romero brought this genre to life many years ago and has not stopped making movies just like it over and over...and over again. Sometimes he adds something fresh to the zombie tale...but usually it's just the same old same old. Survival of the Dead has virtually nothing new to offer. It's about a group of survivors of some form of zombie epidemic that band together to continue living. A group of people that don't get along in normal circumstances but are forced to now if they want to keep alive. Romero tries to be humorous here, as he sometimes does with these movies. I feel like he tried extra hard to do so this time. I didn't think it was all that funny. Nor did I think the movie was all that scary. It was pretty generic in terms of zombie movies. Now the filmaking was quite good and the performances were surprisingly decent. It's not some dreadfully bad movie at all. But none of that saves this movie from being just another formula zombie movie. I honestly think this is a dying breed of film...it's been on it's last leg for some time now. Oh well. At least we still have vampires...right?