Survival of the Dead

George A. Romero fans probably gave up expecting a masterpiece from the horror genius a while ago but live in the hope that he can rekindle his former glory. The initial three films in his Dead series are genre classics but the more recent two, Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead, where greeted with mixed reviews. Still, here comes the sixth instalment: Survival of the Dead.
 
A prologue establishes a difference of opinion on the small Atlantic territory of Plum Island, off the coast of Delaware, where the two patriarchs clash over what to do with the zombies infected in the recent outbreak. Seamus Muldoon thinks they should be chained up whereas Patrick O'Flynn wants to shoot them in the head and that the dead should be dead. This difference of opinion sees O'Flynn and his supporters banished to the mainland, leaving his family behind.

 
We catch up with Sarge 'Nicotine' Crocket, who was last seen in Diary of the Dead, and his band of National Guard soldiers trying to stay alive and look for somewhere to stay. They pick up an unnamed cocksure teenager who alerts them to a webcast by O'Flynn, calling himself Captain Courageous, who says that there is a place that is safe and only he can get them there. After a moment's argument, they decide to go but find the harbour mined, full of armed men and surrounded by zombies, or dead heads as they are now termed. After a slight contretemps, the guardsmen and O'Flynn set sail for Plum Island with the craggy old paddy wanting to clear the territory of dead heads and Muldoons.
 
 As with the previous five Romero zombie flicks, this isn't particularly heavy on plot, leaving the interactions and tensions to create the suspense and drama and the character driven film works for Romero and is perfectly suited to the zombie movie. What you want is a decent setup, likeable characters, a bad guy for them to play against and plenty of gore. The non too subtle subtexts that was such a feature of Land and Diary are absent here, with the film about tribalism and territoriality - whether this a jab at the overt and damaging partisan politics on Capitol Hill is open for debate and seems a bit of a stretch.

 
Sarge is a tough leader, but one who is pragmatic and not like Captain Rhodes in Day, and his troops include the chatty grunt Chuck, reliable, sharp shooting lesbian Tomboy and the man who says he can change her life in five minutes, Francisco. Muldoon is established as the pantomime villain, a man who knows how to hold a grudge and seems certain of a unlikely cure for the dead heads that he keeps chained up, still going about doing the mundane tasks that they did when they were alive. This is where Romero diverts massively from his previous films, to say why would be to spoil the final act, but it does seem a massive step forward from Bub.
 
It's easy to look at each instalment as part of the greater picture and forget to judge it on its own merits - to say Survival of the Dead isn't as good as Night, Dawn or Day would be to state the obvious but Romero did lay down certain rules, one of which he doesn't so much as break, but significantly bends here.
    
 
What you want from a zombie movie is some gut munching, plenty of head shots and other related gore with some decent acting, dialogue and direction. Would I be happier with this if it wasn't directed by the zombie maestro? Probably. It doesn't really distinguish itself as particularly special and the work of the man who virtually established the contemporary zombie movie and is basically an average movie riding on his name. There are some odd comedic moments and inventive ways of dispatching the zombies, with a fire extinguisher, fork and flare gun standing out.
 
That being said, Survival of the Dead is an enjoyable film that entertains for most of its running time. It will do nothing to silence the naysayers who think that Romero should just give up.  

The Disc

 
Extra Features
Stunningly, there are absolutely none on the disc, unless you count scene selection which I don't. This is all the more odd when you consider how packed with supplementary material the Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead discs were.  
 
The Picture
A sharp and nicely defined effort overall but some of the darker scenes lose contrast and the grain level creeps up. The effects, both practical and CG, are very good and there is even a exploding head from a shotgun blast which harks back to 1978!
 
The Sound
The 5.1 mix uses the surround speakers well, especially in confined environments such as a boat and the woods, where the atmosphere is really created by the ambient sounds - it's amazing how effective a creak or rustling leaf can be.
 
I didn't like the score one bit, finding it disjointed and badly placed with some pieces of music interrupting the flow or just ill-suited to the scene.  
 
Final Thoughts
Survival of the Dead is a better than mediocre zombie film, but not by much. If it didn't have George Romero credited as the writer and director then I would have thought that it was a well made genre piece by a fairly skilled filmmaker, not the man that many regard as the greatest living American horror director.
 
The lack of extra features is shocking and will cause many to think twice about buying this, whether on DVD or Blu-ray Disc.