Social Bookmarking
[Survival Of The Dead]
Plot:On a small island off the cost of North America the Dead Rise ot menace the living. The islanders cant bring themselves to eterminate their loved ones despite the growing danger for those they once held dear. A rebel among them hunts down all the zombies he can find only to be banished from the island for assassinating his neighbors and friends. On the mainland, bent on revenge, he encounters a small band of Survivors in search of an oasis on which to build a new life. Barely surviving an attack from a mass of ravenous flesh eaters they commandeer a zombie infested ferry and sail to the island. There to their horor they discover that the locals have chained the dead inside their homes pretending to live 'normal lives' with bloody consequences. What ensues is a desperate struggle for survival and the answer to question never posed in Romeros dead films..can the living ever live in peace with the dead?
Cast:Alan Van Sprang,
Kenneth Welsh,
Kathleen Munroe,
Devon Bostick,
Richard Fitzpatrick,
Stefano Colacitti,
Athena Karkanis.
My Thoughts:Worst of the series so far.
Review:"Diary Of The Dead", the most recent of Romero's classic "Dead" series to be released pre-"Survival"...was not a bad movie, but it wasn't great either. More-so an average installment of the zombie franchise. "Survival Of The Dead" however, is a bad movie, and a bad installment. Sad to say, it's the worst "Dead" movie to date. The film takes place after "Diary", following the character of Sarge (Van Sprang), the military guy who robbed the kids in "Diary" when he and a few others stopped their RV vehicle.
Sarge now resides on an island with two warring Irish clans, clans who are at war with each other because of family lineage. They have a "Hatfields" and "McCoys" thing going, and in typical Irish fashion, neither side is willing to give an inch. And when the killing gets out of hand, despite the people being killed being zombies, one of the islands elders is banished from the island forever. He then sails off to the mainland, where he finds a group of young survivors, and agrees to accompany them on a ferry back to the island.
But how many will survive the journey, with the world now overrun by the walking dead? This film should've been a lot better than it was. But it doesn't float really well because the characters are intolerable, flat, and uncharasmatic. "Diary Of The Dead" had far better characters, "Survival" basically pushes a more cliche bent with it's characters. We have the Latino guy with the heavy accent, who thinks he's a ladies man.
We have the uptight hot girl who won't let anyone get close to her, and then we have a few other characters who are so irrelevant that you even forget they're in the movie from time to time, until they get eaten. I was quite surprised to see such weak characters on display here. I expected far better. Not to mention the Irish characters are also extremely cliched. They're petty, hard-nosed, grudge-holders who would rather squabble over spilled milk and past transgressions, instead of worrying about the dangerous and deadly predicament of the here and now.
Their heavy accents, and gun-toting mannerisms just make the cliche that much more painfully obvious. I miss the more subtle Romero stuff. This movie is too desperate to force it's characters upon the viewer. Nothing about this movie really gets you pumped up or stoked either. Even the scenes where the zombies attack. Unlike "Land Of The Dead", where the zombie-attack scenes were intense and strong, this movie makes them so bland that they just end up being same stuff different day.
During the breaks in arguing or wise-cracking, or tough-talk, the characters take the opportunity to gun down a few zombies. And that's pretty much how the entire movie goes. There's never any big attack moments, or any moments where you feel the characters are in any immediate danger. Thereby killing any effective scares of suspense. And about that subplot where the islanders try and get the zombies to crave something and eat something else, instead of human flesh?
Well, it's whittled down to a footnote in this movie. And I think had that part of the story been explored more, this film would've worked a lot better. "Survival Of The Dead" concludes on the same social satire note that most Romero films do, but what comes before just is not very good. And therefore, the end themes get lost in a muck of boredom and dissatisfaction with the overall product.
Positives:The movie is filmed well, good camera angles, and great lighting also. The acting by Alan Van Sprang is quite good too.
Negatives:Too many cliche characters, too many cliches in general, a lack of strong suspense, thrills, and chills. Not enough zombie action oddly enough, annoying, flat, and one-dimensional characters for the most part, and a lack of capitalization on a few subplots embedded within the overall story.
Overall:One and a half out of four stars.
(
Talk about it in the Forums!)
(
Back to the main page)
