This is the latest of the zomibe film by the legend George Romero. Now, I'm a huge, huge, hue fan of the first Romero zombie trilogy (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Living Dead and Day of the Living Dead made in 1968, 1978, 1985). The latest three movies (Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, and Survival of the Dead) has been less than impressive. The thing is the original three movies seemed to reach beyond just being zombie films to really say something about the culture and the world, and even though the world is different today that feeling that you were watching something more is still there in those films. They weren't just zombie films, they were art.
Now, let's talk about SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD. This movie takes place just a few days/weeks after the dead have started coming back to life. The main story takes place on Plum Island, a very pretty and very isolated island whose population is dominated by two clans, the Muldoons and the O'Flynns. The O'Flynns think the zombies should be killed immediately. The Muldoons believe that loved ones who are "infected" should be kept alive in the hopes of finding a way to live with them. At the beginning, the O'Flynns are in charge, but then the Muldoons take over, kicking the O'Flynns off the island. Then in wanders a group of national guards who have gone awall and are looking for a safe place. They like the idea of holing up on Plum Island, so they head over with the O'Flynns back to the island...
Now some of that feels hokey to me, but the idea of this group of people that see the zombies totally differently -- still view them as loved ones and want to keep them alive -- is pretty cool. I don't think I've ever seen that as a centerpiece for a movie. And I think that if the movie really had focused on that more then it could have been one of Romero's best movies ever. It's this great way of using zombies to talk about the people we love and how we want to hold onto them, to say something about love and grief and probably a lot of other things. Unfortunately, once the rogue national guards take the O'Flynns back to the island the movie seems to focus more on the war between these two sides rather than the really cool metaphore the original concept suggested. It isn't that there isn't anything to say about the clan vs clan sitch (namely that it's stupid and people get so used to fighting they forget what they were fighting for), but it just didn't nearly interest me as much as the original concept. So for me the movie was okay, but because it veered away from the best ideas it never really had any oomph.
SLIGHT RECOMMENDATION (especially if you are a Romero fan).
--Paul
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