So, I had the chance to sit down and watch George A. Romero’s latest installment to the ‘of the Dead’ films, Survival of the Dead. The tagline for the film is “Death isn’t what it used to be”, and in some ways Romero’s Dead films aren’t what they used to be. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though some folks might think so, but let’s face it, if you’re looking for Dawn of the Dead you’re not going to get it.
I’ll start off with my problems with the film. The biggest being the use of piss poor computer generated effects. I’m sorry George, but there’s no excuse for this, low budget or not, you’ve pulled off better with far less. This is seriously going to hinder the film in time, and for future viewings on a personal level. My second complaint is that it seems like George has bitten off far more than he can chew. And what I mean by that is that there are so many characters. Too many of these characters are forcibly unique and carry unnecessary accents that only distract from the story and obscure the locale. If this story were stripped down and simplified many of my problems would be diminished or insignificant. I feel like George was trying to recapture his original intent with Day of the Dead, but just got lost along the way. Now that’s not to say that Romero has never had unique characters, or characters with accents--there a clear examples of this throughout his film career, and not just in the Dead films--but there were so many that it was just plain distracting.
There are other things in Survival of the Dead that I don’t care for, but this isn’t my movie, it’s George A. Romero’s movie and I’m of the mind that the creator has the right to do things as he or she sees fit. Romero has used corny humor and gags throughout his career and is often bashed for it of late, but does anybody remember the giant pie-fight scene in Dawn of the Dead?--well, it’s there, and its corny. Survival has many moments of this corny type of humor, not exactly what I would do if I had the chance, but like I said, this isn’t my move--it’s Romero’s and if he wants to put corny gags throughout his movies, that’s his right and that’s his flavor. So, going into any Romero movie you need to have that in mind (as with any director, you should always keep in mind their intent and their aesthetics). I don’t bite into an apple and expect it to taste like a pear. I don’t sit down to watch a Romero movie and expect it to entertain me the way a Cronenberg movie will. That being said, I could do without 90% of the corny humor, but I’ll go with it. I knew what I was getting into.
Now, onto some of the good things--zombies. Romero’s zombies are the best, and these are no different. I don’t think they look as good as they do in Day of the Dead, or Land of the Dead, but they’re as good as they were in Diary of the Dead--which is still better than most other zombie movies with similar budgetary constraints. Romero gives us his zombies doing some different things this time around. He has one riding a horse. Another is chained to a mailbox. One has learned how to put a car into drive and then into reverse. There’re all kinds of zombies. Two things I felt were missing though, were; a mass gut munching, and a large shot of the deadheads approaching (it had a few smaller shots, but that doesn’t count).
The cinematography was excellent. Romero ditched the handheld look and went back to basics, giving us some really great shots of the woods, and some sprawling areas of a desolate North America. The score was very effective, a bit of a homogenized-horror-movie-score for a Romero movie, but effective nonetheless, and not over-bearing.
I didn’t find its message to be as heavy handed as Diary’s, but it’s still missing the subtlety of his earlier Dead films. I didn’t find it distracting, I actually enjoyed it, and think its one that will stand the test of time, even if some of the film doesn’t.
The only real stand out performance for me was by Alan Van Sprang, who played ‘Sarge’. The other performances were more than adequate in most cases, but Romero’s films aren’t known for name actors or Oscar nominees (nor are Canadian productions), which is something I really appreciate about his movies. Sprang would’ve been able to carry most of the movie by himself. If a follow-up happens I wouldn’t mind seeing where he goes to next.
I never found it to be boring. I think it was paced well. None of the scenes felt too long--except for the CG-head scene--and when the movie was over I wanted more. I could’ve done without the very last scene, but it doesn’t detract from the movie.
I recommend Survival of the Dead for Romero fans, or for zombie-lovers, but Gore hounds might be disappointed. I’ll be going to see this in the theaters when it comes out as well buying it on DVD, and I think you should too.
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