Survival of the Dead @ TIFF ~~~~~ SPOILER!!!

[BullOnParade]

So after fighting tooth and nail, I got my hands on a pair of tickets for George A. Romero's latest - Survival of the Dead, Which made its North American Premier last night at the Toronto International Film Festival. While many here seem to be very critical of his previous works (particularily Day, Land, Diary), I've enjoyed all of his films, though not as much for Land as the others.

Survival was fairly different from Romero's typical film as a lot of the character development occurs around each member of the team saving one another from "Dead-heads" that seem to come from no where. A lot more screen time is dedicated to inventive new ways to kill the zombies - campfire fork, flare gun, fire extinguisher ect.

The storyline is;


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On an island just off the coast of Delaware, the O'Flynn/Muldoon family feud heightens when the dead begin to reanimate. One family believes the "Dead-heads" should be exterminated, while the other family believes the deceased are trainable to do daily tasks, as long as they are capable of developing a taste for something besides human flesh.

If you think back to Diary, you will remember the national guard members who raid the camper for all of their supplies but weapons. These are our main characters, along with the members of the island. The members of the guard are looking for somewhere to get away from the former population centers which are now beginning to overflow with the walking dead. on their journey they come across Jamie O'Flynn, family head from the island who is outcast for his beliefs in killing any un-dead. Jamie directs the guard to the island, and in a twist of fate, is forced back with them.

Back on the island, the Guard find that O'Flynn had been directing outbreak survivors to the island, and upon their arrival, they were being shot dead by Muldoon, While the island population who had been turned to zombies were now chained as Muldoon attempted to civilize them to do the occupations of their lives (the mailman walks to the end of his chain, looks back, sees the mailbox he is chained to, walks to the mailbox, reaches in with a hand full of letters, but doesn't let them go, pulls his hand back out, and walks to the end of his chain again). We then see O'Flynn's daughter jump the fence on horseback and ride right past her father and the others without taking notice. O'Flynn instantly accepts that she is infected and there is nothing he can do for her.

On Muldoon's farm, we find him and a rancher caging zombies into horse pens with farm animals, "starving" the zombies to persuade them into eating other meats besides human. By this point [still fairly early in the film] Muldoon realizes he will need O'Flynn's daughter to teach the other zombies they can eat something else.

The third quarter of the film is uneventful besides losing a few characters and one of the members of the national guard being kidnapped by Muldoon's camp and brought back to his farm as bait for the others. As the others come to collect her, Muldoon ends up with the stronger hand and forces his opponents to disarm in order to make O'Flynn watch his daughter be penned in with the horse she had been riding. In a twist of fate, we find that O'Flynn had twin daughters, and one is still alive, She shows up at Muldoon's farm and returns the guns to the her father and the national guard, beginning a fire-fight. Both family heads end up mortally wounded, and most of their family and friends end up dead around them, as well as a swarm of zombies who are attracted to the noise. The living O'Flynn daughter sees a look of longing in her sisters eye, misjudges it for a longing of a loving embrace and practically feeds herself to her sister.

The dying and fighting families carry the fight into the surrounding bush to join the swarms of zombies as they start to turn, leaving the dying O'Flynn daughter to watch her already dead sister slowly stagger towards the horse she is penned with and take a good chunk out of the beasts shoulder. At this the dying sister runs to inform everyone in the change of events, and let them know her father was wrong. As she finds the fleeting national guard, she is halfway through telling them as her father arrives and gives her a gift - his last bullet. No one is informed of the development in zombie culture. The two old Irish families are dead, and the national guard cruise off in search of another island to be safe upon. The film ends with scenes of the remaining zombies feeding on the horse, originally bitten by the O'Flynn daughter, and closes with the image of O'Flynn and Muldoon shambling towards each other. Stop. Raise their empty pistols. *click*.

As I said, I enjoyed the film it was something with a slight variation on a Romero standard, a little less panicked from Diary, and a lot more one-liners than is standard in his films. If you get a chance to see it in films I recommend it.

[the_klenzer]

It sounds really..... stupid. Even for Romero.

I appreciate the detailed write up, I think I'll save my ten bucks and rent it later.

[Fu Shen]

It sounds really..... stupid. Even for Romero.

I appreciate the detailed write up, I think I'll save my ten bucks and rent it later.

+1

From what I've seen it looks bad. This just confirms my thoughts. Not sure I'll even bother with a rental. One can only take so much of stupid people doing stupid things in stupid situations. Even with zombies. Even from Romero.

[BullOnParade]

I don't get why everyone around here seems to have such a hate-on for Romero. I've enjoyed all of his films, even if Land of the Dead was a little flaky, I think his story lines represent average people who are not prepared in any way for any sort of emergency.

You're all entitled to your opinion, I just have to defend my new countryman.

[liberty45]

I don't get why everyone around here seems to have such a hate-on for Romero. I've enjoyed all of his films, even if Land of the Dead was a little flaky, I think his story lines represent average people who are not prepared in any way for any sort of emergency.

You're all entitled to your opinion, I just have to defend my new countryman.

+1

I also believe Land of the Dead was flaky and didn't care for it much at all. But Diary of the Dead was good, especially since they traveled throughout "Pennsylvania"

Thanks for the write up I will see it when it comes to theaters.

[Ponyboy314]

If people keep encouraging his social, whiny-ass liberal satire, how long until Romero makes a movie about how the Republicans tried to use the living dead to stop Obama's inauguration?

Actually, I wish they had.

[sniperfrog]

If people keep encouraging his social, whiny-ass liberal satire, how long until Romero makes a movie about how the Republicans tried to use the living dead to stop Obama's inauguration?

Actually, I wish they had.

Agreed. Romero sucks. He took a genre, which he started, and turned it into his own political soapbox. His movies blow.

I also agree about using the undead to stop Obama. Where were you with this idea back in November '08?

[mtnfolk mike]

It sounds really..... stupid. Even for Romero.

I appreciate the detailed write up, I think I'll save my ten bucks and rent it later.

same here... i remembred seeing the trailer for it and thought it was a little far fetched...

thanks for the write up...

[Crunchysock]

Just saw this movie, I enjoyed it, even though it had the obligatory sassy tough latina lesbian character or maybe it was because it had a sassy tough latina lesbian character. I think it was better than Land and Diary.

[colemoge]

I have seen it too.

Its a below average movie.

[Silent Kube]

I watched it online last night. (I can post a link if it's okay with the mods but it might be considered illegal activity. )

I didn't like the way they took bad guys from diary and made them good guys. Even though there were zombies in it, the movie didn't really seem like a zombie movie to me. It almost seemed like the zombies were more of a background plot device than the main plot of the movie. It was watchable for someone sitting at work all night with nothing to do, but I think I would be pissed if I had paid actual money to see it.

[Paffe]

Got the DVD today and DAMN I m disappointed! I dont remember when I have seen acting this bad. The plot could have done it, but it was fucked up as well. 19/100

[Apartment223]

I just saw it today. I agree, it was very stupid movie, but I can usually look past that. I would say it was better than Diary of the Dead, but maybe not as good as Land of the Dead. I must say I did not have my hopes up when I watched it, because Romero has really let his films go. It's hard to believe these new ones were made by the same person who made masterpieces like Night of the Living Dead.
In general though I have to give this film a thumbs up simply because of the sheer amount of zombie killing in it! I mean there is almost CONSTANT zombie action. He got that right at least. If you like B grade movies then you will at least be entertained by this film, and like I said, it's better than Diary.

[colemoge]

Despite Romeroe being the godfather of our beloved genre, imo, he is now doing more harm to it than good with the crud he has turned out.

[RulingCzar]

Did anyone else think the CGI blood seemed really fake?

[Silent Kube]

Did anyone else think the CGI blood seemed really fake?

Considering the majority of zombie movies are low budget, that's the sort of thing I always expect anyway.

[Witch Doctor]

Bugger!

I just bought this today, reading some of these comments perhaps I won't get round to watching it!

[Silent Kube]

As long as you have it you might as well watch it. Just don't expect anything wonderful.

[RulingCzar]

As long as you have it you might as well watch it. Just don't expect anything wonderful.

Maybe he hasn't opened and can still return it.

[drunkensurvivor]

Screw you guys, I'm going to buy this horrible movie. I also think that Romero should leave zombie movies for awhile and expand on the monkey theme that he started with monkey shines. God knows that the monkey genre has been more neglected than the zombie genre.

[Witch Doctor]

As long as you have it you might as well watch it. Just don't expect anything wonderful.

Maybe he hasn't opened and can still return it.

opened it so no chance of returning, oh well every DVD collection has good ones and bad ones.

[Silent Kube]

As long as you have it you might as well watch it. Just don't expect anything wonderful.

Maybe he hasn't opened and can still return it.

opened it so no chance of returning, oh well every DVD collection has good ones and bad ones.

Don't worry, it's watchable. Just don't expect Shakespeare.

[Zdigger]

Is it me or does he (Romero) seem to be trying to make the zombies intelligent, almost like a morbid evolution of the zombies.

[Bricks of the Dead]

Is it me or does he (Romero) seem to be trying to make the zombies intelligent, almost like a morbid evolution of the zombies.

It's not just you, and it drives me up a wall.