"Survival of the Dead" marks a return to form of sorts for zombie director George A. Romero.
No, it's not a classic on par with his onuses "Night of the Living Dead" or "Dawn of the Dead," but at least it lines up more with "Day of the Dead" in the aftermath of two lackluster efforts ("Land of the Dead" and "Diary of the Dead."
This time around we meet up with Sarge (Alan Van Sprang), a bit player in Romero's "Diary of the Dead," is the star of this undead show, where he and his platoon, after finding an island in hopes of escaping the growing legions of the undead find themselves entangled in a Hatfields/McCoy's-type family feud.
One side, led by Seamus Muldoon(Richard Fitzpatrick), is keeping zombies alive in hopes of curing their diseases and presumably bringing them back to life. The other, headed by Patrick O'Flynn (Kenneth Welsh) wants to kill them on sight, be they friend or family.
As you can guess, the two men's hatred for one another is just about assured to boil over, leading to more zombie apocalypse death.
"Survival" is a decided step up from the first-person gimmickry of "Diary," focusing more on story and character than its predecessor. There's a decided subtext that was missing from the previous entry, and the blood feud subplot is, if a bit cliched, is still leagues more engaging.
There are a few interesting sight gags, and Romero seems to have found that line between using practical and CG effects in his films, using imaginary blood mostly for gunshot squibs and a few other choice sequences, but still employing buckets of real (fake) blood for his signature dismemberment scenes.
He's still not approaching the greatness he once achieved, but Romero did step up a little with "Survival."
Perhaps even better is the in-depth coverage of the making of the film. Romero wisely chose a filmmaker to create a making-of documentary, and there are several quality interviews with Romero where he details his choices in a frank manner covering topics like his use of CG and practical effects and why he hasn't to date carried over characters from previous "Dead" films (hint: it's all about copyrights).
If you're a Romero fan, you'll love this set as much for its extras as its film (perhaps moreso). If you're not a Romero fan...well, you obviously haven't seen his earlier films. So check them out first, then if you are a fan, check this one out.
Film: 3.5 Yaps Extras: 4.5 Yaps