Survival of the Dead Review

Survival of the Dead


Shortly after the outbreak of the dead coming back to life as zombies bent on eating live humans, a group of National Guard soldiers realize that world has become survival of the ones with the most guns. They go leave their unit, which have become infected and pillage their way seeking a safe place hold up. They find this guy on the internet advertising Plum Island off the coast of Delaware as a refuge.

The beautiful isolated Plum Island is mostly settled by two clans, the Muldoons and the O’Flynn’s, a cantankerous couple of family leaders bent on destroying one another. Patrick O’Flynn (Kenneth Welsh) wants to shoot all the undead in the head to keep them dead. Seamus Muldoon (Richard Fitzpatrick) thinks they can train the zombies to eat something else and not people. Muldoon thinks that it’s his responsibility to keep the island’s residents intact, although not living, just in case a cure is found. O’Flynn is not that sure anyone will be found before there’s no one left alive. It comes to a conflict when O’Flynn can’t bring himself to shoot two infected children. He’s run off the island where he starts the advertising claim and send outside people to bug his nemesis.

The soldiers lead by Sarge “Nicotine” Crocket (Alan Van Sprang) discovers the mainland grounded O’Flynn and his cohorts are bilking people for their money and valuables. They battle it out, but the noise attracts a large group of zombies. The soldiers steal a ferry boat and O’Flynn barely gets away from the zombie attack and is brought on board. His return home is not as he had hoped. His daughter has turned into a zombie and rides her horse not stop. Zombies are chained on a tether doomed to brainlessly keep doing the same repetitive task they had done when they were alive. Eventually there’s the confrontation with the O’Flynn’s and the Muldoon’s and the fate of the zombies.

The thieving National Guardsmen appeared briefly in the previous film Diary of the Dead, director George A. Romero’s 5th film of the series. The first film Night of the Living Dead made in 1968 was the scariest film I had seen at that time. It remains an all time cult classic scaring generations at midnight movie screenings. None of the other movies, at least for me, is as initially as frightening. Survival offers a different take on the whole zombie cannon. Training zombies to see other mammals as a food group is an interesting concept. The film does have some truly interesting slice and dice shots of zombies dismembering their meals. And the creepy walking in the woods alone without shelter of a gun can make one jump. None of the movies will ever replace my first experience in Romero’s zombie world, but Survival is a worthy addition to keep the franchise alive…or undead.
(Review by Reesa)