Survival of the Dead


Survival of the Dead is a 2009 American horror film written and directed by George A. Romero and starring Alan van Sprang, Kenneth Welsh and Kathleen Munroe. It is the sixth entry in Romero's Night of the Living Dead series. The story follows a group of AWOL National Guardsmen who briefly appeared in Diary of the Dead.
This was the last film to be directed by Romero before his death in 2017.

Plot

The prologue follows the actions of National Guard Sergeant "Nicotine" Crockett, who, along with Kenny, Francisco and Tomboy, desert their posts and rob the protagonists of the previous film. Meanwhile, off the coast of Delaware lies Plum Island, home to two feuding Irish families: the O'Flynns and the Muldoons. The former family, led by Patrick O'Flynn, round up a posse to kill the undead on the island. O'Flynn learns that the Muldoons are keeping their undead loved ones safe until a cure is found. Tensions come to a head when O'Flynn and his posse arrive at the Muldoon house to dispatch their undead children, only to engage in a brief gunfight that leaves a woman dead as well. Unable to put the children down himself, Patrick surrenders his weapons when the Muldoon posse arrives. Seamus Muldoon contemplates killing Patrick until Patrick's daughter Janet suggests he be exiled from the island instead.
Boy joins the National Guardsmen and through him they learn of Plum Island. They watch a video made by Patrick and follow the instructions in it that leads them to a nearby dock. At the dock, O'Flynn and his men attempt to rob the Guardsmen, which results in a shootout. Francisco steals a ferry boat and bites off the finger of an attacking zombie in the process. All of the O'Flynns but Patrick are killed by zombies, and he boards the ferry. During the trip to the island, Patrick says that he sent other people to Plum Island to anger the Muldoons.
When the group reach the island they discover that the Muldoons have chained up their zombies in imitations of their previous lives. They also see that the people sent to the island by Patrick have been killed. Patrick sees his daughter Janet ride by on a horse, apparently dead and turned into a zombie. Patrick attempts to gather allies when two Muldoons attack them, shooting Crockett and Kenny. The latter dies from his wounds, and is shot in the head by Patrick to prevent reanimation. Francisco realizes that he infected himself when he bit off the zombie's finger, and asks Tomboy to shoot him to keep him from turning. Tomboy shoots him and is then captured by Muldoon.
Patrick finds out that the daughter he saw earlier was actually Janet's twin sister Jane. Janet, still alive, joins Patrick and the Guardsmen in their attack on the Muldoons. A standoff occurs at the bridge that separates the two families' land, and the O'Flynn group is captured; Boy and Janet escape. Muldoon reveals his attempts to persuade the zombies to eat something other than human flesh, and uses Jane as a test case. He tries to persuade the dead woman to bite her horse, but instead she attacks and bites her sister Janet. A melee ensues and captured zombies are released, consuming people from both sides. Muldoon and O'Flynn call a truce that is almost immediately broken when Muldoon shoots O'Flynn, who pulls a hidden gun and kills Muldoon.
Crockett and his group attempt to leave the island. Janet witnesses her sister bite the horse and rushes to tell Crockett's group the news. Patrick shoots his daughter to prevent her turning before he succumbs to his own wounds. Crockett, Boy, and Tomboy board the ferry and escape the island while the zombies are eating the horse. Crockett muses about the purpose of war as the reanimated O'Flynn and Muldoon stagger toward each other and attempt to shoot and kill each other again.

Cast

Actors Shawn Roberts, Scott Wentworth, Amy Lalonde, Michelle Morgan, and Joshua Close from Diary of the Dead appear in archival footage early in the film.

Production

Survival of the Dead is Romero's sixth Living Dead film. The film was independently produced, and distributed by Artfire Pictures. It had a budget of four million USD. Romero shot the film in Port Dover, Ontario and in Toronto, Ontario with an entirely Canadian cast and crew. Romero cited the tax incentives as a reason to shoot in Toronto. The film was inspired by the 1958 William Wyler Western film The Big Country.

Release

In September 2009, George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Trinity of Terrors, Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, and Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in Montreal, introduced by George A. Romero. The film was released on DVD on March 15, 2010 in the United Kingdom. In the United States, it was released on April 30, 2010, for video on demand and was aired for one night only on HDNET Movies on May 26, 2010. Survival of the Dead opened in 20 theaters on May 28, 2010 to an opening weekend gross of $43,757, averaging $2,188 per theater., the film has taken $101,740 and $41,451 internationally, bringing the total gross to $143,191. The film headlined the Texas Frightmare Weekend, which took place from April 28 through May 1, 2010. There was also a screening of Survival of the Dead at Madison Square Park, at a zombie walk on May 16, 2010. George A. Romero attended the event, as well as a screening held for the first 300 participants. The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on August 24, 2010.

Reception

Survival of the Dead received generally negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 30% of 91 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review and the average rating is 4.85/10; the website's consensus is: "Survival of the Dead offers glimmers of Romero's savage wit, but not nearly enough to make up for his unusually uninspired directing and a lack of new ideas" Metacritic rated it 43/100 based on 22 reviews. Lesli Felperin of Variety called it "steeped in fan-pleasing gore but woefully thin on ideas, originality or directorial flair." Ray Bennett of The Hollywood Reporter called it "a polished, fast-moving, entertaining picture". Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times wrote, "Placidly photographed and lacking in urgency, Survival shows us the living flailing at fate and the dead just flailing." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times rated it 2/4 stars and wrote that very little in the film is new except for the deaths. Brad Miska of Bloody Disgusting rated it 1.5/5 stars and wrote that the film lacks a clear protagonist, antagonist, and theme.
On July 30, 2017, film critic Scout Tafoya of RogerEbert.com included Survival of the Dead in his video series "The Unloved", where he highlights films which received mixed to negative reviews yet he believes to have artistic value. He stated that the film's "savage" reception from critics could possibly be the reason for the absence of films made before Romero's death, "a tragedy because Survival of the Dead, a deeply weird but singularly Romero-esque Western, is one of the most searing chapters in the book on tribalism and the search for happiness he'd been writing with every film he made during his career.... most endearing quality may have been that he never ceased imagining that there could be a place for the poor and tired to finally find peace. To feel like their own masters, all they had to do was let go of the rituals and cruelties, but some still grip the old world like a life preserver."

Possible sequels

Before his death, director Romero had plans to direct two more sequels to Survival of the Dead. He had expressed his desire to film them back-to-back if his schedule would have allowed it.
Romero announced a seventh film, Road of the Dead, was in production, with Matt Birman serving as director.