George A. Romero’s cinematic zombie career is a tale of two halves. The first half, featuring Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead, is almost universally lauded among horror fans; while the second, including Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead, has been punctuated with many a split opinion. His latest opus, Survival of the Dead, is likely to continue the trend set by said second half.
The plot follows a group of National Guard deserters led by “Sarge” Crockett (Alan Van Sprang) as they try to find somewhere safe amidst the early days of the zombie apocalypse. These characters form a cross-over with Diary of the Dead, having been seen as the folks who accost our protagonists in that movie aboard their Winnebago. Along their travels, they learn of “Captain Courageous” – a loud Irishman claiming to offer passage to Plum Island, an isolated safe haven from the plague of the undead. Without giving too much away, they do indeed make it to Plum – and walk right into the middle of a generations-old feud between two warring families, the O’Flynns and the Muldoons.
Now that the dead have risen, the latest issue for the families to argue over is whether the dead should truly stay dead. The O’Flynns believe that all walking corpses should be laid to rest, while the Muldoons want to keep them around lest a cure be found. In tried and true Romero fashion, man’s necessity for disagreement and violence eventually leads to the zombies gaining the upper hand.
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