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DVDfever.co.uk – Survival of the Dead Blu-ray reviewDom Robinson reviews
Optimum Home EntertainmentBlu-ray: 
DVD:
- Cert:
- Running time: 90 minutes
- Year: 2009
- Cat no: OPTBD1702R0
- Released: March 2010
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 12 plus extras
- Picture: 1080p High Definition
- Sound: DTS 5.1 HD Master Audio
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: BD50
- Price: £19.99 (Blu-ray); £15.99 (DVD)
- Extras: None
- Vote and comment on this film:View Comments
Director:
- George A. Romero
(Bruiser, Creepshow, The Dark Half, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Monkey Shines, Night of the Living Dead, Survival of the Dead)
Producer:
- Paula Devonshire
Screenplay:
- George A. Romero
Music:
- Robert Carli
Cast :
- Sarge ‘Nicotine’ Crocket: Alan Van Sprang
Patrick O’Flynn: Kenneth Welsh
Janet: Kathleen Munroe
Boy: Devon Bostick
Seamus Muldoon: Richard Fitzpatrick
Tomboy: Athena Karkanis
Francisco: Stefano Di Matteo
Kenny: Eric Woolfe
Survival of the Deadis the latest in George A. Romero‘s long-running series and definitely a completely unnecessary entry to it.
The zombies are already running loose as the 90 minutes begin and the army have been drafted in to sort things out,led by Sarge ‘Nicotine’ Crocket (Alan Van Sprang, right), not that anyone actually uses his name, but you can tell it’shim because he smoke. He’s also joined by others including Kenny (Eric Woolfe), Francisco (Stefano Di Matteo)and Tomboy (Athena Karkanis), the latter two having a love/hate relationship but you have a feeling that they’ll end upshagging in the end, despite her being a lesbian. Also tagging along is a lad with no name (Devon Bostick).
Other than them there’s Patrick O’Flynn (Kenneth Welsh, below-right), an old guy with a lawless posse, going round cleaning places up where they believe the undead are about. He has a daughter, Janet (Kathleen Munroe), and they’re upagainst a rival posse led by Seamus Muldoon (Richard Fitzpatrick), both of whom come from the tranquil island ofPlum, in Delaware. Well, it would be tranquil if they weren’t at each other’s throats all the time.
The basis is that Patrick and his men get banished from the island, meet up with the army guys and then return, alongwith the lad who they rescued from a gang of rednecks.
As for the film itself, it’s very slow and the CGI is far from great. There’s far too many cases of zombies turning upby chance, like one of those Eastenders moments when a character just happens to be overhearing a comment aboutthemselves, and so, unlike that soap, a bullet to the head is quickly dispensed with alarming accuracy, and this soongets tiresome, even if some of them are quite cool. The 1/10 I gave it goes to those few cases.
As for the cast, well,Land of the Dead had Dennis Hopper and John Leguizamo,and I haven’t seen 2007’s Diary of the Dead, nor the 2008 remake of Day of the DeadSo, who will win – happy-go-lucky Patrick O’Flynn and the army or evil-looking Seamus Muldoon? You won’t really careby the end. Or after the first 30 minutes, to be honest.
Presented in the original 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen ratio, the picture is nicely detailed where it counts, but thebackdrop is mostly farmland so nothing to shout about. It’ll do the job, if you really care about the film.For the record, I’m watching on a Panasonic 37″ Plasma screen via a Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray player.
As for the sound, this is in DTS 5.1 HD Master Audio, or DTS 5.1 for those, like me, without the full technicaldohickey. Like the picture, this does the job when required whether it’s gunfire or a musical score attempting todrum up tension.
When it comes to the extras… there are none.
The menu mixes clips from the film with a short piece of the incidental music.There are NO subtitles, which is completely ridiculous – especially given all the strong Irish accents in the film -and the Chaptering is, again for Optimum, a typical embarrassment with just 12 over the 90-minute running time.How can the same company keep making the same mistakes over and over? Do the bigwigs actually read the reviews?
The previous title I reviewed in the series,Land of the Dead,was released by Universal and contained 21 chapters, English subtitles and a nice selection of extras, running for just over an hour barring the audio commentary. Not heaps and heaps like some directors would put on their releases but justenough to give you a flavour of how the film was made. Optimum – you are not!
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.