Survival of the Dead - Cowboys vs. Zombies

In 2009, George Romero made another zombie movie. Oh, well, you might ask: Zombies are everywhere – so why would anyone care? Let me tell you why. First of all, Romero's zombies are special. They are vicious, cannibalistic beasts, but with each movie, they gain a little more consciousness. From Dawn of the Dead on, zombies can be observed as they are trying to find back into the lives they once had. They start imitating the living, be it the zombified guy at the gas station who does not know where to go with his fuel pump (Land of the Dead) or the undead mailman who keeps stuffing the same mailbox over and over again (Survival of the Dead). Aside of being zombies, they aptly show how monotonous most of human work is and in Land of the Dead they even become a kind of undead homeless working class. 

Cowboys will be cowboys.

The story of Survival of the Dead revolves around two clans on an island who have nothing better to do than fight each other to the death during the apocalypse. The conflict centers on the question whether one should chain the dead like cattle but not harm them (a process dangerous enough in itself) or kill them to avoid further tragedy. Ironically, the anti-zombie family (O’Flynn) is the one that is more sympathetic, but their patriarch, Patrick O’Flynn, is banned from the island as a result of the two (Irish) families’ disagreement on the zombie situation. 

 

Romero’s movie is strangely reminiscent of real-life disputes between pro-life (here: pro-unlife) and pro-choice activists. Hence, the pro-unlife faction (the Muldoons) is portrayed as very conservative (“I trust in God”), whereas the pro-choice faction (the O’Flynns) is willing to adapt to the new situation, which makes killing a few zombies now and then unavoidable. Patrick O’Flynn may be robbing helpless survivors while in exile, but at least he lets them live. Not so old Muldoon, his family-first antagonist. He shoots ‘immigrants’ mercilessly at the shore of his island as they arrive, and as his rule crumbles, ends up preferring the dead over the living. 

The Muldoons ready for action.

The movie combines Western and zombie apocalypse, but manages to be not trashy - in contrast to many other cross-genre Western movies (Cowboys vs. Aliens, anyone?). Both parties suffer from conflicts emerging from within as the crisis reaches its climax, and the only characters that come off as a little bland are the soldiers who are, ironically, the actual main characters in our film.

 

Although the movie treats them as protagonists and the viewer easily identifies with them, they are the least interesting. They, being the good guys, naturally cooperate with the O’Flynns, and beyond that there is little worth mentioning about them. They adopt a young fugitive – who has his very own mind – but they all stand together when it comes to facing the Muldoons, who have figured out their very own way of solving the zombie problem. Without going into further details in order to not spoil the movie, I can assure you that it backfires to some degree.

Trailer

If you need something to fill the pause until The Walking Dead returns, Romero’s work comes highly recommended, in general. Romero’s Dead movies stand out among the mass of brainless zombie movies for being both gory and intelligent, but Survival of the Dead effectively adds both a new setting and new aspects to the zombie theme, leaving urban areas for a silent, but nonetheless deadly island.