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Survival of the Dead

June 4th, 2010 | article by Kevin Pyrtle | No Comments »
Tags: 2009, Family Feud, George Romero, Gore, Horror, Island, Zombies

rating:
company: Artfire Films,
Romero-Grunwald Productions and
Devonshire Productions
year: 2009
runtime: 90′
director: George A. Romero
cast: Alan Van Sprang, Kenneth Welsh,
Kathleen Munroe, Devon Bostick,
Richard Fitzpatrick, Athena Karkanis,
Stefano DeMatteo, Joris Jarsky
writers: George A. Romero
cinematography: Adam Swica
music: Robert Carli
Order this film from Amazon.com
Blu-ray | DVD

Survival of the Dead is currently out in limited theatrical release through Magnet Releasing, and is available for online rental or pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD through Amazon.com.

Oh no. It’s the zombie-pocalypse. Again. People are dying, society is crumbling, and wi-fi coverage is spotty at best. I’ll be the first to give George Romero credit for his accomplishments, and its hard to overstate his importance to independent film and modern existentialist horror. But it’s been a long time since Romero’s ghouls first shambled ‘cross the silver screen. Four decades and five sequels after the fact the people, places and things are all too familiar, and Romero’s once brave new zombiefied world is less compelling than ever before.

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Zombi 2

October 5th, 2007 | article by Kevin Pyrtle | No Comments »
Tags: Eyes, Gore, Horror, Ian Mcculloch, Island, Lucio Fulci, Richard Johnson, Zombies

a.k.a. ZOMBIE / ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS
Variety Film Production [1979] 91′
director: LUCIO FULCI
cast: TISA FARROW, IAN MCCULLOCH,
cast: RICHARD JOHNSON, AL CLIVER

ZOMBIE is one of those films that, regardless of your age, sex, or walk of life, manages to evoke a powerful reaction in viewers by virtue of its title alone. Equally praised as a classic of visceral horror and derided as a tried and tired exercise in excess, the project that put director Lucio Fulci back on the map has no shortage of opinions surrounding it. Still largely dismissed as a feeble attempt at knocking off the 1978 George Romero opus DAWN OF THE DEAD, ZOMBIE has received more than its fair share of criticism over the years. In reality, Fulci and Romero couldn’t have been more different in either their purpose or style of execution – as such, their two films are very different monsters.

Romero’s undead were literally the all-consuming alter egos of ourselves and his film an indictment of man’s inability to deal with itself – the shambling corpses there prove to be considerably less trouble than the variety of entirely human obstacles that crop up along the way. DAWN is a satirical and character-driven fantasy essay on American consumerism glued together with traditional horror trappings. Fulci delves into baser human instincts with his offering, with ZOMBIE being a slow and aesthetically charged tangent on the near-universal fear of the unseen and creeping unknown.