'Survival of the Dead': George Romero gives sixth zombie film a neo-Western slant

"Survival of the Dead" is the sixth zombie film that George A. Romero has directed since he reinvented horror's most undying subgenre 42 years ago with "Night of the Living Dead." It's also Romero's third "Dead" film in five years (after 2005's "Land of the Dead" and 2007's "Diary of the Dead"), suggesting that the now-70-year-old director might be in a hurry to finish the zombie cycle he created.

Let's hope seven is Romero's lucky number, because "Survival" would mark a weak end to the series. It's no better or worse than the recent films (though most fans would favor "Land"), and as a direct sequel to "Diary" it's the first "Dead" film to feature a recurring character. Aside from that, it's pretty clear that Romero (here serving double-duty as screenwriter, and filming in Ontario instead of Pittsburgh) wasn't feeling particularly inspired this time around.

After making a brief appearance in "Diary," Sarge "Nicotine" Crocket (Alan Van Sprang) returns here as commander of a rogue military unit seeking refuge from the nationwide hordes of zombies now devouring more than 150,000 living humans per day ... creating, of course, even more ravenous undead who can only be stopped by a kill-shot through the brain.

Making ample use of gruesome prosthetics and brain-splattering CGI, Romero serves up a lot of those kill-shots. Not to mention internal zombie-combustion by flare gun and another zombie dispatched (quite messily) with a cranial overload of fire retardant. To say the least, the art of movie gore has surely been perfected.

With the promise of zombie-free living, Sarge leads his unit to an island off the coast of Delaware, where they get ensnared in a long-standing feud between two Irish patriarchs (Kenneth Welsh, Richard Fitzpatrick), one favoring zombie genocide and the other determined to "keep the dead among us" by teaching them to avoid human flesh until a zombie "cure" is found.

Making good use of a well-chosen cast, Romero (still a fine director) distinguishes "Survival of the Dead" from its predecessors with its neo-Western slant on the Hatfields and McCoys, and his usual dose of social commentary mixes well with his twisted gallows humor. Still, a lot of "Survival" seems stale, as if Romero were growing bored with his own redundancies. Now in the final years of an uneven career, Romero needs to get out of his comfort zone.

Jeff Shannon: j.sh@verizon.net