If you're a horror fan, you worship at the altar of George A. Romero. He will forever be in the pantheon of genre filmmakers and deservedly so. On May 28th, the zombie maestro's new film SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD finally hits theaters and yes, it's about the undead. Again. In a recent interview, Romero mentioned that he has "ideas for at least two more DEAD projects that he would love to shoot back-to-back, schedule permitting." The director also made it known that the next two films would "push the new ideas he's applied to the undead in SURVIVAL."

For most horror fans, more DEAD films in the pipeline is a good thing. At this point, however, these films are becoming an exercise in tedium and the thought of more of them is not something to get excited about. SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD is by far the worst in the series. It's poorly acted, it looks cheap and the scenes involving the undead have reached a level of gimmickry that almost makes them downright laughable. Romero still has some interesting ideas that expand the mythology, to be sure, but in SURVIVAL we have to wait until the end to have that new tidbit revealed, and it's really not all that compelling. The DEAD films are dead. Period.

Romero wants to do other things. And I wish he would. The problem is that it's become almost impossible for him to get funding for any project that doesn't have, OF THE DEAD in the title. He's certainly enjoying the return to low budget filmmaking up in Canada, but DIARY and SURVIVAL are not up to the standards of the previous films - even LAND OF THE DEAD - and Romero is damaging his legacy with these new films. Horror fans are also passionate apologists, but we all need to admit that if these films were made by another director, they would go largely unnoticed. I'll be watching KNIGHTRIDERS if anyone needs me.

Source: FirstShowing via ShockTilYouDrop

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