george romero

With the upcoming release of Romero's Survival of the Dead (review), zombie fever will once again rip through the horror community as everyone complains that the creator of the zombie has ruined his own ever-evolving creation. Naturally, no release of a film in a popular zombie franchise can be without its viral marketing materials.

To coincide with the release of Survival of the Dead in theaters on May 28th and VOD, XBOX Live, Amazon and Playstation on April 30th, Magnet has released the handy-dandy Zombie Identification Field Manual to ensure your complete safety when dealing with the zombie apocalypse. Never again will you confuse your drooling great grandfather or drunk roommate for a zombie, as the field manual highlights the attributes necessary to discern the living from the undead.

Survival of the Dead takes place in a desperate, nightmarish world where the dead walk the earth, relentlessly attacking the living. It is the story of Plum Island – a beautiful refuge whose isolation allows two powerful families to maintain a semblance of order in the wake of the zombie holocaust. But as the inhabitants slowly die off, the two clans become sharply divided: the O'Flynns believe that the undead must be destroyed without exception, while the Muldoons insist that afflicted loved ones be kept "alive" until a cure is found. The result is an escalating showdown with echoes of a classic Western stand-off that erupts in brutality and violence.

The guide can be viewed or downloaded here or by clicking the image up there in the top right. Check out more on Survival of the Dead at its official Facebook page and the official website. The red band trailer can be found here.

MySpace Horror and Bloody-Disgusting have a special treat for zombie lovers and Romero fans this morning, a brand new red band trailer for Romero's latest zombie epic Survival of the Dead.

The new clip is more of a teaser than a full-fledged preview, but it does feature lots of walking corpses--and I think we're all pretty interested in that. I'm not going to say anything else about it--just jump past the break and watch it for yourself. Make sure you're of age, though--it's got one of those age-gate deals to keep the young 'uns out.

Survival of the Dead focuses on the inhabitants of an isolated island off the North American coast who find their relatives rising from the dead and eating their kin. The leaders of the island feud over whether or not to kill their reanimated relatives or preserve them in hopes of finding a cure.

Romero's sixth zombie film makes its Video On Demand debut on April 30th. The feature will also have a limited theatrical release beginning May 28th--all courtesy of the good folks at Magnet Releasing.

Yes, I'm excited. Yes, I know it's a remake. No, I don't care. It looks creepy. I want to see the Crazies. Bad. I like Timothy Olyphant, particularly from his turn in Deadwood, and while I'm certainly a fan of Romero's original, it never quite clicked with me like so much of his other work has. We've shown you trailers and explored the early viral websites they put out there (viral! *snicker*), but as the promotion machine amps up, I get more and more antsy to see this flick. This one looks like it earns it's 'R' rating. While that's not a prerequisite for a fine horror film, it sure as hell doesn't hurt when it's flagging the story of a town gone mad.

The mutants over at Dread Central have a plethora of new shots that lead me to believe that this will be a nice adrenaline-and-blood cocktail. Here's hoping! Click the pic to your right to take you over to Dread and get a gander at the rest of them.
And leap past the break to check out the trailer and lengthy synopsis.

I wasn't the biggest fan of George Romero's last zombie film, the heavy-handed Diary of the Dead, but when you have a resume that includes Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, I'm willing to let you slide on the occasional misstep. As has been widely reported, Romero's latest film, Survival of the Dead, is yet another foray into a world overrun by hordes of hungry zombies. Magnet Releasing (a division of Magnolia Films) acquired the domestic distribution rights last year, but never announced details on how or when they'd be bringing the project to the masses.

Luckily, Fangoria is on the case. They broke news yesterday stating that Survival of the Dead will have a two-tiered release (not unlike last year's House of the Devil), with the film making its Video On Demand debut on April 30th. The feature will also have a limited theatrical release beginning May 28th. I still can't get used to movies appearing on Video On Demand before appearing in a theater, but that's probably why I write news stories and don't work in marketing...

Survival of the Dead (which may have the lamest name ever) focuses on the inhabitants of an isolated island off the North American coast who find their relatives rising from the dead and eating their kin. The leaders of the island feud over whether or not to kill their reanimated relatives or preserve them in hopes of finding a cure.

Check out our very own Brad McHargue's full review here at Horror Squad.

If there was ever a reason for a horror fan to seek induction into the cult of Apple and Steve Jobs, a Dawn of the Dead video game developed exclusively for the iPhone is a damned good one.

According to Know Your Mobile, developer Byte Mark (how appropriate), the game, which features a top-down approach not unlike the Jurassic Park game for the Super Nintendo (how's that for an obscure reference?) has recently been submitted to the Apple store. Other games similar in style to Dawn of the Dead include iDracula and Alive 4-Ever, two other popular iPhone shooter games.

One would expect such a game to be bloody, and judging by the screen shot, it doesn't look like the developers skimped on the red stuff. Sadly, its dark red hue belies the humor found in the bright red blood of the film, but alas, this is something iPhone owners and Dawn of the Dead fans will just have to live with.

Most of the zombie killin' seems to be focused on brute force and melee weapons, giving a more up-and-close and personal approach and I think one more suited to such a platform. Interestingly enough it was noted that the characters and game play are more closely related to the Zack Snyder adaptation than Romero's, but does anyone really care? Mall, weapons, zombies. That's all that's needed.

Shock reports via All About the Games that the game should be available for purchase on January 19th.

I'll admit that this particular remake doesn't have a heck of a lot going for it on paper. Are any true blue horror fans really looking forward to it? Breck Eisner, offspring of Michael, is racing Rob Zombie for the remake crown. Somehow, this priveleged pretty-boy managed to get his hands on not only the Crazies, but Flash Gordon, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and my precious, the Brood. With a track record like that, I'm becoming convinced that he's part of a cabal that was assembled for the sole purpose of pissing me off.

That said, I'm drifting towards giving him the benefit of the doubt. The latest trailer, available below, tickled the horror part of my brain. Timothy Olyphant usuallly acquits himself nicely (see Deadwood) and if there's a Romero film that's great, but definitely could be improved upon, it's the Crazies.

The film's conceit is simple enough. People start going berserk in a small town. Before long, it becomes clear that the water is tainted. While Sheriff Dutton (Olyphant) tries to deal with the situation, the military moves in with a 'scorched earth' mentality. The sheriff and a few others realize that getting the hell out of Dodge is their new main objective.

The poster to the right is taken from one of the many spooky images from the new trailer. The deviants at Bloody-Disgusting have a shiny, engorged look at it here, if you need to biggie size it.

After the jump is the second trailer. Check out the nifty official site, as well.

Zombie lovers and George Romero fans can finally exhale --Survival of the Dead has landed US distribution at long last.

Magnolia Films' genre imprint, Magnet Releasing, has secured the rights to bring Romero's latest horrifying vision of zombie doom to American audiences. Clear your calendars for this spring.

The company's press release yesterday heralds the film as "a new, terrifying vision that combines viscerally gory undead action with biting social commentary and a return to the black humor and playfulness of his seminal film, Dawn of the Dead." Whether that's true or not (I've read mixed reviews from festival screenings), it's still exciting to know that a new Romero film is looming on the horizon.

Magnet's release plans for the feature will see it debuting on VOD this spring. One month after that, it will play theatrically (on a limited number of screens, one would assume).

Romero's latest takes place on Plum Island, "a beautiful refuge whose isolation allows two powerful families to maintain a semblance of order in the wake of the zombie holocaust. But as the inhabitants slowly die off, the two clans become sharply divided: The O'Flynns believe that the undead must be destroyed without exception, while the Muldoons insist that afflicted loved ones be kept "alive" until a cure is found. The result is an escalating showdown with echoes of a classic Western stand-off that erupts in brutality and violence."

Take a journey with me beyond the jump to watch a Survival of the Dead clip.

Happy Thanksgiving to all! As we all sit down to gorge ourselves on turkey and stuffing, I can't help but glance around the dinner table and think of spectacular death scenes from zombie cinema. What? No, I don't see a problem with the thought process. The way in which my family and friends tear into the succulent flesh of the ceremonial bird always brings to mind images of swarms of the undead descending upon some hapless dupe and making a hearty meal out his insides. So to kickoff the holiday season, I thought it would be fun to make a list of some of my favorite moments of zombies feasting on humanity...with ample carbon-based gravy of course.

I do not like Dawn of the Dead.

George Romero's epic 1978 classic about a group of survivors holed up in an abandoned mall after the walking dead have taken over the city has taken its seemingly rightful place on a number of top ten lists, but not mine. For me, Dawn of the Dead is many things, but a great horror film is not one of them.

And it's not because the zombies are blue.

Now, before you show up on my front step with torches and pitchforks slandering my credibility as a horror fan and overall swell guy, hear me out. My point of view, though controversial in nature, is the end result of close to twenty years of horror fanaticism and is not without merit. I don't discriminate lightly, and while I feel "just because" is a perfectly acceptable reason for not liking a film, I assure you that excuse does not fly with my assessment of Dawn of the Dead.

Argh, I hate conflicting emotions. Why can't the world be black or white, dead or undead? On the one hand, I would love to read any book written by zombie Godfather George A. Romero, and I would particularly love to read a book written by Romero about, well, zombies. On the other, more rational hand, I do not want to read (or see) the foundation myth explaining how Romero's particular legions of the undead came to be, which is exactly what I will inevitably be reading in July 2010 according to an article from The Guardian about Romero's upcoming novel, The Living Dead.

The UK Publisher, Headline, describes the premise of The Living Dead as, "the full story behind the living dead: how they came to be [and] what they can and cannot do". It starts in San Diego, where a corpse sits up and begins to walk during an autopsy, while a reporter from Atlanta shows viewers "glimpses of increasing chaos from around the globe". Which is all well and good if I want to read another World War Z, but global chaos and scientific reasoning is not what I've come to associate with Romero's undead cannon.

Hasn't "When there's no more room left in hell, the dead will walk the Earth" been sufficient explanation since Dawn of the Dead came out in '78? Does anyone really require further examination than that simple conceit? Obviously if Romero writes a book, I'm going to read it, even if it deals with material I'd rather be left vague, but I just wish it would be a standalone entry and not a retroactive law book as to what can and cannot be done in the world of the walking dead. Doesn't that kind of defeat the whole oral history, fire-side mystique of not knowing the end-all reason behind the brain-hungry re-animation of friends and family?