Movies
BD Review: A Second Opinion on ‘Survival of the Dead’
It’s no secret that I despise George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead as I wrote this negative review way back in September. After the rash of screenings through TIFF and Fantastic Fest, I started to think I was in the minority, and maybe I still am, but for now it looks as if Bloody Disgusting’s Michael Panduro agrees with me. Below you’ll find his negative thoughts on Romero’s latest zombie opus — and don’t forget to write your own review and tell us what YOU think. I’m dying to know.
What the trinkly fudge just happened!? I feel betrayed, humiliated! This is comparable to something like my girlfriend through 6 years suddenly showing me a lump in her panties and saying she hasn’t been totally honest with me. This feels like when George Lucas butt-fucked a generation with The Phantom Menace. Worse yet, this feels worse than seeing a modern Carpenter or Argento flick!
After sitting through the most ridiculous hour and a half I’ve ever had with the living dead I wanna re-evaluate my entire perception of George A. Romero. I wanna rip out my numerous copies of the dead trilogy (seriously, screw everything after Day), piss on them and set fire to the very memory of ever being a devoted fan. But I’m not gonna do it. Because I remember this exact same thing happening before. It happened when I watched Carpenter’s Ghosts Of Mars and it happened when I watched Argento’s Phantom of The Opera. What the hell happened to these guys in the mid-90s!? Did the drugs stop working or something!? Does talent, judgment and common sense evaporate when you hit 60? I have no idea, but the fact remains that Romero has now conclusively joined the ranks of nonsensical horror-directors who once blew my mind with edgy, relevant and original stories and are now cranking out movies so bad I almost feel sorry for them. The classics are still classics. Question is, how does a filmmaker – a creative artist, if you will – go from greatness to utter shittiness?
I was out there on the frontline defending Land Of The Dead, when it first came out. I thought it was kinda good fun, the production design and acting was kinda ok and the script kinda made sense. But I was wrong, I’ve realized that on repeat viewings. And Diary really sucked, that was apparent first time around. But still it couldn’t have prepared me for the filmic abortion that is Survival of The Dead. I mean, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING works in this film! Every single solitary aspect of filmmaking is flawed to the point that it reeks amateur. This looks like a shitty student film, made not by people with decades of experience, but by snotty teenage stoners wanting to do a huh-huh-zombie-flick. It’s ridiculous, it’s not funny, it just pisses me of. Apart from a monumentally faulty script with everything from valleys of plot-holes, stupid dialogue and scenes that are just nonsense, Survival suffers under poor digital photography that looks horrible on film, clumsy lighting, loose editing and goofy music. And that’s not even counting the acting. My god, the acting! Horrible dialogue gives birth to uneven performances, but it doesn’t necessitate accents that are all over the place or actors that sound like they’re reciting. Furthermore, the fact that nobody garners the least bit of sympathy, nobody is a convincing badass and absolutely nobody embodies an interesting character in any way, pulls the film down to simply being boring and unengaging.
Romero fucks up his film even further by employing cheap CGI and uninspired and misplaced humor, rendering the end result one of the uttermost uninspired crapfests I’ve ever experienced. Survival of The Dead goes beyond bad, because of it’s context, though. I mean, this guy used to pack a punch, we all know that! So what the fuck happened!? I still don’t know who or what to blame for the collective downfall of my teenage icons, but I know that in George Romero the fallen ones just got a new bunkmate. I haven’t felt this ridiculed since watching the shitpiles of his contemporaries as mentioned above. You have broken my heart George Romero, and I never thought I’d be saying that to a 70-year old man.
Rating: 1/5 Skulls
Screened at CPH:PIX 2010
After kicking off with a limited theatrical run in May, James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day is returning to the big screen in 4K, RealD 3D and premium formats next month.
To mark the 35th anniversary, Terminator 2: Judgment Day will open in U.S. theaters August 28 through September 2, 2026, along with a range of late August/early September premiere dates worldwide to commemorate T2’s “Judgment Day” on August 29 via STUDIOCANAL, Fathom Entertainment and Rialto Pictures.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, and Robert Patrick star in the four-time Oscar Winner that sees a reprogrammed T-800 sent back in time to protect 10-year-old John Connor from the shape-shifting T-1000. Together with his mother Sarah, the cybernetic organism fights to stop Skynet from triggering a nuclear apocalypse.
The re-release comes with a new anniversary trailer, below.
WORLDWIDE RELEASE DATES CALENDAR – TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY 35th ANNIVERSARY
- August 27, 2026: Germany, LATAM, Czech Republic
- August 28, 2026: United States, Italy, Poland
- AUGUST 29, 2026: JUDGMENT DAY
- September 2, 2026: France
- September 3, 2026: Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary
- September 4, 2026: United Kingdom
James Cameron comments, “T2 was made for theatres, and our lovingly-prepared 3D version, coming back to the big screen, is the absolute best way to see the film. I believe it’s safe to do spoilers after 35 years, so SPOILER ALERT: the good guys win against the AI superintelligence! And maybe that’s a message of hope we all could use this summer.”
Anna Marsh CEO of STUDIOCANAL, Chief Content Officer of CANAL+ expands, “We are incredibly proud to mark the 35th anniversary of James Cameron’s masterpiece Terminator 2: Judgment Day in partnership with the passionate teams at Fathom Entertainment and Rialto Pictures in the US. This collaboration has been thrilling, and we cannot wait for audiences to mark Judgment Day in theatres all over the world this August. The continued restoration and discovery of classic and revolutionary cinema is the cornerstone of our strategy and it’s particularly gratifying to see the scale of this celebratory re-release come to fruition.”
Ray Nutt, Chief Executive Officer for Fathom Entertainment adds, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day was a cultural phenomenon in the U.S. upon release and 35 years later, remains a timeless, non-stop thrill ride that audiences – new and old – will love to see. With non-stop action, iconic performances from Arnold Scwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, spectacular sound and visual effects, and even a massive hit song by Guns N’ Roses (“You Could Be Mine”), the re-release of T2 is a must-see theatrical event perfect for 3D and other premium formats.”
Tickets in the United States for Terminator 2: Judgment Day 35th Anniversary will be available online on July 17 and at participating theatre box offices (theatre locations are subject to change). For more information, and to be among the first notified when tickets go on sale, please visit Fathom Entertainment.
Cameron is currently developing a seventh Terminator film.