One of the major revelations earlier last month, when the official list of the Toronto International Film Fest was released, was the title of George Romero’s new zombie movie.  Original poster art last in January had led us all to believe that the title had yet to be created – it only said …of the Dead.

The new official title, according to TIFF.net (official Toronto International Film Fest site), is George A. Romero’s SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD.  Many had speculated that it was going to be called Island of the Dead.

Looking back at ZombieChatter.com’s “first Look” of the poster art and published synopsis, things seem to have changed a bit.

Below is the original synopsis from January:

“On a small island off North America’s coast, the dead rise to menace the living. Yet…the islanders can’t bring themselves to exterminate their loved ones, despite the growing danger from those the once held dear. A rebel among them hunts down all the zombies he can find, only to be banished from the island for assassinating his neighbors and friends. On the mainland, bent on revenge, he encounters a small band of survivors in search of an oasis on which to build a new life. Barely surviving an attack from a mass of ravenous flesh-eaters. They commandeer a zombie-infested ferry and sail to the island. There, to their horror, they discover that the locals have chained the dead inside their homes, pretending to live ‘normal’ lives…with bloody consequences. What ensues is a desperate struggle for survival and the answer to a question never posed in Romero’s Dead films: Can the living ever live in peace with the dead?”

Now take a look at the revised synopsis:

“In a world where the dead rise to menace the living, rogue soldier Crocket (Alan Van Sprang) leads a band of military dropouts to refuge from the endless chaos. As they search for a place “where the shit won’t get you,” they meet banished patriarch Patrick O’Flynn (played with zeal by Kenneth Welsh), who promises a new Eden on the fishing and ranching outpost Plum Island. The men arrive, only to find themselves caught in an age-old battle between O’Flynn’s family and rival clan the Muldoons. It turns out that Patrick was expelled from the isle for believing that the only good zombie is a dead zombie, while the Muldoons think it’s wrong to dispatch afflicted loved ones, attempting to look after their undead kinfolk until a cure is found. But their bid for stability on the homestead has turned perverse: the undead are chained inside their homes, pretending to live normal lives – and the consequences are bloody. A desperate struggle for survival will determine whether the living and the dead can coexist.”

They are similar.  However, the new one tells us more details around the drop-out soldiers and the family feud that is going on…..

One thing is for sure, Romero’s social commentary is sure to exist in this latest film.  According to Tiff.net:

The film is also a sharp subversion of the western. It can be seen as a reflection of William Wyler’s The Big Country, in which stubborn clans feuded as larger troubles raged.

I continue to be pretty excited about this one.

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