Survival and Diary on AMC (woo hoo!)

[triste realtà]

Survival was on AMC tonight at 8. It will be on tomorrow at 6 followed by Diary. There are other viewing times that you will have to look up. George hosted tonight for the world television premiere. I was pleasantly surprised by the movie after thinking it was going to be unwatchable in the first few minutes. I especially like the boat yard scene but haven't finished watching the whole movie yet (till tomorrow). Sure beats the sheriff penishead soap opera.

[bassman]

It just blows my mind that AMC purchased the rights to Diary And Survival, but have yet to do so for Dawn or Day. Those two films are perfect for Fear Fest. I love Fear Fest and all, but Diary and Survival are almost worse than all the Friday the 13th and Halloween films they played last year. And I'm definitely not a fan of those. Since the marathon started a few days ago I think i've enjoyed maybe two things: The Walking Dead and Christine. Their schedule has some good movies amongst the bad, so hopefully better things are to come.

[Wyldwraith]

I agree that AMC's Fear Fest has been very hit-or-miss, It's always that way though, because they seem unable to drag themselves away from yet another showing of Hallowen: H20, some randomly chosen entries of the Friday the 13th franchise (though never 7, the only one I'm not totally burnt out on), and the omnipresent Stephen King stuff. That said, I liked Mimic 2. It suffers from sequel-weakening, but it's rather well done and interesting. However, the Mimic franchise is something you either dig the concept of or you don't. Not much middle ground there. I agree that showing Survival followed by Diary is a very MEH decision. Hell, Land hasn't really gotten much basic-cable airtime at all, yet the craptastic Survival and Diary are showpieces for Fear Fest? Just proves what I've been saying for the last couple of years, that Fear Fest has been going downhill for the last several years. The basic diagnosis is simple enough: Businessmen are making the choices concerning the line-ups, NOT anyone who actually really likes a variety of horror movies. Disappointing, but not unexpected or incomprehensible I'm afraid. SyFy has actually (other than TWD of course) been stomping AMC. Much wider variety of popular horror movies, plus a lot of the older classics. Like The Hills Have Eyes (original). So far as the showing of Dead films though, my biggest pet peeve BY FAR is that you see Dawn '04 slapped up everywhere, on numerous channels, throughout the year...but you NEVER see the original Dawn (my hands-down favorite of the original trilogy. Yea yea, I know a ton of people dig Day, and I think it's all right...I just like Dawn as much as many here seem to like Day as their #1 Romero Dead film.) or even Land. Land gets next to no showings on TV, but Dawn '04, and now we'll be seeing Diary and Survival every Fear Fest get that airtime. They just need to put someone that actually likes the genre in charge of choosing their movie line-up out of the flicks they've bought rights to.

[bassman]

Land gets next to no showings on TV. I have to disagree there. I've seen land on TNT, TBS, MTV, and I believe VH1. Quite a bit, actually. What really stinks is that Fear Fest used to be GREAT. A few years back it was by far the best halloween marathon programming. Many classic horror films with only a few "meh" titles snuck in during the early morning hours. Now it seems like they're ditching the good stuff for the garabage 24/7. On thing i've noticed each consecutive year is that they've played less and less of the Universal Monsters and replaced them with the crap 80's slasher films. WTF?

[bd2999]

Maybe it is just a matter of perspective but I have always liked Fear Fest and I still do. I do wish they had some of the classic movies on more, TCM seems to be doing that through Monday's in Oct. I would love to see some of the universal classics or some of the other black and white gems. I liked when they acquired Night of the Living Dead, although it is public domain so how hard that was is neglagible I guess. I honestly love horror in general. The slasher movies, the old monster movies, big bug movies or whatever. I like it all. I am a fan of the Halloween movies and Fth13th and NoES along with everything else. I usually watch alot of the movies again during fear fest. Especially Halloween. I do get annoyed about how much replay there is considering how many good movies there are. It seems like once it gets going from about noon on or so it is replaying a movie that was on a few days before followed by what was on the night before and so on. Lots of good stuff being left off for that reason. Onto Survival. I like Survival more than Diary. That said after watching it against last night I am still confused about some of the stuff Romero was going for in this movie. I think the general premise works. The island with two sides against one another, unable to put old grudges aside even now. I think that is fine, and the National guard thing is fine too. What I thought was dumb was the hinting at that feeding the dead something else made a difference at all. So they will eat your food too? What difference does it make? IS this a hint on how to domesticate them? Because it really is not, the zombie on the horse is a bit strange that she can ride the horse. Some of the characters are sort of pointless. There are some good moments in it, but overall I think this one had alot of potential that it did not reach. I think it beats Diary solidly there. I think Diary needed to be another movie altogether to be saved. Sort of a shift of topic but does anyone else think Diary would have been a more interesting movie if they would have just done a general camera sees sort of approach. Following various groups and their attempts at survival until they fall? So some would last briefly and others longer, and so on. I think the jist of it could still have gotten accross without so many bland and dull characters running around. We would get perspective of younger generations, older, military and so on and so forth. I think it is a much cooler concept anyway, especially to document the starting of this sort of thing.

[White_Zombie]

They just had Survival of the Dead on an hour ago.It took a lot for me not to break out in a tourettes like manner well throwing objects at the television including heavy furniture (and maybe the cat) well shouting MULDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON! rather loudly. Diary & Survival are complete trash, what was GAR thinking? -- -------- Post added at 08:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:44 PM ---------- Let's not forget this cool fella...

[Mr.G]

LOL...the Amish guy was the only redeeming quality of Diary. Nothing redeemable in Survival.

[blind2d]

I think I'm going to agree with Mr. G on this one. Also, it was hilarious that they actually showed the zed chick riding the horse on the promo, and the sausage fork kill. What. Shit.

[bassman]

As if Diary and Survival weren't bad enough....tonight's 8pm showing is 'Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane'. My TV used to never change from this channel during Fear Fest. The past few years I can barely watch. At least tomorrow night is Slither. That's a fun one...

[Doc]

I don't see the charm in seeing favorite censored horror classics. :-/

[Mr.G]

As if Diary and Survival weren't bad enough....tonight's 8pm showing is 'Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane'. True but at least you know what to expect before watching the Flight movie...I had high hopes for GAR's last two movies....and lets just say I was very sad after both.

[Eyebiter]

Turner Classic Movies is a good channel to watch the week of Halloween. Lot of old black and white movies but they are uncut with no commercials.

[sandrock74]

It just blows my mind that AMC purchased the rights to Diary And Survival, but have yet to do so for Dawn or Day. Those two films are perfect for Fear Fest. Seriously, youd want to watch butchered (censored) versions of Dawn and Day???

[clanglee]

As if Diary and Survival weren't bad enough....tonight's 8pm showing is 'Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane'. My TV used to never change from this channel during Fear Fest. The past few years I can barely watch. At least tomorrow night is Slither. That's a fun one... Hey! I liked that Flight of the Living Dead movie. . .it was just goofy fun.

[EvilNed]

Hey! I liked that Flight of the Living Dead movie. . .it was just goofy fun. Agreed. I had a good time watching that one. It's silly, but entertaining.