Survival vs Diary

[Shawn Wilcox]

survival (along with day and night) was on the chiller channel this weekend. since i had tons of dvr space, i recorded it and may give it a 2nd chance soon....not expecting a major change of opinion, but maybe this time i'll actually sit through the whole thing. I actually did sit through the whole thing and it was an hour and half of my life I won't get back! LOL

[Mr.G]

As I mentioned in another thread....Diary and Survival are so bad they make Land look like Citizen Kane. All in all, and it pains me to type this due to the respect I have for GAR, but I'd prefer if the new trilogy would cease to exist. Can you imagine if someone's first zombie movie was Land, Diary or Survival? That's chilling!

[BillyRay]

Diary always struck me as Unca George cashing in on the whole 'Blair Witch shaky-cam' fad. For all of it's faults, Survival at least attempts to be an original narrative. Also...MULDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNN!!!! - - - Updated - - - Diary always struck me as Unca George cashing in on the whole 'Blair Witch shaky-cam' fad. For all of it's faults, Survival at least attempts to be an original narrative. Also...MULDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNN!!!!

[Andrew Crevier]

I sooo have to watch Diary now. I've been avoiding it since the last time I attempted and got only 5 minutes in. Drunk and being tired may have had something to do with that. I know I'll probably hate it, but back when folks were saying, "hey GAR is making a found footage dead flick," hopes were high.

[Shawn Wilcox]

Ok I finally got around to watching diary tonight and yes it is a hell of a lot better than survival, not original trilogy better but between those 2 films diary wins hands down!

[Ragnarr]

I just cannot use the word "win" when describing either flick. The question should be which movie is (was) the bigger loser of the two lol.

[zomtom]

For whatever reason, I don't really have a problem with Diary. I can watch it at least once a year. Sure I want to smack a couple of the characters for being such idiots but to me, it's still watchable. Mind you, it's no where near the original trilogy. Survival however, was just downright painful to watch. It was so damned hokey, I was wondering if George wanted it to be a comedy. Maybe I'll be able to watch it again in another three or four years after I forget how much I hated it.

[krisvds]

I like both Diary and Survival as 'interesting failures'. Both have good ideas, have an intelligent core. Anyone who has ever been to a concert lately and has witnessed the idiots standing there with their smartphones over their head filming the whole goddamn time can surely relate to what George was going for in Diary. Both films have painfully flawed execution as well. That voiceover in Diary gets on my nerves every time. The attempts at comedy in survival are painful.

[Geordie9]

I dont think any of romeros zombie films have been that good after day of the dead. I didnt like the main characters in land, diary or survival whereas in night, dawn and day i loved them. i still bought them all though to add to the collection and watch them regularly. But i think diary was better then survival.

[MoonSylver]

Interesting observation. I did like the characters in Land for the most part (except for Riley's stupid "looking for a place to live" turn at the end), but thinking about it, Diary & Survival both are full of pretty unlikable characters in general, except maybe the drunken professor of Diary, who was still too overblown & too much of a caricature, which undermines the good will I have for him.

[Trin]

Interesting observation. I did like the characters in Land for the most part (except for Riley's stupid "looking for a place to live" turn at the end), but thinking about it, Diary & Survival both are full of pretty unlikable characters in general, except maybe the drunken professor of Diary, who was still too overblown & too much of a caricature, which undermines the good will I have for him. Charlie in Land is one of my favorite Romero characters of all time. And I really enjoyed Riley (yes, except for the lame "looking for a place" bs). And I thought Cholo was a good character - not a hero, not a villain. They all suffered from lame plot. And I thought O'Flynn was a good character in Survival. He had a take-charge, no-nonsense attitude toward the zombies. He was more than willing to put a bullet in the head of the zombies chained to their tasks along the roadside. And he was totally competent of surviving in the zombie world. Yet he had a human side which is atypical for such a character. For example, when faced with the zombie children in the crib he couldn't pull the trigger. Survival was a truly awful movie... and it was hard to find any goodness at all in it... but it wasn't because of bad characters. well.... not ALL because of bad characters... Muldooooooooooon!!

[Geordie9]

And I thought O'Flynn was a good character in Survival. He had a take-charge, no-nonsense attitude toward the zombies. He was more than willing to put a bullet in the head of the zombies chained to their tasks along the roadside. And he was totally competent of surviving in the zombie world. Yet he had a human side which is atypical for such a character. For example, when faced with the zombie children in the crib he couldn't pull the trigger. Survival was a truly awful movie... and it was hard to find any goodness at all in it... but it wasn't because of bad characters. well.... not ALL because of bad characters... Muldooooooooooon!![/QUOTE] And George Romero said that he hopes that in 20 years time people will think of Survival in the same way as they do with Day! Dont think so George!

[Legion2213]

I've still never watched "Survival", "Diary" fucking killed it for me (Diary made "Land" look like an epic...). GAR is going to have to pull something pretty damn special out of the hat before I watch another of his zombie movies (I feel really bad saying that when Dawn is one of my all time favourite movies). Oh, and to be balanced, I understand that producing another "Dawn" is probably impossible and asking too much (like the Star Wars prequel trilogy, the magic was lost), but his newer stuff isn't even decent or viewable IMO.