GEORGE A. ROMERO’S LATEST MOVIE: Wry humor, social allegory, female masturbation, exploding heads…What’s not to like?

Magnolia’s bright spark Arianne Ayers invited me to the Los Angeles premiere of George Romero’s SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD. George has been a horror auteur for 42 years and is still going strong. We have met a couple of times on the festival circuit, so I was eagerly awaiting his next chapter on the apocalypse. Here’s George introducing the redband trailer.

As a practitioner of tightly budgeted genre myself, I consider SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD a bang-up job. This time George gene-splices Zombieland with The Hatfields vs.The McCoys, enabling him to riff on human folly and the senselessness of war, with wry humor, social allegory, female masturbation and exploding heads…What’s not to like?

What’s more, it has one of Canada’s finest actors Kenneth Welsh ( I had the pleasure of directing him in ESCAPE CLAUSE) who channels a bunch of Sean O’Casey characters into the vengeful, manipulative, bastard-paterfamilias you can’t help liking.

George enjoys confronting his audience with uncomfortable moral quandaries when the normal has been replaced by the unthinkable. The more overt comedic tone of his approach this time may be the source of disappointment in some of the reviews I have read. In fact, I think George has actually broadened his audience by ramping up the laughs.

But he does not neglect the boo, yuk, and shiver moments, which are greatly aided by a dynamic score from Robert Carli, a Canadian composer who will, I predict, get a big Hollywood assignment, based on his work here.

SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD is a fun ride when experienced on the big screen with a full house that gets it, as they did at the premiere. And Great Cannibalism, George! What about when they ate the whole….well, you’ll have to see the movie.

HEY, ARIZONA, DON’T FUCK WITH THIS MEXICAN. HE’S GOT SOME CINQUO DE MAYO WORDS FOR YOU!

If you haven’t seen it already, here’s a link to Harry Knowles exclusive post of a special MACHETE trailer. Utterly amazing! Thank you, Harry.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/44943

The Seventies are back, if last night’s crowded screening of TURKEY SHOOT is any indication.  They totally got it. The New Beverly Cinema will also be bringing back my STUNT ROCK for a midnight show on June 11th. Mark your dance card…