War and westerns meet the undead

• Writer/director: George A. Romero
• Producer: Paula Devonshire
• Production company: Blank of the Dead Productions
• Cast: Alan Van Sprang, Kenneth Welsh, Devon Bostick, Kathleen Munroe, Richard Fitzpatrick
• Distributor: E1 Entertainment (Canada), Cinetic Media (U.S.)
• International sales: Voltage Pictures

Horror filmmaker George Romero’s latest tale from the gruesome and bloody world of the undead pits two feuding clans in the middle of a zombie epidemic.

‘This film is about war and how even when faced with an external crisis the rival parties can’t forgive each other,’ explains New York-born Romero, who now resides in Toronto. ‘They would be better off to join forces and fight the common enemy – the undead – but they can’t bury the hatchet.’

Survival of the Dead is also an homage to the old western. It’s set on an island, where there are no cars, and people ride horses and dress like cowboys.

‘This film has a lot of western out-trappings; stylistically, I wanted to have fun with that look,’ explains Romero. ‘I grew up not only on horror movies but also on all the old John Ford and William Wyler westerns.’

With Romero’s international reputation and fan base, producer Paula Devonshire secured distribution advances to help finance the film, plus accessed Canadian tax credits. The remainder of the cash was put up by Artfire Films (a boutique California production company and financier). Artfire also produced Romero’s last movie, Diary of the Dead, and takes an exec producer credit on this film.

Survival of the Dead was the first production to rent out the new Pinewood Toronto Studios (formerly Filmport Studios) last fall.

‘It’s a fantastic facility,’ says Devonshire. ‘For the first three months we were all alone in the studios, echoing down the halls. They were really good to us.’

The movie also required location shooting throughout rural Ontario – which wasn’t such a great experience.

‘We had the worst weather of any shoot I have ever been on,’ says Devonshire. ‘It was freezing, it snowed, it poured rain on us. The farm we were using in Ancaster turned into a mud pit. It was horrible.’

Survival of the Dead makes its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 9, where sales conversations will begin in earnest, and then continue at the Toronto fest.

‘We have done well by TIFF in the past,’ says Devonshire, noting that Diary of the Dead sold to The Weinstein Company at the 2007 festival. She and Romero are big fans of TIFF’s Midnight Madness.

‘It has really prestigious horror and fantasy films, so it’s great not just for buyers but also for the fans,’ says Devonshire. ‘The audience is really loyal, they dress up as zombies and scream and yell the whole time.’