Could it be that George A Romero's undying cycle of zombie movies is at last heading for the cemetery? Early reviews of the latest in the Dead series, which screened last night at the Venice film festival, suggest that its vital signs may well be in doubt.

Survival of the Dead is the fifth sequel to Romero's 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead, the feature that defined the landscape of the modern zombie movie. The latest instalment – a follow-up of sorts to 2007's Diary of the Dead and another self-financed production – is set on an island off America's east coast. The living dead are caught in the middle of a generations-old dispute between two families, who have opposing strategies for dealing with the zombie menace. One shoots to kill, the other opts for containment in the hope of finding a cure.

Social satire has always been an integral part of Romero's horror, from the consumerism targeted in Dawn of the Dead to the class divisions of Land of the Dead. This time round, Romero admits that he didn't have a specific contemporary issue in mind. "It's much more about man's underlying inability to forget enmity, forget their enemies, even long after they've forgotten what started the conflict in the first place," he told reporters in Venice. "I think part of the problem is that nobody looks at both sides of any issue."

So far the critical response at least has been two-sided. Variety

called the film "woefully thin on ideas, originality (beyond new zombie-offing methods) or directorial flair [with] no serious undertow to counterpoint the eventually repetitive slaughter." The Hollywood Reporter, on the other hand, found it to be "a polished, fast-moving, entertaining picture … with savvy cultural points, clever wit and a nice twist on what might happen to the newly deceased".