Diary Of The Dead

February 15, 2008

Rated: R Runtime: 95 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The Zombie Apocalypse will be video-captured!

George Romero, king of the zombie movie, has made five zombie movies now: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968), DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978), DAY OF THE DEAD (1985), LAND OF THE DEAD (2005), and now DIARY OF THE DEAD.

They’re all in something of a floating continuity; they all depict aspects of a zombie apocalypse, but since they’re filmed decades apart it’s not really the same zombie apocalypse, it’s always as if the dead began rising from the grave just a short while ago.

diaryofthedead.jpgThis time around, like BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and CLOVERFIELD, it’s told from the point of view of people with video cameras documenting the whole thing. Thankfully, Romero keeps the shaky-cam/motion-sickness cam to a minimum. These people can hold a camera steady, even when being pursued by zombies.

The college students are making a low budget horror film, when suddenly they get the news that, unbelievably, there seems to be a world-wide zombie epidemic going on.

One of them has an RV camper (and why a college student would have one is never explained), but a group of them pile in and try to make it back to their hometowns. In route they encounter a lot of zombies, and one guy keeps filming it all, planning to make a documentary from his footage.

This is a lower-budget film than Romero’s last one (LAND OF THE DEAD), but it works. The zombie gore seems realistic, even through the documentary gimmick.

The cast of relative unknowns is sometimes a bit shaky in the acting department; but then again anyone with a camera trained on them during a disaster might come across as a bit artificial.

At one point we get to see how the Amish handle a zombie apocalypse (surprisingly well, all things considered)!

And woven throughout is a wry commentary on how we’ve become obsessed with documenting ourselves on video and posting it on the Internet.

Look for a cameo by Romero in the film; he plays a cop at a news conference.

Romero has had a lot of imitators lately in the zombie movie genre. The homage/comedy SHAWN OF THE DEAD, the fast zombies of the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake and 28 DAYS LATER/28 WEEKS LATER, and I AM LEGEND.

But Romero’s zombies still hold their own. Like the tortoise vs. the hare, his slow-moving zombies know that, at some point, you have to stop running to rest, and they draw inexorably closer.

(At last year’s DragonCon, George Romero was there, and he was selling t-shirts that proclaimed FAST ZOMBIES SUCK!)

Posted by Mack Guffin | Filed Under 4 Stars, Amy Ciupak Lalonde, Joshua Close, Michelle Morgan, Shawn Roberts, Theatrical 

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Comments

2 Responses to “Diary Of The Dead”

  1. Mack Guffin on February 15th, 2008 11:17 am

    And here’s a trailer for DIARY OF THE DEAD on YouTube.

  2. Movies » Diary Of The Dead on February 15th, 2008 12:19 pm

    [...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptGeorge Romero, king of the zombie movie, has made five zombie movies now: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968), DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978), DAY OF THE DEAD (1985), LAND OF THE DEAD (2005), and now DIARY OF THE DEAD. … [...]

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