The dead rise again and since we’re in the Internet age, some college students decide to document their trek as they attempt to flee the living dead. George Romero returns behind the camera for this latest dead film. The results are decent enough but don’t really live up to his original masterwork.
Jason Creed (Joshua Close) is in the woods shooting a student film. The cast and crew hear news reports that the dead are rising and pursuing the living. They decide to hightail it out of town and head for safer territories. They stop by the college dormitories to pick up Jason’s girlfriend Debra (Michelle Morgan).
The college is in just as much chaos as the radio station has led them to believe. Jason decides to use his camera to document the chaos around them, as this film may be the last reminder that humanity has. Debra can’t believe that Jason continues to film as the world goes to hell around him.
However, in the end she completes his film to offer up such a mirror to those humans left after the dead ravage the planet.
Zombies are no strangers to George A. Romero. You could say that he’s their granddaddy. His last attempt at a Dead picture, Land of the Dead, failed to stir up critical praise as well as box office. I thought that it wasn’t as bad as some of the reviews I read, but it did feel like it was lacking some of that old black magic considering its higher budget.
Romero chose to step behind the camera of the Dead another time and this time jettisoned the higher budget and went back to his low-budget roots. I can’t say the result harkens back to Night of the Living Dead.
I think the problem is in his method of shooting the film as a video diary of the lead character. The fact that his student filmmaker won’t put down his camera for one second as the world rots around him is pretty laughable. His reasons for doing so sound very pretentious and don’t really help his likeability.
That’s not saying that the movie isn’t worth watching but it did strain credibility (not that the dead coming back to like is really a common occurrence). It’s not till towards the end that we get some social commentary, but by then it may be a little too late.
I guess everyone thinks that when you have Romero and zombie in the same film that you’ll be seeing something great.
This film doesn’t live up to those expectations, but it does have some good moments and doesn’t feel as overblown as Land of the Dead. I did like the movie, but I wanted to like it more.
Diary of the Dead is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary from Romero, director of photography Adam Swila, and editor Michael Doherty.
Next are 20 minutes of “Character Confessions” where Jason turns his camera on his pals and makes them tell what they’re thinking about the events. The 4-minute “First Week” takes an abbreviated look at the first week of filming.
The 2-minute “The Roots” has Romero talking about where he got his inspiration for the film. The 5-minute “Familiar Voices” goes into the famous voices that appear in the film.
I had no idea that Guillermo Del Toro, Simon Pegg, and Stephen King popped up in vocal cameos. “For the Record” is a 25-minute making of feature. Finally, you get the 5 videos that won a MySpace contest inspired by Romero’s zombie pictures.
Diary of the Dead is not exactly going to top the list of Romero’s zombie works, but it is a valiant effort. Unfortunately, I was unable to connect with the main character and I think that’s what sunk the picture for me. I thought it was an interesting attempt.
George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a June 30th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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