Film Review: Diary of the Dead

Film: Diary of the Dead
Director: George A. Romero

Before I get started with this review, I'd like to say that I was a bit overwhelmed by the fact that I was going to review a film by the zombie master himself, George Romero. However, after the second viewing of this in the comfort of my own home, I've found that I do have a few things to say about this flick.

Diary of the Dead follows a group of college students, who in the midst of making their own horror movie, find out that the dead have begun to rise and cause trouble all over the world. Jason the director of this horror movie insists on carrying his camera and shooting everything that is happening to this group.

My first issue with this first person point of view that we get through the camera is that when the shit hits the fan, Jason has trouble letting go of his camera. He's desperate to capture everything. Dude, let it go and help. Put the damn camera down. It's not worth it. However, unlike other first person point of view horror flicks like Blair Witch, Quarantine, or Cloverfield, this issue is addressed constantly through out the film by others in Jason's group. As a matter of fact this issue is pounded into your skull throughout the movie.

This leads me to my second issue with the film. Night, Dawn, Day, and Land never really just came out and drilled it's social commentary into your brain. Diary was totally in your face with the commentary. The voice over in the film drives the point of technology enslaving us over and over again. It felt like I was being preached at.

However, everything else (except the acting) was perfectly fine and what I expect from a Romero zombie film. The zombies and gore looked great.

With each ...of the Dead films, Romero furthers the mythos of his zombies, revealing more about their nature. For example, the film mentions a couple of times that zombies can't run..."their ankles would snap..". We also knew that if you got bit you'd die and come back as a zombie like a virus, however, he also reiterates the fact that anyone who dies, bitten or not, comes back to life. There's also a scene in which a zombie is pushing a shopping cart, which re-establishes the fact that even at the beginning of the zombie outbreak zombies retain a bit of their former instincts.

Also, in this movie, we get to see new ways to kill zombies. There's death by acid to the head, a sickle to the head, a sword to the head, and an arrow to the head. An attempted kill was made by an EKG machine in the hospital. This didn't kill the zombie, however, we got to see it's eyeballs explode from its head

Ultimately, It's well worth the watch and it'll be great part of your zombie collection. But, i've got to give this 3 blood drops, simply because I thought the writing was just not well thought out. The voice over and the actors were annoying. I didn't feel any sort of attachement to anybody in the movie. And It felt like Romero was preaching to me.