[Diary Of The Dead]
Plot:Deals with a group of college students in the process of shooting a horror movie in the woods, who stumble upon a real zombie uprising. As the zombies stalk about feeding on the living, they seize the moment as any good film students would, capturing the undead in a "cinema verite" style that causes more than the usual production headaches.

Cast:Shawn Roberts, Joshua Close, Michelle Morgan, Jon Dinicoi, Phillip Ricio, Scott Wentworth.

My Thoughts:In typical Romero fashion...but has the formula gotten old?

Review:"Diary Of The Dead" is the beginning of a new chapter in Romero's series of zombie films, and his fifth zombie film overall. The movie is a prequel to "Night Of The Living Dead", documenting the events which took place prior to that film, all caught on camera by a group of college students...one of which being an aspiring film director. The movie starts off in typical Romero fashion, with a slight sliver of zombie action before we skip to a group of students shooting a mummy movie. Pretty soon, newscasts and broadcasts begin coming over the airwaves about the walking dead, emergency evac's, and related things. At that point, the group decide to drop the shoot and try and find their friends and contact their families, but not before some of the kids make the mistake early on of splitting up (a decision which has dire consequences late in the film).

After gathering up everyone, and finding transportation...the film student of the group decides that they're gonna film every drop of footage they can in the process of leaving town and trying to find survivors...so it can be documented and the truth can be revealed to what they feel is a biased media. The question is though...just how many of them will live through this film experiment wrapped up inside of a zombie outbreak? Unlike other Romero zombie movies, which take a stab at social issues such as race, class, and human nature...this one takes slight stabs at those things, but mostly piles on the media, or the biased media.

Just like the cherry picking of intelligence, and the lies the american people were told going into the Iraq war...this movie plays on that theme, with the film student of the group willing to risk life and limb to make sure the "right", and "correct" information gets out about the zombie outbreak, before the government, or anyone else can put their particular spin on things. This is pretty much why during the film, along with trying to avoid, kill, and destroy the undead...the group also tries to capture the action on camera so they can put it online.

This picture is set in a scenario where zombies are quickly spreading across town, the media in it's news/tv format has been destroyed, and all that's left are bloggers, and internet reporters who are sharing information across the world as the outbreak stretches from outside the U.S. and begins in far off places, such as Tokyo. The sharing of information acting as an explanation in the "Dead" films which are set after this movie, as to how some people knew of a way to kill the zombies before others did. There's not many scares in this film however, even though the performances are decent and the actors involved try their best to make us believe they're scared.

"Diary Of The Dead" isn't nearly as scary as some of Romero's other zombie films were, but it still works very well with what it tries to do and say, and fits perfectly in the Romero universe of zombie pictures. But Romero does tone things down a bit as far as blood and gore are concerned. "Diary Of The Dead" isn't nearly as bloody, graphic, and gory as "Land Of The Dead" was. This movie is more about relationships between the characters, the event itself, and these young people trying to cope with the madness happening all around them.

They at the same time also try and cope with the basic act of murder, which they have to commit when the undead begin pursuing them. The formula which Romero uses in these films does begin to wear a bit thin here however. There are some scenes which are too predictable for words, such as the kids coming across a group of gun-toting survivors, and later running into a group of guys who turn out to be the total opposite of what they at first seem. Not complaining at all much, but it's become a bit too much of a trend in Romero films of late to have gangs of not-so-friendly gun-toting adults making trouble for the good guys.

I mean sure, in a situation like the world basically coming to an end, bad people would band together to loo, steal, and threaten others...but at some point you've gotta flip the script a bit. But beyond those few slight complications, "Diary Of The Dead" is another gem from Romero, which also boasts some cameos from a few actors from "Land Of The Dead", and "Dawn of The Dead 2004", and has a brilliant ending which mirrors a scene straight out of "Night Of The Living Dead". "Diary Of The Dead" is a smart movie, much smarter than "Land Of The Dead", even though blood and gore lovers might not find it up to their particular tastes.

Positives:Smart story, decent acting, very well shot, semi-likeable characters, and a terrific ending.

Negatives:A few cliche moments.

Overall:More good stuff from George A.





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