Review of Diary of the Dead (2007) by Dan C — 06 Feb 2013

Diary of the Dead is a departure from Romero's normal filming style. This film takes advantage of the popular point-of-view home video style of filming. The benefit to this is that it feels more like a documentary and what would a zombie apocalypse would really look like. Most people trying to survive would use a video camera or their phones to document what happened.

This POV style presents many problems for the director. More planning is needed as there are more long, one-take shots and less post-production editing. Romero gambled on this and it proved effective. It was a type of reboot from his original films.

The story moves along quite well and flows nicely from one scene to the next. There are not that many scary moments or zombie kills, but the film is more about the survivors and the roles they take. Jason Creed is a film maker who escapes from the reality of the situation by recording everything. It makes dealing with the death of his friends easier.

But in the end, this film making is supposed to save the human race and teach them how to properly defend themselves against the zombie attacks. But the question remains, is the human race worth saving?

Overall, the film was entertaining and moved at a decent pace.