Review of Diary of the Dead (2007) by Xgary X — 12 Jun 2012

A group of film students attempt to document the descent of society into chaos as the dead begin to rise again and feast on the living. I had a creeping dread of this film because I had the horrible feeling it would just be The Blair Zombie Project, particularly after witnessing the shapeless waste of an hour and a half that was Cloverfield, but the latest in George Romero's "dead" series actually works reasonably well.

The use of multiple cameras intercut with faux internet footage and closed circuit TV gives rather more scope for dramatic momentum than the usual sole first person perspective and the mockumentary approach gives the film the kind of structure woefully lacking in Cloverfield.

Unfortunately it still suffers from the unavoidable weakness of this sub-genre. The acting is ropey and dialogue weak for the sake of "realism", despite the fact that somebody constantly filming while all these horrific events are happening to them is of course inherently unrealistic.

But as a whole it's rather more intelligent than other offerings of this type, providing a little social commentary and sly digs at the media and the public's obsession with same. It's more a collection of decent moments than a credible and coherent story, but still probably the best example of this kind of thing I've seen and an adequate addition to the franchise.