Review of Diary of the Dead (2007) by Zach B — 28 May 2011

As of now, one of the main types of horror films that are taking reign as being the main ones made are the 'Found Footage' genre. In case you do not know, found footage is a genre that is a horror film that is filmed like a documentary on a certain event; characterized by shaky cameras.

Examples include Cannibal Holocaust, The Blair Witch Project, and Rec/ Quarantine. Diary Of The Dead is George A. Romero's take on this genre with his famous zombies and what is created is a film that is not terribly smart, but entertaining to say the least with a great political backdrop like most of his films have.

Now, the direction of this film, as I have said, is different than the other films in the '... Of The Dead" franchise. With the use of shaky cameras, it gives more chances for scares that, in some ways, actually work and become effective.

With the production quality, the only thing that really has improved are the gore effects which there are plenty of (as you can tell, it is not best to watch this if you hate gore). Some times it looks cartoonish and at times it looks good.

So, that is a mix bag. Now we have the characters that try to survive this entire ordeal. For the most part, the actors were one dimensional with constant arguments over filming this epidemic and, to be honest, that did take away from the film a bit.

The score for this film, unlike most recent horror films, actually works with creating the suspense with the film. There were a couple times here and there that I think it should have been different, but it is not that much to complain about.

Now, finally, how good the allegory for this story was. Like with all of Romero's zombie films, there is an underlining message. Here it has to deal with people's usage of the internet and how dependent we are.

The use of this allegory, and how it works with the zombies, I feel got the point across, but I doubt most others will get it. So, overall, my main opinion is this: to the general audience, this will be a rather unintelligent but fun zombie film to watch, but try looking for the underlining themes and understand what is really being said.

A little fun fact: look for the cameos of Stephen King, Quentin Tarantino, Guillermo del Toro, Wes Craven, and George A. Romero!