Review of Diary of the Dead (2007) by Al M — 27 Aug 2010

The POV horror genre continues to grow with recent films like Paranormal Activity and The Last Exorcism, and the genre actually goes back further than most moviegoer's realize--to Cnnibal Holocaust in the early 80s.

Romero's Diary of the Dead adds a slight new twist in the genre because the characters are actually uploading the film via the internet as they go along. This is a fascinating premise, but it becomes a little cheesy in the film.

Like Shymalan's The Happening, Diary of the Dead includes such instances in a heavy-handed manner--they always feel forced like the film is trying to be cool by including recent technology. Aside from that (and some other moments of silliness), Diary of the Dead is a bleak, brutal, and creepy entry in Romero's Dead series.

It is a welcome return to an indie aesthetic after the awfulness of Land of the Dead. Still no where near as amazing as Romero's original Dead Trilogy, Diary returns the series to its roots and demonstrates that Romero still has the ability to use the zombie film as a means of commenting upon contemporary society.

While the inclusion of technology is often heavy-handed, it also provides a powerful commentary on our society of surveillance and reality television, our post-9/11 world in which we watch catastrophes unfold in real time on our TVs or even sooner via our computers.