Review of Diary of the Dead (2007) by Javier M — 11 Sep 2009

I agree that working on a small scale is better for romero. Land of the Dead's grandiosity sucked the essence from his movies, which really are about the intimate spaces between the few survivors and the emotionally/intellectually response to the inescapable calamity surrounding them.

And this movie, along with the Night of the living dead, is the only one that doesn't have a happy ending tacked onto it. Some of the dialogue and acting is a bit week because of the b-movie-ishness of it - and the exploration of current media isn't all that well fleshed out, except maybe to say that our state of confusion in modern times hasn't been laid to rest with the advent of the internet/information age.

But the overall meditativeness atmosphere of the movie allows the viewer to reflect on what is happening and its implications, rather than just be entertained. The movie also does carry on Romero's tradition of inventive zombie splatter set pieces (HCL eating away at zombie's brain, a scythe through both victims and zombie's brain, arrows, the slicing of a zombie in half by sword, clown zombie visiting kid's birthday party).