Review of Diary of the Dead (2007) by Ron B — 24 Jun 2009

This film had potential to be truly great. The concept behind it, though not original, would work well for a zombie movie. Imagine it, a documentary of a zombie uprising. So, why does this movie suck?

It sucks, primarily, for three reasons:

1) George A Romero wrote the script, and, in doing so, blatantly shows his politics. he shows people to be completely uncaring, the government to be ultimate liars, and he displays an impressive ability to make society collapse far faster than it actually would. One of the big turn-offs of this film is that the character Jason's friends are constantly getting attacked, but he'd rather film than try to help them. It's ridiculous, especially when this man dropped everything to find his girlfriend, but he won't help her when a zombie is on her back. C'mon!

Further on the politics is Romero's take on the media machine. Sometimes, George, we want a zombie movie with a message. In those times, we'll watch your first three entries in the series. Other times, as was the case here, we just want a fun zombie flick.

2) Romero didn't have the proper experience with the medium he choose. A lot of the shots are decent, but he's still going for ultimate Hollywood gore shots, and so you actually see a lot of things that a person in that situation wouldn't really film. A good example is a character, after being bit, grabs the camera while he's on the floor and manages to frame the zombie perfectly (as the zombie, for some reason, holds still) while it's head gets cut in half from behind. I'm sorry.

Also, he inter-cuts some of the most unrealistic security camera footage that I have ever seen. It's sad, really.

3) Low-budget + unknown cast = crappy actors. The actor that stood above the rest in this film was Scott Wentworth, and even he was a bit over the top and not that good.

So, sorry, but this movie is really not worth the time to watch, considering that, quite often, it was completely unbearable. For a better story, watch "Night of the Living Dead", or for better effects, watch "Day of the Dead".