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Title: George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead (0) |
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Review of George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
- From legendary frightmaster George A. Romero comes one of the most daring, hypnotic and absolutely vital horror films of the past decade (fangoria.com). Romero continues his influential Dead series, this time focusing on a terrified group of college film students who record the pandemic rise of flesh-eating zombies while struggling for their own survival. Intensely gruesome and relentlessly grisly fueled by the directors signature realistic special effects Diary of the Dead is must-see horror that is Romero at his finest (bloody-disgusting.com).
Product Description
- George Romero has always come up with new ways of treating his zombies, and Diary of the Dead is no exception: Romero keeps his dead fresh, with an original approach to the undying subject. This one purports to be the video record of a group of young people who are shooting a low-budget horror movie when the terror strikes: corpses begin re-animating, intent on chewing the living. Our heroes trek across Pennsylvania, encountering the staggering zombies as they go. Other pieces of video are incorporated, which gives Romero a chance at some great set-pieces, including the brilliant opening sequence, a live local-TV feed that goes horribly, horribly wrong, and a home-video tape from a family birthday party, where the party clown turns out to be a dead ringer. All of Romero's Dead films are political, and this one's no exception, with a stark view of the way things are today; it doesn't offer the Hawksian heroics of the survivors in Dawn of the Dead or Land of the Dead for comfort, just a group of bickering, shocked youths. There's too much talk about the detachment of watching things through a lens, but in general this is a bracing, intelligent movie. Plus, there's some excellent splatter. --Robert Horton
Amazon.com
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Comments for George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
- Posted on 2008-07-03
Sad To Say, This Was Horrible!
I really wish this had been a good film. I really wish I could be writing that this is a masterpiece of zombie apocalyptic proportions. I really wish I could say Romero is back and scary as ever, unfortunately I can't. After forcing myself to digest the rotting piece of flesh that is "Diary of the Dead" all I could say about the film was, "What a piece of crud". The story and script are boring, lackluster and predictable, the suspense, tension and terror was non-existent, and the only thing that was horrifying was the acting. After creating the quintessential zombie landmark films "Night of the Living Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead" and then going on to dump out such mediocre and sub par flops like "Land of the Dead" and now "Diary of the Dead", one has to wonder if Romero was ever really the sole maestro behind his two earlier masterpieces to begin with. In fact, with the exception of "Martin" and "The Crazies", what other Romero horror films can claim to be classics? Perhaps it was the combined talents of the production companies involved in his earlier efforts that made those such outstanding, amazing and terrifying cinematic stand-outs. In "Diary of the Dead" Romero attempts to go back to the roots of the zombie outbreak, trying to achieve a docudrama, un-staged, realistic accounting of where it all began. Sadly, the film falls pitifully short of coming even close to the feeling of isolation, confusion and shear panic that the original "Night of the Living Dead" handed audiences so masterfully four decades ago. Perhaps all the blame for the films shortcomings should not be cast on Romero alone, maybe it is just a sign of the times. In this fast paced, MTV generation with ferocious, fast moving, olympic sprinter zombies from Zack Snyder's masterfully re-imagined 2004 "Dawn of the Dead" remake, did the old school, shambling, slow moving zombies of the past ever really stand a chance at scaring audiences anymore? From the look of "Diary of the Dead", the answer is obvious...a disappointing NO.
Score: 1
- Posted on 2008-07-03
Absolutely terrible
NIGHT, DAWN and MARTIN are classic films which will be cherished as long as there are sentient creatures around who enjoy films. DAY, LAND and SEASON are pretty damn good films, as well. This is even worse than KNIGHTRIDERS. A stupid idea, poorly done. Beware of any film with a morose, philosophical voice-over. This is obviously Granpa Romero's take on these darn kids with their new-fangled gadgets that gots 'em so plugged in them l'il varmints cain't tell the difference between reality and nonsense. The insights offered are about as deep as Bush's sympathy for the poor, the gore is pathetic and the premise and execution are hard to sit through. This features some of the dumbest, preachiest and most heavy-handed dialog of any film in recent memory. Let's hope the next one is better.
Score: 1 - Posted on 2008-07-03
JUST ANOTHER DEATH
So much has been said about DIARY OF THE DEAD already that even attempting to write an in depth review of it at this point would be a waste of my time, and probably yours as well. Thus what you have before you are some rambling comments on the film and at least one of the major complaints I've heard about it.
Like everyone else who refers to him or herself as a horror fan, I love Romero's previous work. Although LAND OF THE DEAD is taking its own sweet time to grow on me this is not unprecedented since DAY OF THE DEAD had the very same effect on me--DAY OF THE DEAD took a good decade and a half for me to be able to appreciate its charms, it was a case of loathe at first sight. I admit that this is as a result of my inability to cope with Romero's change in tone rather than any defect in the film itself. Its more than likely that this will also prove to be the case with LAND OF THE DEAD which I have only managed to watch once since its release.
My reaction to DIARY OF THE DEAD was as quick as my reaction to DAY had been, but in exactly the opposite direction. Perhaps I'm simply being my normal contrary self and responding to all the negative reviews by coming out in favor of the film, but I don't think so, not this time. I was immediately relieved to learn that Romero had dropped the notion of zombie civilization for the time being because that brings with it all sorts of awkward questions, such as the delicate subject of being asked to feel sympathetic toward creatures who still need human brains in order to survive no matter how much they want to just pull a Greta Garbo and be left alone!
What I was happiest with was that he wasn't hammering his social message home as heavy handedly as I had feared after having seen LAND OF THE DEAD which was almost embarrassingly blatant in its delivery. In fact everyone claims to have "gotten" his message as they proceed to pan his film for not having enough carnage and "serious zombie dining" in it to quote my favorite phrase from Main Man's review, but I think they only "got" half of his message--the obvious half having to do with the distance that the media, television and internet have put between us and reality. They missed the more nebulous part about how films such as his own have decreased the value of a single life until it has come to mean nothing at all. Its just another death. And that doesn't mean anything at all--its all about the body count. To quote the film:
"Its strange how looking at things, seeing things through a lens, a glass, rose-colored or shaded black, you become immune. You're supposed to be affected, but you're not. I used to think it was just you out there, the viewers, but its not. Its us as well, the shooters. We become immune too--innoculated so that whatever happens around us, no matter how horrible it is, we just wind up taking it all in stride. Just another day. Just another death."
The above quote from the end of the film makes me wonder if, as he nears the end of his own life, Romero isn't standing back and asking himself whether his films haven't contributed just a little bit to the devaluation of the worth of a single life. Or at least whether the violence in his films hasn't in some way negatively affected his own life...
Just some rambling thoughts.
Liked the movie though, although time may reduce the rating to a somewhat more realistic 4 stars.
Score: 5
- Posted on 2008-07-03
Romero, You Tickle Me
There is nothing more cinematically satisfying to me than a zombie film, especially any of Romero's Dead series. Night, Day, Dawn, and Land are ranked high on my list of zombie films and even horror films, so where does Romero's fifthy entry in his series lie in my top? Sadly, it's not up there with the previous four. That doesn't mean that I saw, I didn't enjoy.
The first-person camera aspect of the film is becoming popular years after it was done in The Blair Witch. Cloverfield did it and did it well. Diary of the Dead was lower-scale (also that way in comparison with the other Dead movies) and more personal, and I think that's a part of the reason why I enjoyed it so much. Romero through in his usual commentary on the world with how everything is available to see due to the extremely easy accessibility of recorded evidence. Of course, a bit of unbelievability is required to view this film because in a situation like this, I don't necessarily think that anyone would keep a hold on a camera although Romero's characters reason was to show the world what was actually happening since the government was lying. I'm pretty sure the world could just look out their windows and see what was actually happening.
What I really liked about Diary was the character's reactions to what was going on around them. I don't know if it was a directorial choice, but they seemed so sensitized to what was going on. There weren't any overreactions (unless they were literally attacked), each character automatically manned up and used any way possible to approach the dead and dispose of them.
As for the creep factor, there were a few moments that got to me, but one scene in particular really spooked me. That scene being in the hospital when something appears in the far corner of the camera and then burst into frame.
Although a little dissapointed that Romero decided to revision his own series and with lost hope that we will see a continuation of Land of the Dead, I was slightly surprised with his new path. Now I'm stuck with which continuation would I want to see. Land or Diary?
Both.
Score: 4
- Posted on 2008-07-03
Mediocre
I am not big on being trapped in first person view for an entire movie. The acting was okay. The plot was decent, for a zombie movie. There are parts in the movie where the humor, that Romero puts in many of his movies, takes you out of the movie and makes the whole situation feel very fake.
"Everyone is dying around us, we only have limited power, let's use it to keep YouTube up."
The remake of Dawn of the Dead is the new standard for zombie movies (although not perfect itself). Since then, Romero has not really even come close.
Score: 3