Diary of the Dead (2008)
Director
George A. Romero
Writer
George A.Romero
Cast
Joshua Close, Scott Wentworth, Michelle Morgan and Joel Dinicol
George Romero, the godfather of zombie films. Director of Night of the Living Dead a film that revolutionized horror films and introduced the flesh eating undead. Director of Dawn of the Dead (1978) a film many consider the greatest zombie movie ever made. Director of Day of the Dead (1985) which I consider an under-rated classic, just not on par with the previous films due to budget constraints.
Recently he directed and released Land of the Dead which is a severly mediocre entry to the Dead series. After the release there have been rumblings of Romero making yet another entry into the Dead series but without anyone screwing it up for him. No studios or producers, this new film will come straight from the man himself much like his original indy film Night of the Living Dead.
To say the least many of his fans, including me were excited. What I didn't know was that once I saw it, it turned out the be one of the biggest let-downs I've ever witnessed. Like a kid opening a present and hoping for the complete Voltron action figure only to get a knitted reindeer sweater two sizes too big.
But.... but this is George A. Romero.... what... happened?!
It's obvious from the start, the performances are atrocious. Just downright awful. So bad I was getting distracted. This wasn't the only thing I noticed right-off-the-bat, it's completely ham-fisted. It pours on the social commentary thick, so thick I thought I was drowning in it! *garble garble*
Do you like being treated like you're stupid? If so, you'll love this flick!
I get it, most relevant horror films do have social commentary. Hell, that's part of the reason Dawn is considered his best film because of the commentary on consumerism. That may or may not be obvious to people who watch Dawn, it was very subtle compared to Diary. Throughout the film there is commentary by the female protagonist, even without this narrative the message is still way too obvious, so obvious that the movie really doesn't have a plot at all.
Thoughts on digital media... zombie attack... thoughts on human nature... zombie attack (w/ cool kill)... televised media lying to us (!)... shameless MySpace ad... zombie attack... are we worth saving?... THE END!
There you go, that's the whole movie which include stupid character choices and stupid zombie choices (gotta love when a zombie walks right by the camera just to bite a chunk out of the dude directly in front of the camera!) I guess one positive thing came from this: there were some pretty unique ways they dispatched of zombies... but I was watching a friggin' Romero zombie film! I demand more!
I love the ongoing themes as well, the evil rednecks bust a nut over shooting zombies as the angelic women and no-nonsense black man caught in the middle just trying to survive. I'm in no way trying to be sexist or racist, I just found it funny that they're practically the same type of characters in everyone of his films. Just how Michael Bay portrays women as nothing but uber-hot and black men as loud and obnoxious.
Night of the Living Dead is probably my second favorite horror film of all-time. I love the hell out of it and because of this I look up to Romero although most of his films after the 80's have been shite. Much like Wes Craven and John Carpenter, they drag a string of poo behind them for a long time until they reveal that gem that might just mean they still have that talent they were known for back in the day For Craven it was New Nightmare and for Carpenter it was the Masters of Horror episode Cigarette Burns... but I'm still waiting on Romero. Yes, I thought Bruiser sucked.
Diary of the Dead is a bad movie. No plot, bad acting and even worse dialogue. The movie tries to be a whole hell of a lot deeper than what it actually is... "At first it was us vs. us now it's us vs. them. Little did we know them are us." Wh-wh-wh-WHAT?! If that ain't faux-intellect I don't know what is. That sentence doesn't even make any friggin' sense!
Although I consider it a pretty awful film especially for Romero it's still a zombie movie, and who doesn't love zombie movies? I wouldn't recommend it to anyone to watch, it's definitely something everyone can live without seeing. It makes me sort of sad seeing Romero supposedly putting his heart into this yet remakes to his older films are far superior to this (except for the Day of the Dead remake which might beat the living hell out of Diary for shittiest zombie movie of the year.) There is a Spanish zombie film that is available online called [REC] which is done in the same style as Diary and being considered one of the scariest films of the decade. A remake is in the works starring Deb from Dexter. Perhaps it might be a fun watch on cable just to watch some cool zombie kills, but this is one of the biggest disappointments of the decade.
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