Diary of the Dead Review

Zombies. I really do not know why they entice me as much as they do. Perhaps, it’s due to the fact that zombies are rather unintelligent yet persistent adversaries. Obviously, we humans see ourselves as the superior race and even if we find ourselves weaker than those that come after us, we figure that we will always be more intelligent. So, perhaps my fascination with the undead stems from the need to feel superior. We “smarter” beings should always be able to fight back against those less intelligent as long as we work smart and we work together. Or maybe, I’m over-thinking it all together. It could just be that I like zombies because zombie movies are full of titties, explosions and gore. My latest excursion into a zombie-infested world comes from the new George A. Romero film, Diary of the Dead.

Diary of the Dead breaks itself of any ties to Romero’s previous movies by having the entire film shot by the actors using handheld camera, much like the hit film Cloverfield . Shaky cam, motion-blur and crooked-ass angles build the solid foundation behind Diary of the Dead, that I believe strongly enforces the horror genre. Don’t get me wrong. I do love my big budget, special effects-laden film as much as the next guy. But, these first person point of view movies can really shine if they aren’t overdone or filmed shoddily. I’ll have to pull a line from James Bond and say that I like my moves “shaken, but not stirred”.

Diary of the Dead Bad Situation

The plot of the movie revolves around a group of university film students who coincidentally enough are filming a horror film of their own. News of a zombie outbreak hits the national media and panic ensues. Again much like Cloverfield , there is one character who feels that his entire purpose in life is to film the incident as it occurs. This puts the young Hitchcock into less than desirable positions with the undead and his fellow survivors as he constantly chooses the camera over his friends and his own safety. As the film progresses, it periodically switches over to scenes recorded by the big media in the movie. The narrator, young Hitchcock’s girlfriend, explains to us that the big media is lying to the public and not fully explaining the situation at hand. She then describes her boyfriend’s adamant desire to film the outbreak and then to release it on the internet to give the people a realistic look at what has transpired. With the onset of web sites such as youtube and break.com, we, the viewers, also realize that the big media is not necessarily where we get most of our reliable news anymore. And that is realization that the movie is trying to enlighten us on. We are in the age of user-driven information. Now all we have to do is find a way to filter the fake from the real.

Honestly, I was pretty disappointed when I read all of the negative reviews on this movie. It was bashed more than the camera man from The Bourne Ultimatum (I hope he dies in a fire). The reviews complained of bad acting and of the first person point of view style. And to both of these, I can politely say “Shut the fuck up”. The acting was no where near as bad as the majority of movies out. Seriously, show me any movie that Ashton Kutcher doesn’t act like himself (a complete bumbling jackass). I felt that each actor in the film properly portrayed their character and brought a realistic touch to the handheld camera style movie. Diary of the Dead is easily in the top 50% of zombie movies out there and I recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of zombies or into decent B-movies.