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All Movie Info
Starring:
Matt Birman, George Buza, Joshua Close, Wes Craven, Laura DeCarteret, Alexandria DeFabiis, Joe Dinicol, Stephen King, Tatiana Maslany, Megan Park, Simon Pegg, Martin Roach, Shawn Roberts, Todd Schroeder, Quentin Tarantino, Guillermo del Toro, Alan Van Sprang, Michelle Morgan, Amy Ciupak Lalonde, Scott Wentworth, Philip Riccio, Chris Violette, Nick Alachiotis, Christopher Cordell, Janet Lo, Tino Monte, Simon Northwood
Directed By:
George A. Romero
Written By:
George A. Romero
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George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead (2008)
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Movie Review by Jarrod 
February 21st, 2008
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'Diary of the Dead' is the latest from zombie guru George A Romero, and is the weakest entry in the series thus far; Land of the Dead was much better. I suppose 'Diary' may be more relevant if Cloverfield had not beaten it to the punch. Comparisons to Cloverfield are warranted, as both films primarily depict events through the lens of a hand-held video camera. 'Diary of the Dead' is packed with lots of social commentary, which is to be expected; it is an element in all of his zombie movies. His original Dawn of the Dead was an attack on American consumerism, a bloody and brilliant one at that. Nothing can top his exquisite Night of the Living Dead, still his greatest achievement, and a superlative contribution to the horror genre. But, frankly, I wonder if Romero has lost his touch.
The premise for 'Diary of the Dead' often struck me as unnecessarily stupid. A zombie apocalypse occurs, and a bunch of college kids decide to capture footage of it. Jason (Joshua Close) is a film student in the process of shooting his own low-budget fright fest about a mummy. Needless to say, but this project is rudely interrupted by an army of lumbering, carnivorous corpses. Jason, his girlfriend Debra (Michelle Morgan), and his whole cast and crew take to the road fleeing for their lives, while he basically tries to record every scene of gory mayhem, as they pass through whole towns that have been devastated, deliberately stopping at various locations just so they can be put in some kind of perilous situation. None of it is scary, but I am not sure it was ever intended to be. They stop at a hospital, then move on to Debra's suburban home, where she hopes her family is still among the living (of course it isn't). There is also the mansion of rich guy Ridley (Philip Riccio), which also is not terribly safe. Many of these characters seem to be completely indifferent to the chaos around them; they hardly respond when their friends get eaten. By and large, their reactions simply are not plausible. The performances are terrible; it is difficult to care when any one of these people die.
I think Romero was going for something funny, and there are moments when I did laugh a little, at the Amish man particularly, who I think is there solely for comedic value. There is one fantastic scene where a zombified clown shows up at a birthday party. The atmosphere is creepy enough in that hospital and the other places Romero picked to have his assortment of meals with legs wander about, but he doesn't do much with them beyond that point. To pay homage to Romero, who is indeed a master of his craft, Stephen King, Quentin Tarantino, Wes Craven, Simon Pegg, and Guillermo Del Toro all lent their voices to newscasts heard throughout the film. I honestly did not recognize any of them, except maybe for King's. I have always liked Romero, and will continue to like him, even if I did not particularly care for this film.
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