Diary of the Dead

Diary Of The Dead is a film in which George A. Romero tackles the digital age, and the information barrage that it brings us. Rolling news, Youtube, Podcasts, Myspace are the media of choice for an era where information is global, instant and 24/7. It is in this climate that the 'Dead' franchise gets the Blair Witch Project. We follow a group of young film students who find themselves having to band together after the dead start returning to life. Seeing the magnitude of the event a few of the troupe take it upon themselves to record a document of their plight for survival. It is this 'life through a lens' that gives us Diary Of The Dead. To expand on the cataclysmic events Romero uses footage from news channels, video blogs and web cams. The accessibility of the Internet mirrors the wildfire decline of humanity as the zombies take over and society collapses. However if there is one thing that defines this Internet era, it is short attention spans. Sadly this pandering to the Youtube generation is what seems to sum up 'Diary'. The strength behind the previous 'Dead' movies was that the survivors were stationary and holed up (whether it be in a shopping mall or bunker). As such it was the banality of their existence that became even more unnerving than the zombie threat. In 'Diary' the action is kinetic and the editing very fast-paced, as if Romero is keen to hold the short attention span of a young audience that now lives off 1 minute video clips, and skim-read 'Wikipedia' articles. As such the characters never stay in the same place for more than 5 minutes, as the scene hopping goes into overdrive. I'm sad to say that 'Diary' smacks of compromise. Romero inserts his typical biting social commentary, but it's often blunted by a desire to make the film palatable enough to younger generations and audiences. Trying to make reflective points about humanity when they're delivered by identikit good-looking young actors (who look more suited to being in 'The O.C') feels akin to having 'Hamlet' read out by Lindsay Lohan. Also Romero's hand seems forced to add the checklist of 'teen' horror clichés. 'Gross Out' deaths- Check Ditzy Blonde Girl- Check Older 'world weary' authority figure- Check (The professor) Zombie jumping out from side of frame- Check Big scary mansion finale- Check Despite its' flaws, 'Diary Of The Dead' is worth seeing simply for the glimmerings of Romero's post 9/11 views. Ironically, it is modern culture that not only embraces 'Diary' but also forces Romero to dumb down. 'Diary' is a flawed, experimental film from Romero, however a flawed Romero is far more challenging and interesting than 99% of the competition. An honorable 'miss' of a film that sees the master of zombie movies bound by the requirements of commercial success.

Diary of the Dead-1080P

Diary of the Dead-720P

Diary of the Dead-360P

Diary of the Dead-480P

Was there any character that didn't spout pretentious crap? Rather than trying to get their point across subtly, they sledgehammer the point. Social commentary. Really, that crap is actually considered social commentary. Sorry, no it isn't. It's just stupid crap. Oh, a gun, it's so violent. "By now we've become part of the 24/7." "We're shooting the violence, take it all in stride". Blah, blah, blah. Where did you learn to use that thing? A bow and arrow? REALLY. IS it that difficult to learn how to use? Professor, must talk. In short sentences. that really aren't sentences. So, the important thing-- Is it worth watching with the sound off? No not really, unless you're bored and so one gave it to you for free. "It used to be use against us. Now it's us against them." "He was right.... but now them is us." Holy crap Batman that is pure moose poop. This is intelligent? Heck, it isn't even worth pre-school.

A truly terrible film, the whole film had the feel of a computer game intro. The concept was very poorly executed, the acting unconvincing. I was looking forward to watching this film, and I am amazed at just how bad it actually is. I cannot express enough how poor this film is. The storyline is unbelievably slow, almost non existent. A bunch of college kids trying to get home,there was absolutely NO character development so the deaths really didn't hit home as they should have done. Only good for the small amount of gore, if you like that sort of thing...and even then you're likely to end up disappointed.

I'm a big zombie movie fan, not obsessive, but enjoy a well thought out and acted story. The acting in this film immediately raised my doubts followed by extremely poor plot pieces, characters and general incoherent goings on. I couldn't sit through the terrible acting, unnecessary scenes and unbelievable happenings. Was this really directed by THE George A Romero? Land of the Dead was a little disappointing and I guess this was one last idea to make a zombie movie with 'of the dead' at the end. Very disappointed and switched off after 20 minutes, unbearable for today's standards.

As a huge fan of the original 3 'Dead' movies, I wasn't impressed with George A. Romero's Land of the Dead. That was strike one. Diary of the Dead is strike two. One more, and you're out! My main problem with Diary, is how George pushed his take on the internet generation onto you. With most of his other films, the social commentary was so subtle, yet completely obvious. In this one, every ten minutes or so we get another reminder that we are being shown how people don't want to help, but just watch, and that the media is constantly lying to us. I personally couldn't agree more with these views, but this is just ridiculous. The acting was okay, some of writing was bad, but those things don't usually bug me. I hope Romero's next film is more impressive, or that's strike three..

I actually enjoyed the movie. It wasn't scary in the true sense of the word, but it had a complex script and some deep meaning. Almost a documentary, the film comprises of what two guys in a group of several young people film during a zombie infestation. The hand-held camera style may annoy some people, but I thought the atmosphere was top notch. What I especially liked was the subtle transition of the camera from one man to another, as the original "carriers" die, almost a contagion in itself. That reminded me of the Cannibal Holocaust movie and was solely responsible for marking this film above average. Bottom line: I saw the movie on TV and at first, seeing a bunch of stupid kids running from zombies in what appeared to be a low budget movie, I wanted to change the channel, but it slowly gripped me and made me like it. I thought that the whole "web 2.0" approach hurt the movie more than it helped, but in the end I enjoyed it more than most zombie flicks I've seen.