When I first saw Diary of the Dead at the NZIFF last year I came away disappointed. It hadn’t lived up to my expectations of what a good zombie movie was like. After thinking about it for a while, I came to a different conclusion, and was keen to see it again as soon as it was released onto DVD.
Diary of the Dead starts off with a group of film students trying to make a horror movie in the woods at night. Things aren’t going well however as the lead female takes the director to task over the typically un-realistic portray of women in the horror genre. It’s an in joke that will rear its head later in the movie, and it kind of sets the tone for Diary of the Dead.
As filming grinds to a halt, one of the crew is listening to the radio news and is the first to hear of the escalating outbreaks of the dead rising. Spooked by the news, the students set out on a road trip to try and get home, the student director however insists on bringing his camera along for the ride, so he can document this historic moment. Thus the movie has a whole student/documentary feel to it.
It’s part survival horror, part comedy and part social commentary. Romero jumps from easy scares to laugh out loud moments with an ease and his cutting social commentary is always close at hand, if you’re the observant kind of viewer. It seems a little more subdued than some of the more recent zombie flicks, but the Romero trademark, shuffling zombies rule the movie and enables some exquisite humour, especially with a mute Amish dude.
All in all, Diary is a refreshing look at the zombie genre, mixing in a healthy does of through provoking commentary with just enough gore to keep the crazy horror fanatics happy.
Roll on Zombie Island (or what ever Romero decides to call the sequel he’s currently working on).
Reviewed by: Jonathan Read Rating: R16 – Violence, Offensive language and Horror. Release Date: 22/01/2009 Audio tracks: Dolby 5.1 Languages: English Genre: Horror Director: George A. Romero Subtitles: English – Hard of Hearing subtitles Runtime: 95.0 mins Format: DVD, Region 4 (PAL) Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1 Widescreen (16:9)
Comments are closed.
There is something about me..
