Rating of
4/4
Hes Back
chiggles - wrote on 05/31/08
Taking place before the events of the previous Romero films, Diary of The Dead follows filmmaker Jason Creed and his friends as they try to survive the zombie massacre going on around the world. On the way though, Jason and his friends use 2 cameras and other sources of cameras to documents the events that occur.
In the 5th installment of the Holy Trilogy, George Romero takes a more advanced trip into his zombie world with Diary. Instead of being shot like a straight movie, George makes it so the whole movie takes place from Jasons camera. On the way they find another camera and they use other sources such as security tapes and such to edit together the final film which we are watching. I honestly believe that this camera style actually makes the movie better because we get a real solid feel for our characters. As Jason is an inspiring filmmaker, he continues to document his footage through the violent and sometimes scary events which occur about the group of friends. This shows that Jason is actually really desperate to shoot this and show people the truth. This is a big character element which the film does a good job of showing.
George's previous film Land of The Dead was absoulutely amazing, but I dont think Diary gave me as much as a shock as Land did. While there is less zombie action in Diary then there is Land, I felt more compelled in the character development area. With Land, we had a huge character part with Big Daddy, and it really did a lot for the films final success. In Diary, the whole documentation gives us real problems between our cast and makes it feel real. In traditional Romero style, instead of a bunch of blood and guts, we get attacks at our social and political world in which we live. So we get moments of racism, gas and others which give the film a real problem instead of the more fictional zombie element.
With Dawn of The Dead back in the 1980's, Romero gave us one of the most goriest and bloodiest films ever made. A lot of it was done in a gruesome realism though, and it started a controversy back then. In Diary, there is less gore then the others, but some of the deaths and such are creative. Such as a man blows a hole in a zombies head and uses the gap to shoot at another group of zombies. Like Land, a lot of the blood is CGI but it still looked great.
Bottom Line: George could have done better but in the end the film is solid in the performances and storyline.
