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Crappy film

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

DIARY OF THE DEAD is another zombie movie from genre founder George A. Romero, this time combining the found footage and zombie genres into a supposedly fresh and original product. What it turns out to be is a crushing disappointment in every respect, especially so given that Romero himself invented the modern zombie genre pretty much single-handedly.DIARY OF THE DEAD isn't just a bad film; it's a bad film even by found footage standards. It's not the first found footage zombie film I've seen, and I can report that the same year's Spanish zombie flick REC is about a hundred times better than this movie. What we get here is a cheap, slapdash, and completely boring zombie story as a bunch of uninteresting characters wander around a world which is quickly being taken over by the undead.This film looks and feels cheap throughout and Greg Nicotero's zombie effects are surprisingly cheesy looking, which I guess comes down to budget again. The script is awful, merely attempting to reheat former themes (us vs. them, the breakdown of society, there's even a militant black guy) instead of delivering anything new. The attempted scare scenes are anything but frightening and the story is so predictable that everything that happens is signposted way in advance. Of the cast, the worst actress gets the lead role, with the likable Tatiana Maslany hidden way down in the cast list. DIARY OF THE DEAD is a complete bore and it's difficult to credit this to the man behind the classic DEAD trilogy.

The Zombies which rated this movie after DOTD remake or other "action" zombie movie/TV series viewpoints just don't get the point. Romero isn't after entertainment in this movie. This is a very metaphysical movie. Why filming this in handcam style? Because it is said in the movie several times that nothing happens if it hasn't been filmed. This is a philosophical discourse at least since Jean Baudrilard (spiritual father of the Matrix movies). Who in the new internet-television civilization believes anything if it hasn't been filmed and is been watched on youtube or television? This movie is compressed themes which Romero handled over his previous films in 95min runtime. Romero fans who actually have put a thought on Romeros films will very much appreciate it. It feels like his previous filmthemes put all together with a new theme which I described above and actually asks an uncomfortable question. If you grew up with Walking Dead, World War Z or Dawn of the Dead remake don't waste your time...

I liked this one quite a bit, more than I thought I would actually as I'd been expecting a fairly low budget/cheesefest of a movie. If you don't analyze anything too much this ends up being a fun ride though; following a group of collage film students who are shooting their own low budget horror film and inadvertently begin documenting the early days of a zombie apocalypse. It becomes a bit of a road trip movie with ravenous walking corpses at every stop and filmmaker "Jason" documenting first-person style the horrors they witness in an obsessive and unflinching manner. Even as his friends die he keeps filming.The story is decent as are the special effects, I mean this ain't' no 'Walking Dead' and it is very much a B movie but the zombie kills are fun and unique; the melting head covered in acid comes to mind and the opening scene at the hospital is also really good.Horror king George A Romero definitely has a style and as writer-director here, if you're a fan of the genre this is worth checking out. 10.13

So, over the past few years just about everybody in Hollywood has jumped on the "found footage" band wagon. This is George Romero's effort to get on board with the rest of the crowd. What none of the film makers on the band wagon have bothered to realize is that the dam thing has no wheels and it was never really going anywhere.There have been a few decent entries into the genre, they can occasionally be worth watching but in my experience that's very rarely the case. That said...maybe there was potential with Diary of the Dead. I would go so far as to say I can see what Romero was trying to do but ultimately, he missed the mark entirely. The acting is sub par, the story slower than a snail race and the special effects are just downright terrible. The latter is due to Tom Savini not being involved as head of special effects and not creating the signature gore that Romero's movies have become so famous for. If I remember correctly even Romero himself later admitted he knew going ahead without Savini was a mistake.Even if Savini had been present, sadly I still doubt this movie would be worthwhile. I could enter into a lot of theorizing as to what Romero could have done that would have made this better but the bottom line is the film is just below average. It's far to derivative of other found footage movies and so unworthy of even having Romero's name on it to bother thinking it could have been better. Okay, it's not the worst movie in history but it really is just a total disappointment for a horror fan and for a Romero fan. Do yourself a favor and just skip this one.