George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
by George A. Romero
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DVD details
Actor: Amy Lalonde, Joe Dinicol, Josh Close, Michelle Morgan, Shawn RobertsDirector: George A. Romero
Brand: Wellspring Media INC
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 96 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-05-20
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Model: 81173
Studio: The Weinstein Company
Product features:
- From legendary frightmaster George A. Romero comes one of the most daring, hypnotic and absolutely vital horror films of the past decade (fangoria.com). Romero continues his influential Dead series, this time focusing on a terrified group of college film students who record the pandemic rise of flesh-eating zombies while struggling for their own survival. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR
DVD Reviews of George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
DVD Review: When you film a diary...
Summary: 3 Stars
A homemade movie is a beautiful thing. What starts out as a simple project can quickly turn into something bigger, especially when a virus hits the United States and starts bringing people back from the dead.
Welcome to George Romero's DIARY OF THE DEAD.
Set in Pennsylvania and following a group of University of Pittsburgh students, DIARY OF THE DEAD chronicles a group of survivor's journey from beginning to end. Starting in the woods during a senior project film project, the group is quickly distracted after Elliot--the braniac--tells everyone that they `need to hear this.'
`This' happens to be the reports that the dead are coming back to life.
After the mummy (the `monster' of the movie) and his girlfriend leave the scene, the rest of the group quickly decide to leave. Mary--who's woman in command of a good-sized camp trailer--begins to take them back home, but not before something strange becomes apparent. When a burned-beyond-recognition cop stumbles from the scene of an accident and into traffic, Mary quickly stops the camper, then pushes past him and onto the main road.
She runs over three people--three `dead' people.
Traumatized beyond belief, they pull over on the side of the road, only to have Mary attempt an act of suicide.
In a desperate rush to save their friend, the group flees to the hospital.
It soon becomes apparent that this isn't all a hoax when they find the hospital abandoned of people.
As a fan of Romero's original DEAD trilogy (consisting of Night of the Living Dead, Dawn and Day of the Dead,) as well as the fourth installment LAND, I was more than willing to watch this unique and fifth installment, although I will admit to being a bit wary about it being shot in a handheld/over-the-shoulder-camera angle. I was quickly able to get past this insecurity though, as the film is shot with stability and without a lot of rough running and tilting. The main thing I liked about the movie was the fact that it was shot like it was--from the perspective of a few college men and women with a camera.
Now, although I enjoyed this movie, I did have a few quirks with it.
-- In the beginning, Deborah (the main narrator of the `film') mentions that she's `edited the footage' and `added music' in an attempt to scare the viewer. Why, I ask, would someone attempt (or want) to do this when they're running from the end of the world? It begs to question the motive of the film, and the footage we as the viewers see. Did we see the end of the world from the perspective of a few college students, or were we hoaxed with some elaborate special affects--CGI and trick camera angles meant to confuse the viewer. We also have to take into consideration that, if they WERE really in the end of the world, and the internet WAS failing, how did they upload it to the internet, if they even did? Did the group survive and eventually upload the video after the United States became stable, or did another survivor find their footage, then view it as we the audience did? I can only assume that this `fault' (if you would even call it that) was Romero's way of making us question the film. Like Night and its racial undertones, Dawn and its commercial abstraction, and Day and its confusion with the military, I can only assume that Diary was meant to symbolize the media and how we can't always believe what we see on TV.
-- There were points during the movie--particularly when the Texan woman took off in the camper--that seemed unrealistic. During the point in which the group is attacked, then rescued by a group of survivors holing up in a warehouse, Deborah demands for the leader to give them food while a gun is being shoved in her face. The fact that any person in their right mind would do this is beyond me. Given the way the group originally attacked Elliot and knocked him down to the ground, it surprised me that the warehouse survivors would so easily give into helpless stranger's demands. As also mentioned above, the blonde-haired Texan woman took off in the camper for no apparent or logical reason near the end of the movie. I can understand why someone would suddenly take off on a whim like she did (from fear, confusion or panic,) but up until that point, she seemed extremely stable, especially after having to kill her boyfriend. Deborah experienced the same kind of character development problems. Her whole family was murdered in front of her eyes, yet she only seems slightly disturbed and says, `Thank you?' I screamed and bawled my eyes out when I thought my cat was hit by a car a few months back--I can't imagine just sitting there like I'd just been punched in the gut after my whole family was killed.
-- Character development was also faintly sparse throughout the movie. While some characters developed extremely well (Deborah, despite her blunt emotions, and the professor, despite his quiet demeanor,) the majority of them remained the same and two-dimensional. Jake seemed to care about nothing more than filming, even going so far as to leave the group in order to keep filming, the Texan woman isn't traumatized by her boyfriend's death and takes off without warning, and the professor's only real point is to say the occasional insightful thing, and be a complete badass with a bow.
Despite my three major points with the movie, I can say that I enjoyed DIARY OF THE DEAD more than any other movie I've tried to watch recently. The tension keeps you going, the action is done in traditional Romero style, and the metaphorical undertones spruced throughout the story make you question the intent of the film.
Although I can't say that Diary has taken its spot as my favorite (or second or third favorite) zombie movie, I have to place it in my top ten. It kept me entertained--I don't see why it can't why it wouldn't keep another Romero fan on the edge of their seats.
Description of George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
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