Truly Dreadful Film

Too many fans seem to be blown away

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

There's something faintly ludicrous about the opening shots of this 'found footage' entrance into George A Romero's entry into his 'Living Dead' series. A live news broadcast is interrupted when corpses in the background come back to half-life and start attacking those around them. To me, found footage works best when you don't see too much – the characters on screen reacting to something out of the audience's vision works very well in that style. Fully made-up zombies fit better into a more stylised, 'professionally filmed' scenario.Things don't improve hugely when we meet a film crew, including actors playing actors playing both in front of, and behind the camera. 'Hilarity' ensures when two cast members 'have to pee', leaving the rest to view on the news reports how the dead are coming back to life. Amongst the teens, we have a uproariously well-spoken elderly ham Andrew Maxwell (Scott Wentworth) who clearly feels he's demeaning himself by appearing in the film being made. Whispering, identical horny youngsters, someone (Jason – played by Joshua Close) who films *everything* despite being repeatedly asked not to, posturing, wall-to-wall expletives – all the staples of a teen horror, and by Romero's standards, BAD. Apart from anything else, the advantages and unique qualities of the archive formula are simply not used here. The 'story' doesn't need to be told in this way, and is just a gimmick. Could it be Romero was seeking financial success by attempting to attract the youth demographic? It is explained at the beginning that, to make events more frightening, the young film-makers have added incidental music to events – and yet failed to edit out moments when (as is always the way in these things) the cameras start to fail and cut off.Anyway, as events fail to progress, I am gagging for some cadaverous zombie to limp in and violently dismember people. When they eventually turn up, they are half-hearted, under-made-up and easily dispatched. The alleged good guys remain personality-free, rather a growing band of posers 'doing what they gotta do'. How did Romero allow this to be made? To spend so much time with these people and for not one of them to effect any kind of personality for the duration is one thing, but when the undead action is as scarce as it is here, it makes for a hugely dull experience.Happily, the next in the series 'Survival of the Dead (2009)' is a huge improvement on this.

Taking place the same night as the first film where a group of kids are shooting a short film for class when the dead rise and now search for their families as they document the events unfolding around them.Already a plot hole occurs where the time line doesn't match the technology and style if it were taking place during the sixties unless its a floating time line?While traveling they make one stupid decision after another that it makes you wonder how they survived so long. The narrator never puts his camera down, they hit a zombie on the road yet want to stop to see if he's alright and even get taken for a ride by rogue military officials who rob them.It leads to unintentionally humorful scenes even when its trying to be serious this robbing the script of any tension or menace a horror film should have.Just like I pointed out in land the music is overplayed to the point you want to pull your hair out of annoyance. Every few minutes it plays ominously only to cut to a conversation or a new location instead of a spooky surprise making it meaningless overall.The found footage was a fresh idea for the series, but the way it's shot doesn't work losing camera angles, the director holds the camera all day without breaks or developing carpal tunnel, who will be left to see it and shows his dead family.Romero gives it all his signature styles, but none so far have grasp the horror brilliance since day. It seems he hasn't lost his touch and gives it his all yet it feels incomplete.

Diary of The Dead was not as bad as I had heard! It wasn't a film of spectacular acting or realism, but was that really what you were expecting from a zombie film? This film has a decent amount of humour mixed with violence-not a movie to be taken as seriously as something like World War Z. Especially during dialogue and killing scenes, the characters in Diary behave as they would right out of a comic book. The idea is for everything in the film to seem like the footage of a group who documented what was happening. This is nothing like Blair Witch or Cloverfield, but it does have the amateur film feel to it.If you are a fan of zombie films with some time to kill, this one is pretty good and I would give it a watch.If you are looking for something that isn't just a typical zombie film, I would recommend World War Z or Zombieland.

Dead corpses reanimate during a TV newscast and start chewing on ambulance personal. These are the flesh-eating zombies who first appeared in director George A Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" (1968). They wander around looking for victims, which understandably causes much chaos. Meanwhile, in a secluded woodsy area, some Pittsburgh college students are making an amateur horror movie. We follow this group through the remainder of the film. The fictional filmmaker most involved is Josh Close (as Jason Creed). "Diary of the Dead" is narrated by his girlfriend, Michelle Morgan (as Debra Moynihan)...This begins with the "subject" of broadcast journalism turning on the broadcaster. Thereafter, it seems to comment more on the topic, or perhaps not - whatever the intent, interest is not maintained. However, the "Media" is a deserved whipping boy. Some nicely staged gore splatters around, but to indifferent effect. One of the better sequences occurs when the cast goes to the home of wealthy "Mummy" actor Philip Riccio (as Ridley) as it successfully parallels the introduction of the characters. Something masterful was possible, but the "shaky camera" ruins everything. Next time, let the dead try steadying the camera.**** Diary of the Dead (9/8/07) George A. Romero ~ Michelle Morgan, Joshua Close, Joe Dinicol, Shawn Roberts