Diary of the Dead

Rating R Formats DVD Genre horror Starring Michelle Morgan, Josh Close, Shaw Roberts, Amy Lalonde, Joe Dinicol Directed by George A. Romero Publisher The Weinstein Company

“The problem doesn’t seem to be that people are waking up dead, but that the dead people are waking up.”

Night, Dawn, Day, Land; these are the films that over the course of four decades have created and defined a genre of film forever. It’s a genre that, since “Night of the Living Dead” has had its fair share of imitators and cash-ins. We’ve come so far along with this particular genre (that is in actuality a sub genre of horror), that it now has its own sub genres. We’ve seen comedic spins, romantic spins, remakes, and spoofs. I am of course talking about the zombie film, and to this day many people try, but can’t come close to recreating, the innovative touch of George A. Romero.

George Romero is to zombie films what George Lucas is to sci-fi and fantasy, both redefined the way those films were made. As time has progressed, both the zombie film and sci-fi have evolved as well, but these filmmakers still play an integral part in each. And as exampled by Romero’s latest outing with his cleverly titled “Diary of the Dead” he still has what it takes to not only make a zombie film, but to make it mean something.

It’s no secret to his fans that Romero’s films often contain some sort of allegorical meaning. In “Dawn of the Dead” it was consumerism, in “Land of the Dead” it was classism. They aren’t always the most subtle, but they are effective, and in “Diary of the Dead”, its our culture of fear, and disinformation. There is just so much information out there, and so many ways to access all of it, that some people are becoming so tuned into technology that they are tuning out of their surroundings. That is a problem of our protagonist/cameraman Jason Creed (Joshua Close). Yes, I did indeed say cameraman, as this film makes use of point of view exclusively as the story is being filmed by characters in the film, much like “Cannibal Holocaust” and “Blair Witch Project” did before it, and “Cloverfield” has done recently. In fact, “Diary of the Dead” has been touted as “Cloverfield” with zombies. I don’t necessarily agree with that statement, as “Cloverfield” isn’t the only film to have used this technique, and it obviously won’t be the last.

People who were unhappy with levels of shaky cam in Cloverfield will be pleased to know that a half drunken comedian isn’t the one responsible for what we see in this film. The setup for the film is a film within titled “The Death of Death.” It is a documentary on the zombie outbreak, filmed mostly by Jason. After a voice over and a news clip, the film starts with a group of college students who are filming a horror movie for their final. These are film students who fortunately know how to frame a shot, even if it is in the midst of a zombie epidemic. In the middle of shooting one scene, news reports start coming on the radio about the dead returning to life. This divides the group, after years of anthrax scares and terrorist alerts, it’s hard to know what to believe is real. Parts of the group want to get on the road, parts of the group want to hole up, and parts of the group seem to just be along for the ride.

The group leaves the filming site in their van to pick up Jason’s girlfriend Debra Moynihan (Michelle Morgan) from the dorms. Upon entering, the dorm is obviously abandoned, and the same news report from the beginning of the film is playing on a laptop. This sends the group further on edge, and it seems now the only where to go is home. Jason decides to film everyone making introductions, deciding that this footage will have some sort of historical significance, or at least will hold the truth to what happened. The group, very out of touch by the events, does as Jason wishes but not without voicing how ridiculous they think his idea is. Its just then that on the road, the group encounters their first zombie, a very badly burn state trooper at the site of a car wreck. They don’t know what to make of him, but they do know that they need to get away as fast as possible. In their exit, the driver Mary (Tatiana Maslany), runs over three other zombies. Emotionally scarred with the knowledge that the group may have killed three people, this sets the group on the path to the road trip from hell. When there are no more roads in hell, will the dead drive the earth?

As time progresses, we meet new people, lose familiar people, and witness the destruction of the earth slowly come to pass. The way the zombies are portrayed has never been better, with famous make up artist Greg Nicotero at the helm. Romero loves to stay fresh with new zombie “gags” (deaths). One in particular at the end of the film stuck with me, as it is a new twist on things perpetrated in the original “Night of the Living Dead”. Unfortunately as time is progressing, it’s evident that many directors are choosing to use CGI blood and gore for their effects. To some this may not be a big deal, but there is something to be said about seeing a bucket of red corn syrup spill out of someone’s neck after they get bit. This seems to be the trade off nowadays, to make a good movie for a low budget in a small amount of time, Romero needed to make things as efficiently as possible. Overall, the make up and effects were effective, and definitely warrant a cringe or two.

Romero choose to start with a clean slate in this film, having the zombie outbreak just start rather than see civilization at its end like in “Land of the Dead.” Its connections to “Night of the Living Dead” are kept to a minimum, but one made me as giddy as a schoolboy zombie. This clean slate allowed Romero to introduce the idea of zombies being something fantastical to our protagonists, rather than a constant force to be dealt with like in later zombie films. Having the film shot as a documentary made this all the more visceral to the viewer, as was his intention I’m sure. This is the zombie film for a world where all one needs to do is to go onto Wikipedia or Youtube for information, and Romero gets that aspect of the current culture. He knows that we live in a day and age where we are constantly bombarded and over stimulated with information. He also knows that the truth will always be edited, and facts from one person’s angle may be hearsay from another.

I very much loved this movie. I loved the documentary style spin, and having the movie take place from one angle (two later in the film), freed his budget up enough to maintain quality production values. When I first heard “documentary zombie film” I pictured someone’s wedding video. That is not at all what we get here, although I would love to see a wedding where zombies are involved, that’s another story. The film, despite being filmed by “amateurs”, is very professionally made by a master of the genre. My only two gripes are, as stated before, the use of CGI which is unavoidable. The other is that while the actual film is professionally made, it seems like parts of the editing were not. I don’t know if it is intentional, but at certain times the voice over becomes laughable, and the cutting of certain scenes through the use of flashback become a bit irritating. “Was that young man’s hand bleeding?” I asked myself as a closeup of his hand came onscreen in a freeze-frame with voice over. I understand that that is one style of documentary, and the small amount of bother I get from that in no way seriously takes away from my enjoyment of the movie.

George A. Romero, please don’t ever stop making zombie films. You have inspired many people to do as you do, and you will always have an audience for your work as well. An audience who loves everything you’ve helped create, which is the destruction of civilization at the hands of flesh eating corpses. Here’s to another forty years of zombie horror. Let’s film the dead walk the earth.