Review: DIARY OF THE DEAD (2007)

 DIARY OF THE DEAD (2007) USA/Canada 1hr 35mins

Dir: George A. Romero

"Don't bury dead. First shoot in head." Asian YouTuber

"Survival??! Who the fuck wants to survive in a world like this??" Jason Creed

A group of Pittsburgh university film students and their Professor are shooting a horror movie in the woods. They hear news reports of major disruption and stories of the dead coming back and attacking the living midway through shooting. Unsure of what to make of it at first they quickly discover these reports are true and Jason Creed (Joshua Close) turns the camera on his friends to document their ordeal. He calls his documentary "The Death of Death" and aims to post it on the Internet as evidence of what really happened rather than the lies and cover ups the media are portraying. As the world drastically changes around them they try to get to their families before it is too late.

DIARY OF THE DEAD is the fifth instalment of the franchise choosing not to follow on from 2005's LAND OF THE DEAD but comes almost full circle and encompasses more of Romero's first movie in the franchise 1968's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, bringing it back to the start of the outbreak only this time making it more up to date by giving it a found footage aspect. I really like the way this is done. It uses many different cameras often simultaneously giving you a more well rounded view and involved feel to it plus it seems to almost eliminate the annoying shaky cam technique. It is still there a bit but no where near as much as some. You get angles from hand held cameras from multiple characters as well as views from security cameras, footage from other countries and, of course, the media coverage they are following throughout the movie. The other clever thing about this is that it is a found footage movie but it has been edited and finished by lead character Jason's girlfriend Debra (Michelle Morgan) which means they can refine it a bit by adding a narrative over the top and justifying a way of adding a soundtrack without it being a bit weird. The social commentary within this movie is obviously aimed this time at the media. The lies, conspiracies and cover ups that lead to mass hysteria and how everyone wants to get their story out there and the lengths they will go to to do that.

Released the same year as Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza's Spanish, infection, found footage epic [REC] you will find a very similar snippet of events unfolding in DIARY when watching some of the footage recorded and uploaded on the Internet as the movie progresses. Apparently Romero had been keen to do a found footage take on the zombie apocalypse even before doing LAND. So with his clever commentaries and concepts took his time and came up with the most ambitious and successful found footage zombie movie to date. All that being said and whilst I do really enjoy this movie some things do fall a bit flat though.

I think the cast here are probably his weakest and the characters are definitely not as likeable. A few of them are just stereotypical zombie fodder and you dont really care what happens to them either way. Joshua Close doesn't really cut it as a lead actor, perhaps it is because he is behind the camera so much?! Michelle Morgan as lead female Debra comes across as a moody cow and Scott Wentworth as Prof Maxwell is far too pretentious. I enjoyed Phillip Riccio as Ridley who spends the whole movie in a mummy costume and is incredibly quirky ("I didn't bury them in the garden. I'd never dig up mothers roses"). I felt a lot of sympathy for Tatiana Maslany who played Mary. As always there are some great cameos. Greg Nicotero appears once more as a zombie, this time a surgeon. Boyd Banks pops up to make a few wise cracks, Alan Van Sprang is back again in a military type role whilst Shawn Roberts who had a small role in LAND as Mike has landed himself a larger supporting role here as Tony. Romero himself makes a small on screen appearance as a Police Officer at a press conference. Not to mention the numerous news reporter voiceovers from the likes of Simon Pegg, Wes Craven, Stephen King and many others. The script and dialogue is fantastic and it does have a bit of dark humour running through it, and a long running joke about old hammer horror movies and why the women always lose their shoes and/or rip their clothing. The introduction of the deaf Amish farmer character Samuel played by R.D.Reid (who also appeared in Zack Snyders DAWN OF THE DEAD) was a spark of comedy genius!

The zombies are, as always, wonderful but not featured anywhere near as much as I wanted. Perhaps we have been spoiled by the almost constant undead presence in the previous movies especially LAND, so this is a big downside for me. That being said when they do come across a shambler (I don't recall them actually calling them any specific names in this apart from "The Dead") I relish every scene, plus they do have some clever and gruesome kills. They get quite inventive at times with the use of crossbows, acid, a hairdryer and a fabulous eye melting moment with a defibrillator. There is a great tribute to DAY OF THE DEAD 1985 in DIARY at the hospital when a partially eaten patient spills their guts whilst rolling off the table. At first the effects seem a little CGI heavy but they level it out later on making it a bit more practical based. KNB FX whilst not involved with doing the effects in this movie were consulted with and designed the look of the zombies as well as coming up with the majority of the kills. They just weren't available at the time of shooting so left their ideas in the hands of others but on the whole I loved the look of them and the gore, I just wish there was more of them.

DIARY OF THE DEAD took a different view of the apocalypse with it's found footage style and on the whole the movie works really well, whilst it does not get a top spot in the cemetery it's slick, well produced, with a great script and feel to it. It's something different, expertly executed and well worth repeat watches. I score DIARY OF THE DEAD 4 brains out of 5.

I managed to acquire a lovely 2 disc steelbook DVD edition of DIARY from a fellow ghoul which has all manner of wonderful extras! There is a feature length documentary "ONE FOR THE FIRE: THE LEGACY OF "NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD"" from 2008 which revisits the impact of NIGHT over the last 40yrs. "FOR THE RECORD: THE MAKING OF DIARY OF THE DEAD" takes a look at behind the scenes of the movie. "THE LEAD UP TO DIARY" is an interview with George A Romero from Fright Fest 2008. All the features are very George heavy with lots of footage of the man himself and some great interviews. Plus it has some great character profiles, make up features and short movies. All done with a great computer screen layout menu which is a lot of fun!