Diary of the Dead Review
Spoiler Warning
For those of you horror-lovers, George A. Romero is most likely a household name. His zombie movies are the cream of the crop, and Diary of the Dead rightfully earns its place among them. The only reason that this movie may not have had a widely approving reception by audiences is because Romero has progressively been building in apocalyptic levels through out his movies, where the situations become more escalated and more hopeless. Diary regresses to an earlier point in continuity to around the time of Night of the Living Dead, Romero’s first foray into the zombie subgenre.
In Diary of the Dead we follow a group of film students who abandon the initial effort of making a horror movie when they hear reports of the living dead. Jason Creed, the student director of the abandoned horror movie, decides to take up effort in making a documentary of their experiences in the dawn of the existence of the living dead.
Unlike some of Diary’s handy-cam contemporaries, the edited footage makes sense. What we see within the movie is a completed documentary by the characters. The editing adds a feel of importance to what the characters go through, rather than just recorded events. It allows for a focus and a theme.
The biggest problem with the film is some amateurish acting, but that ends reasonably quickly.
Unfortunately some interesting characters are left behind in the film, but for the sake of the story and those characters functions it would have made no sense to bring them along the students’ journey. Despite the overall enjoyability of the minor characters, venturing beyond the experiences actually had with them would eventually become tiresome.
Romero has always used his films as an engine for social commentary, which is a noble cause. The commentary, in my opinion, is the most interesting part of Diary of the Dead. However, unlike Romero’s other movies where the commentary is disguised within the film, Diary wears it’s commentary on the surface. Narration and dialogue are pretty conventional of what you see in documentaries (it can be a little corny) but it all makes sense. However, it’s not hard to see how the characters’ words relate directly to the commentary.
Like most other zombie movies with social commentary, it does draw a parallel between zombies and living people, but that’s not the complete point. It’s quickly established that the message is about the function of media in modern society, and from there it is built upon throughout the movie. The focus isn’t on the parallel. The parallel is used to show the atrocities that humans inflict on humans. The zombies are primarily treated as a disaster that allows for lines to be blurred between natural disasters like storms, or disasters born of human cruelty. The message isn’t the typical “We are the zombies.” The message is condemning of the media. It shows that as modern people we usually don’t actively help. We watch and badger people in distress.
How does this film compare to Romero’s others? Along the lines of social commentary, it’s the best. It makes its message known, and pulls no punches. The level of fun it presents is less than the others. The sense of urgency isn’t there that exists particularly in Romero’s first three zombie films which can be credited to the time period in which it takes place, and the documentary style. It’s not my favorite of Romero’s work, but it’s definitely worthy.
The Verdict: Overall this is a good movie. If you’re looking for an action packed thrill ride, I suggest looking elsewhere; somewhere in the B-movie category. If you’re looking for a smart horror movie with plenty of dark humor, then look no further. Diary of the Dead is a solid buy.
-Vince
Tags: Diary of the Dead, George A. Romero, Horror, Living Dead, Movie, Zombies