"All that's left to do is to record it all." -- George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
DIARY OF THE DEAD
(2007)
Starring: Michelle Morgan, Josh Close, Shawn Roberts, Scott Wentworth, Amy Lalonde, Philip Riccio, Joe Dinicol.
Directed By: George A. Romero
Rated: R (for strong horror violence, gore, and language).
If you're a horror fan, if you like zombies, you almost certainly know the name George Romero. The dude is known as the Godfather of Zombie Cinema for a reason -- he practically created the genre, reviving a faltering, practically unknown movie monster with his 1968 landmark classic Night of the Living Dead and bringing it back into the spotlight. Without Romero, we absolutely wouldn't have 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead, or Fido. And I, being the zombophile and amateur zombie expert that I am, of course bow in respect to this grand maestro of horror.
That being said, his "...of the Dead" series does have its weak installments (Land of the Dead) to balance out the epic ones (Dawn of the Dead, arguably his best film to date). But I have to admit: while I can differentiate between the weak and the solid, I've sincerely enjoyed all of his movies thus far.
I finally saw his latest (at least until Survival of the Dead actually gets a release date) installment, Diary of the Dead, after owning the DVD for more than a year. And while Diary isn't on par with Dawn, I have to say that it was an ambitious project, and one that didn't entirely fall short.
As with all of Romero's films, it's never just about the zombies and gore: there's something deeper and more serious going on beneath the gritty horror patina. Night was about racial tension; Dawn focused on the dangers of consumerism; Day made overt commentary on the military. Diary of the Dead deals with the issue of instant dissemination of news: in a time when anyone with a video camera can record anything and upload it to Youtube for immediate consumption, and TV stations spin and edit everything to suit their demographics, just how much of what we see can we trust or believe? And when people absorb everything through a screen, does this constant feed of recorded footage desensitize us and prevent us from acting properly?
Diary of the Dead follows a group of college students working on their senior project, which just happens to be a horror movie. It's while they're shooting in the woods outside of their college that they hear the first reports of the zombie apocalypse -- half of the group immediately discounts the reports as overblown nonsense and hysteria. But as the evening passes, it becomes more and more obvious that the end is truly well nigh, and within hours the coeds have come face-to-face with brutal death -- and learn just how far they are able to go in the fight to survive.
The entire film is presented as a documentary of the group's experiences. We see everything through the eyes (and lens) of Jason Creed (Close), who becomes fanatically obsessed with recording everything. As Jason is our eyes, his girlfriend Debra (Morgan) is our voice: a bystander who's only trying to understand everything and make it through the next day, uninterested in leaving any kind of "legacy". As their relationship fragments, as Jason becomes more obsessed with his documentary, and as the group begins to crumble we get an inside view of how civilization collapses under such an unbelievable pressure.
As with all of Romero's films, the entire story revolves around a small group cut off from the rest of civilization. Diary has a slightly larger group than Romero's other films, which just allows for a greater spread of personalities and more opportunities for satisfyingly gruesome deaths.
While Jason and Debra are the central protagonists, and Debra has quite a few bad-ass moments, the film's real saving grace are the side characters. The boozy British professor (Wentworth) who serves as the solid, fatherly figure for the collegiates is a quirky, fun, and unexpected hero with his war experience and proficiency with a bow and arrow. Skeptic Tony (Roberts) is somewhat annoying with his perverse determination to be an asshole, but he does make one of the most satisfying zombie kills. And Eliot (Dinicol), the Asian nerd, proves to be pretty fierce with an IV pole when push comes to shove.
My favourite part of the entire movie has to be when our heroes run into an Amish dude by the name of Samuel. I don't want to spoil the sheer awesomeness of this segment of the movie, but let's just say that Samuel single-handedly kicks more ass than anyone else, with the possible expection of Boozy British Professor. In fact, I'd love to see an AU spin-off movie that simply follows the exploits of Samuel and Boozy British Professor, in the style of Shane Black's Lethal Weapon, where the two buddies take on the ravenous undead hordes with stacks of C4 and high-powered crossbow bolts.
Romero also manages to fit in all of his standards: strong black characters, women that grow into their BAMFery, brushes with religion, the destruction of familial ties, and how easily things can fall apart when people refuse to cooperate and work towards a common goal.
As an unabashed fan of all of Romero's films (and zombie films in general), I quite enjoyed this addition to the genre. There were some honestly funny moments -- a sign of a truly good zombie film, since zombies have an inherent hilariousness to them (no, really) -- some extremely satisfying deaths and moments of gore for the bloodthirsty, and the acting and production values were good, especially when compared to most low-budget outings.
In terms of story-telling, I think Diary is Romero at his most ambitious. By presenting everything as a first-hand documentary, there's quite a bit of creative finagling in order to present the entire story -- we get footage from Jason's camera, from home movies found abandoned in a hospital, from MySpace and Youtube posts, and from security cameras. And as Debra says, "If it's not on camera, it's like it never really happened, isn't it?", which is both a biting critique of our current society ("pics or it didn't happen!") and something of a plaintive cry for all of those missed opportunities in life AND filmmaking.
If you're huge about horror, zombies, or Romero, don't pass up Diary of the Dead. While it may not be on par with Dawn of the Dead, it's more of a throwback to classic Romero than Land of the Dead, and it certainly leaves an impression on you.
On a Scale of 1 to 10: Diary of the Dead gets a hearty (and brainy) 7.
Click to view