|
||||||||||||
 |
 |
Diary of the Dead (2008) Starring: Joshua Close, Michelle Morgan by Richard Leigh 
In 2005 George A. Romero 'kindly' released his 'Land of the Dead' film upon the world, one of the worst zombie films ever made. His films had always been characterised by the use of a largely unknown cast; something that had always worked well for him and made his early films feel a lot more real and authentic. In 'Land of the Dead' there were celebrities left, right, and centre, it was a who's who of Hollywood; after 20 years without having released a zombie film, everyone wanted to be in George A. Romero's latest offering and indeed they were. With 'Diary of the Dead' George A. Romero takes the series back to its roots in once more using an unknown cast; there's a big question on everyone's lips then of whether or not this film is actually any good.
In my opinion I would say that once more George A. Romero has failed. In some ways I think I probably actually preferred the dreadful 'Land of the Dead', at least the zombies there had a bit of character about them which made it all a little more interesting to watch. The zombies here are not very interesting at all, the performances are awful, and the script quite frankly is rubbish. Were the cast not so poor then maybe the script would have sounded a little better, alas the cast are dreadful though and I feel that whatever script they had have been given they probably would have ruined it. The basic premise here is that a group of film students are making a horror film for their course, during filming though they learn that something bad is happening; dead people are waking up. Zombies are slowly taking over the planet and consuming human flesh. What had set out to be a horror film now turns out to be a documentary as the real life zombie goings on are caught on film. Everyone introduces themselves on the film, every action the group takes is caught on film and the idea is that after all of this is over then all those that are left alive will be able to see exactly what went on. The documentary idea is is an interesting concept for George A. Romero to take on I feel, I was intrigued to see what he had made of it all here but am afraid to say that when I saw 'Diary of the Dead' I felt nothing but disappointment. 'Blair Witch Project' was a success in 1999 through using this documentary idea, and more recently 'Cloverfield' has made use of the same handheld camera technique as this. It's all a little static here, no one really makes the film come to life and as it progresses you just feel as though you're wasting 95 minutes of your life. Had this film been done well then 'Diary of the Dead' could have been greatly successful, as it stands though it provides for a truly unsatisfying and really rather bland viewing experience. The films only jumpy moment comes very near the beginning, from then on however it is all downhill and as the film unfolds nothing about it ever really impresses. I shan't give away the films one and only scare; I wouldn't want to ruin it for anyone, but keep in mind that after this point there will be nothing more to hold your interest. My best advice is to relish this one moment, really savour it and remember it for the brilliant 30 seconds of cinema that it is. The first few films from George A. Romero were packed full of these moments from start to finish, it's disappointing to view a film in which only one scene you feel was worthwhile but then again the 2005 film 'Land of the Dead' from George A. Romero was very much the same. Every move that this group takes is caught on film, zombies are everywhere and the group are constantly on the move in order to try and escape from it all. The group find that they can run, but they can't hide though; zombies are absolutely everywhere and nowhere and no one is safe. The film takes on a mockumentary form, Jason (Joshua Close) wants to capture everything and if he doesn't catch things on film at first then he often requests of his friends to repeat what they just said in order to ensure that their every word is documented. At the start of the film the voice over of Jason's girlfriend Debra (Michelle Morgan) tells us that although Jason was shooting a horror, in actual fact he'd always wanted to do a documentary; this is exactly what he gets to do here. Jason has an obsession with filming it all, the world is being taken over by zombies and the first thing he thinks to do is film it; it's an interesting look at the society of today and our obsession with websites such as YouTube. The group put their video on-line and are ecstatic that after a mere 8 minutes it has already had 72 000 hits. Despite the horrific nature of what is happening, still they are obsessed with the Internet culture of trying to capture as many hits as possible. Whilst the early films in the series were all set back in a time of black and white television, here they have the Internet which makes it so much easier to share things with people all around the world. The group seem more interested in technology than they do in what is going on around them, the social satire side of it all is brilliant but at the same time the film itself is not very good at all. I like the messages that George A. Romero puts across with this 'Diary of the Dead' film, but visually the film is extremely bland and does very little to sustain my imagination. The acting puts me off it all entirely, and I just don't feel that the film progresses very well at all. As much as it is an interesting idea, the way in which it is pulled off here truly is quite unsatisfactory. Some of George A. Romero films are excellent, the first three films in this series for example were brilliant but the last two have both been incredibly poor. The social satire element of 'Diary of the Dead' I feel is far better than that of the previous film 'Land of the Dead', ultimately though 'Diary of the Dead' is an inferior film as a result of it's poor plot, awful characterisation, and truly atrocious script. The production budget of this film was a mere $2 million dollars, far more pleasing to hear than the $16 million budget of 'Land of the Dead' but ultimately a further $2 million wasted. I guess you should respect George A. Romero really for continuing to direct zombie films of this sort at the age of 68, I wish he'd stop though. Bad use of the handheld camera film form is made here, 'Diary of the Dead' is not a very good film at all and personally I would recommend it to no one.  Rating: 1 out of 5 Details about the film: |
 |
 |
||
