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Diary
of the Dead
(2008)
 
In 1968, George A. Romero shocked the world with
a new kind of horror film with Night of the Living Dead.
Forty years later, he returns to the scene of the crime with
what can be viewed as either a companion piece to the original
or a reboot of the franchise. Whichever it is, it's bloody
good.
A group of film students are shooting a low budget horror film in the
backwoods of Pennsylvania when corpses begin reanimating to feast on
the flesh of the living. As the students try to escape, one of them
keeps filming with his video camera, obsessed with documenting
everything that occurs so that someone may eventually know the truth
of what happened.
Writer/director Romero returns to his roots as a low budget guerrilla
filmmaker, and the result is easily the best Dead film since Dawn
of the Dead in 1978. Romero has always used the horror genre as a
way to examine and comment on contemporary society. The satire is on
the mark here, taking aim at the news media, internet culture, and
reality television among other things, while raising chilling
questions about the manufacturing of "truth" by the media and our own
enjoyment of violence.
The production pushes the boundaries of its R rating with some
particularly gory scenes, but it's also wonderfully funny at the most
unexpected of times and it's not above mocking other modern zombie
films where the walking dead are more like the sprinting dead. Romero
finds and successfully maintains the delicate balance between horror,
satire, and dark humor throughout. The final shot is like a kick to
the throat, putting a brutal exclamation point on all the film's themes.
As the title suggests, the story is told as if it's a video diary,
taking a cue from The Blair Witch Project (and putting it on common
ground with last month's Cloverfield) with a first person narrative where the
camera is used to appear as if it's being carried and operated by one
of the characters. The technique once again works very well for
providing a terrifying sense of immediacy, but cinematographer Adam
Swica (Bruiser) achieves the effect without the nausea-inducing
ShakyCam of its stylistic predecessors. It's quite different from
Romero's usual style of filmmaking, but he shows himself more than
capable of adapting himself to a different way of telling a story, and
this allows him to succeed in a way that he hasn't for quite a long time.
The cast of unknowns is well suited for the guerrilla style of the
film, providing believable performances within the framework of the
story, including Joshua Close as the obsessed filmmaker who we hear
more than we see because he's the one with the camera; Michelle Morgan
as his frustrated girlfriend; Shawn Roberts, Amy Lalonde, Joe Dinicol,
Philip Riccio, Chris Violette, Tatiana Maslany, and Megan Park as the
other students; Scott Wentworth as their alcohol soaked film
professor; and Alan Van Sprang as a National Guard officer they
encounter. Romero himself has a cameo as a police chief providing
information at a televised press conference.
News broadcasts are used as backgrounds to several scenes, and the
voice of the unseen newsreaders are provided by horror icons Wes Craven, Stephen
King, Simon Pegg, Quentin Tarantino, and Guillermo del Toro.
The fifth entry in Romero's seminal franchise is one of its best, providing
a fresh take on the material four decades after the franchise's birth
and finding its creator back in top form as a social satirist. Diary
of the Dead is simultaneously grisly, funny, thought provoking, and one
hell of a ride.
-Danielle
Ní Dhighe
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All contents ©
2004-2007 Thoughtsonfilm.com |
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Director:
George
A. Romero
Writer: George
A. Romero
Starring: Michelle Morgan, Joshua Close, Shawn Roberts, Amy Ciupak Lalonde, Joe Dinicol, Scott Wentworth, Philip Riccio, Chris Violette, Tatiana Maslany
Distributor: Third
Rail Releasing
Runtime: 95
min
Rating: R
Release Date: February
15, 2008
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