Diary of the Dead

Necronomicon

I personally can't wait for this, as I thought Land of the Dead was a hell of an enjoyable show which stood up to its predecessors, and one which I've seen mulitple times since it was released.

Here is a glowing review from Bloody Disgusting if you'd like to whet your appetite in preparation for the release of Diary:

It's crazy to me to think that George A. Romero is now on his fifth zombie film after creating the sub-genre back in 1968 with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. What's even more insane is that with each film - and nearly each decade - he finds something new to comment on. After LAND OF THE DEAD in 2005, who would have though that he'd find something significant once again so quick? Returning to his roots, DIARY OF THE DEAD is by far Romero's best film in nearly 20 years capturing a unique flavor that's been missing for years.

The film will follow a group of college students shooting a horror movie in the woods who stumble upon a real zombie uprising. When the onslaught begins, they seize the moment as any good film students would, capturing the undead in a "cinema verite" style that causes more than the usual production headaches.

After a miserable experience with Universal, Romero took the independent route once again. What's unique about DIARY is that it's a unique blend of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. The film is a quasi-prequel that picks up with the first zombies coming to life. Footage on the internet and news display victims of a family murder returning from the dead and attacking paramedics and police. The epidemic is born. In a time where video blogging makes an average Joe more popular than CNN, Romero has one of his main characters pick up a camera and swear to document the events until the very end. His girlfriend intros the film as if she took her boyfriends footage and edited it together to tell "the truth", but who's truth are we watching? Who's vision are we watching? This is just one of the underlining contexts Romero brings to the plate.

Shot on various camera - including cell phones - DIARY feels very much like BLAIR WITCH as we are watching the found footage of our documenter. One major difference between the two is that DIARY looked phenomenal and was extremely well directed. -there was not a moment of motion sickness through the entire film. Another difference is that Romero had the lead narrate over the entire film, which to me one the single biggest flaw in the film. It was so incredibly annoying hearing her talk over the sequences and used as an anchor between scenes. No joke I thought I was watching TERMINATOR 2 at times, "Hi, I'm Sarah Conner... this is the apocalypse." Blah blah blah, just show the me the goddamn movie. I honestly think that Romero can re-edit the entire film without the narrator and it would be far superior. Another small problem with the film was the all-Canadian cast who struggled to keep their Pittsburgh accents and keep in character. They weren't "the acting killed the movie" bad, but enough to be annoyed at moments. I also think that there were a few very unrealistic moments written in the screenplay, specifically when the group of students stumble on a warehouse where the people inside so graciously gave them anything they needed.

Sans the small problems here and there, DIARY OF THE DEAD is a fantastically entertaining film. I loved a lot of the set ups (especially how the film opens), and the gore... oh the gore!!! The practical effects were mixed with some CG, but barely noticeable. The gun shots to the heads were mind-blowing (pun intended), and some of the zombie kills were off-the-wall amazing; we get zombies split in half by swords, heads melted by acid and some shot with arrows... and just wait until you see the zombie fish bowl (a pool filled with zombies!) The locations were also wonderful, especially the mansion and the hospital... this movie screams video game adaptation!

DIARY OF THE DEAD might be flawed but the fact that it's an independent film gives many of the problems a free ride. In the end this is Romero at his finest, a special little film that all fans will be pleasantly surprised with. The only thing better than a new Romero zombie film is seeing it with 1,200 screaming fans... hopefully we'll see this in a theater sometime in 2008.

Reg'stoy

Have you seen any trailers for it yet, have tried all the usual places but no success. Incidently have you seen George's Zombie comic's, I bought a set on eBay well worth viewing if you get a chance.
P.S. Have you heard the rumours (as seen on a thread on IMDB) about a remake of Day of the dead as per his original script as opposed to the current remake.

spooky donkey

looks good to me.

Karl Hungus

It's Romero, I'll be looking forward to it.

Necronomicon

Reg'stoy wrote:

Have you seen any trailers for it yet, have tried all the usual places but no success. Incidently have you seen George's Zombie comic's, I bought a set on eBay well worth viewing if you get a chance.
P.S. Have you heard the rumours (as seen on a thread on IMDB) about a remake of Day of the dead as per his original script as opposed to the current remake.

No trailer that I can find, but a short feature from the official myspace (not very long or particularly insightful though):

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2057515890

Haven't seen any Romero comics....and the Day of The Dead thing is more of a rumor: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489018/

Ving Rhames in another Romero remake, although I'm finding it a bit hard to see him as Captain Rhodes.

mike65

I'm still waiting for Tea-time of the Dead.

Mike.

Karl Hungus

mike65 wrote:

I'm still waiting for Tea-time of the Dead.

Mike.

Yeah, that does look interesting, but no release date yet I'm afraid.

mike65

I did a google for Tea-time

Mike.

Reku

Sure we could probably do with an Xmas of the Dead too!:D
Little stenchy opens his present to find fresh brains to eat.;)

Creature

Can't wait . I particularly liked the idea of the application of acid to zombie heads and the zombie fishbowl!

Otis Driftwood

I didnt like Land of the Dead.
Far too much CGI used.
Apparently though Diary will have more grass roots effects,hopefully with some input from Savini.

Thundercracker

I liked Land of the Dead for the special effects, I felt its timeless quality (in that you didnt know exactly how long it had been since the zombie infection had begun) was great, and also the fact that you seen in some cases that the humans seemed to be worse then the zombies with their class systems and obsession with money - although essentially it was worthless

Diary of the Dead looks good, but I struggle to be impressed these days with Independant movies, and since Hills Have Eyes and Saw have headed towards the mainstream studios to achieve their horror franchises it looks as if Romero might have made a good film, but is it one that will get the attention it deserves?

In the video store in which I work there are a handful of really bad zombie movies and horror flicks such as House of the Dead and Return of the Living Dead, and it makes me think that making a horror movie with very little cash is a bad idea unless you've got a really good script and an excellent director (and even Wes Craven admitted to only making the second of the original Hills Have Eyes in 1985 because he needed the cash)

senordingdong

I also didn't like the Land of the Dead.

unreggd

Land was crapola!

a few good scenes, but generally crap and slow

Creature

Ah Land was great. It had Dennis Hopper ffs!

senordingdong

It was terrible.

TerrorFirmer

I really liked Land. Though there was a lot of CGI, but that's the way most films are going now - just look at Resi Extinction. Same thing, explosive but too-fake-to-be gritty CGI.

lordgoat

When is this out by the way?

kryptyk500

7th March 2008, according to imdb:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0848557/releaseinfo

kryptyk500

I found an old 'Incredibly Strange Film Show' documentary about George Romero presented by Jonathan Ross (in 4 parts):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tg1vKNfc04&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqhryGd8Py0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TYp_zXAjGw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qAHo39_MN8