Presents

Diary Of The Dead

Before I even start, I have to admit to having a long admiration for George Romero and his work, everything from The Crazies to Bruiser, but especially the zombie movies!  And, when I first read about Diary Of The Dead (about three years ago), I've been looking forward to it, so, when it hit theatres last Friday, I couldn't help myself, I was drawn to the theatre...even though the movie has been released in such a limited fashion that I had to drive for almost an hour to see it!!

  Now, after the true cinematic horror of Cloverfield, I was somewhat apprehensive about a new 'dead' movie told from the point of view of the filmmaker.  After all, the two most famous of these type of movie (Cloverfield and The Blair Witch Project) have been really horrible movies, not horrible in that they scare you, but horrible, in that they SUCK!  Well, there I sat, waiting to be very disappointed by this new Romero movie and what do I find?  You got it, finally, someone figured out how to do a movie from the point of view of the camera and still tell the story!  Maybe it's Romero's experience in telling stories, but this is the way  these movies should be, everything is seen from the point of view of the filmmaker, but you never wonder what the hell is going on, as you did in the others!  Diary Of The Dead is basically a re-starting of Romero's franchise, this is the first day the dead rose.  A group of film students are out shooting what appears to be a very bad mummy movie when they get word, via the radio, that the dead are rising.  Well, after some skepticism, they begin to see that it's all true and jump in their Winnebago and head for home...each one's home respectively.  What Romero has done here is go back to his roots, reboot his franchise and, basically, show all the home zombie movie-makers out there how it's done.

The real beauty of this movie is that, not only is it well done, but it's a new movie.  Romero doesn't hit us with the over the top gore that have been a staple of the 'dead' movies, this time he heads right back to his roots and build suspense.  Oh, there's some gore in there (as there was in the original Night) but it's not the centerpiece of the movie, it's the spice!  If you're a fan of George Romero, then you'll definitely want to check out Diary Of The Dead, but, if you're just a fan of horror, then you'll still want to check out Diary Of The Dead, it's a fun, scary, smart movie.  And, if you don't feel a bit different about our 'YouTube' society after seeing it, then you're a colder son of a bitch than I am!!!  I'm giving Diary Of The Dead four out of four cigars, because not only is this a great part of the franchise, but it's just a great movie, and it's the kind of movie that other 'POV' filmmakers should check out before handing a character a camera!  So, until next time, when I'll be sitting here wishing I had some more brains...not the ones in my head, the ones on my plate...remember that the best movies are bad movies.