Diary of the Dead

Written by Happywax  May 2011

Rating 2.5 out of 10

Director   -   George A Romero

Cast
Michelle Morgan-   Debra Moynihan
Joshua Close-   Jason Creed
Shawn Roberts-   Tony Ravello
Amy Lalonde-   Tracy Thurman

Joe Dinicol-   Elliot Stone

"You made me pay to see this shit !!? Dam YOU !!!"

Hey all you zombie lovin gore geeks, Happys in the dungeon again. Now usually I lock myself in and turn out the lights to make it abit scarier, but after watching this flick, I figured I should leave it open just incase I got the urge to stick my head in the doorway and slam it on my face repeatidly after suffering throu this movie.   First of all: I'm a huge fan of Romero's first three classic Dead movies, and have great respect and admiration for his work and the influence he and his movies have had on the entire horror movie genre. Along with Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento, Romero is without any doubt one of the most influential and important horror/splatter/zombie directors of all time. No question about it!

In Diary, Romero once again focuses on a few surviving people and the relationships between them, rather than the zombies and the gore. This is what has always made his movies great and powerful. In all his films, the zombies themselves work mostly as a reason to explain why a small group of very different people is suddenly forced to rely on, and help each other out, while the main focus is on the relationships between these people and the reactions and emotions that might erupt during such an extreme and interesting situation as a zombie outbreak.

While this formula is what has made his previous films interesting and entertaining, it is sadly what makes Diary of the Dead the exact opposite. And the reason for that are simply the actors. The main characters are all (except one) film school students, being just as shallow and cocky as every other cast of kids in any other "new" horror movie. The actors (all being young and unknown) seem quite inexperienced, and they all fail miserably to convince me, even for a second, that this is anything other than a bad student movie, trying desperately to be something more than it really is. And when ONE single interesting character (the mute Amish man armed with a scythe) is finally introduced, he sure doesn't stick around for very long.

A movie like this depends heavily on the actors, and when you seriously wish the entire cast would turn into zombies, just so they can shut up, the entire film, including the once great director, has failed.

The script itself, on the other hand, is actually quite good, its just to bad it was shot from a POV perspective, sorry George your my Hero but this movie  really is a stinker. Now like my best buddy Axe always says its tough to give bad reviews on some movies especially one of George Romeros, but, sometimes you gotta do it, and hounestly this movie really does suck.