Diary of the Dead - Romero Does It Again

[High Priest Mikhal]

For those of us who are fans of the Dead movies (Night, Dawn [original, not necessarily the remake], Day, Land, and now Diary) a new installment in the series is kind of special. This one slipped under the theater radar and went straight to DVD, so look for it at your rental place or media store. This is pure George A. Romero stuff and it lives up to his style of including subtle (and not-so-subtle) examples of society's flaws.

This movie takes place just as the dead begin to rise and feast on the living. Film students and their professor making a movie in the woods hear about it over their radio and TV and opt to return to their homes. Along the way they witness the chaos and anarchy of a world where the dead walk and the dark side of humanity coming out at the worst possible time. A man is looting the girls dorm of the college the kids go to (fans of The Red Green Show may recognize him as the actor who played Dwight Cardiff) when one of the kids goes back to find his girlfriend.

When one of their own is badly injured they rush to a hospital, only to find it empty save for a zombie orderlie and patient. In raw, uncut fashion you then see the friend die and rise again as a cannibalistic undead monster, only to be put down by her friends after much hesitation. This is the first of many examples of how humans harden themselves to the horrors around them--from reporters to people on the street--to survive reality.

The repressed black minority of a small town band together and gather up supplies, even sharing some with the kids--but not without tragedy. In counter to this act of decency a group of white soldiers--those who are supposed to protect us--steal everything but the guns the kids got from them; "They know we'll never survive without weapons." This comes after much talk that "the army will save us. The army will protect us." In truth it shows how "human" organizations like the military are, and how that word can be one of the worst curses in the English language.

At the end they reunite with the two who fled right at the beginning, safe in a grand mansion. After all the kids and their professor have been through this comes as a real relief, only to find that nothing is at it seems. The fragility of sanity is shown in the scenes that follow, the consequences of what happens when one doesn't defend their mind.

In the end, though, the overall message is that we're being fed a line--the truth is often misconstrued or ignored entirely if it threatens the powers that be. Messages that the government--every government on the planet--has the situation in hand prove false. Only when something comes along to shake us out of our complacency do we realize how bad things really are. But there are still some trying to get the truth out--those who dare to show reality raw and uncut on the last bastion of free speech: the Internet.

As a movie it's definitely a Dead movie, complete with gore and the ability to empathize with the protagonists. The special effects don't match up to Land of the dead, but they don't need to since this is a very different story. The make-up and acting are both up to George's stringent standards, and there's gore galore. Just be warned that this is a Romero movie, so few holds are barred. Few to no nude zombies (thank the gods) but pretty much everything else.

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

I really enjoyed this one myself when I saw it back in April (during it's limited theatre release, and I do mean LIMITED). Absolutely fantastic movie and it has Romero back on par. I think he genuinely listened to the feebback on Land, which bombed with alot of fan. While Land had a good premise, it was just done all wrong, it lacked the edge and genuine horror that those previous to it had.

I preferred the effects in this one, the cg in Land looked forced and very unbelievable, the zombie effects were also very poor. For instance, some blood splatters managed to spiral in Land, I've never seen blood do that, lol.

I especially enjoyed the full reversal in the kindness of strngers (the black gang and the soldiers for example) in that you cannot judge a book by its cover and will hopefully bring an end to the argument that's raged the last 30 years on how racist Romero is in his movies (this all started with a certain scene early on in the original Dawn, though personally I've never spotted the racism involved).

While there are alot fewer zombies in this movie, I also believe the move was improved by that, since the dead are just starting to rise (albeit their numbers are increasing by the hour), it's rare to see a mob and it focused on isolaed encounters (a bit like a low level adventure, heh). This one was very muh in feel with Night, particularly the earlier sections of that movie.

My favourite section has to be the YouTube video of that Japanese girl, excellent touch to show the global disaster it had become, not just localised to the American continent.

And remember "don't bury dead, first shoot in head" heh

I ave this one 5 fresh brains out of 5.

[High Priest Mikhal]

I liked Land well enough, though it did speak to me more on a sociopolitical level. The lower-class (the zombies) get treated like something less than human, and even the middle-class (the schmucks stuck outside Fiddler's Green) is little more than grist for the mills of the social elite, expendable as soldiers, hookers, and cheap labor. To voice any dissatisfaction was to be locked away. Even the fireworks had a message: they were spectacles do distract the lower-class from seeing what was really going on (tabloids, anyone?). Once the zombies stopped being fooled and realized what was going on they began fighting back. A revolution, really. Complete with the savagery of the winning side.

And Romero a racist!? He made his protagonist in the original Night black at a time when those of color were still supporting characters. Plus in the original Ben (the protag) survived, only to be shot by racist whites. It was an attempt to show how, compared to zombies that just don't care about skin color or ethnicity, people are the real monsters.