Diary of the Dead' is a heavy-handed zombie film that continually misses the mark and is sure to break the heart of any George A. Romero as he takes his biggest career stumble.
Perhaps my anticipation for this film was a bit out of control. I had been waiting to see it since it was first released in the USA and the UK early last year. It didn't get a cinema release in Australia and I looked upon those overseas with a face green of envy as the international release schedule often does for Australians. It finally got a DVD release there in May but by this time I was living in the UK and didn't have a DVD player.
A few weeks ago I finally had the DVD and a DVD player in the same place, and the match was very disappointing. Critical and fandom response to the film that exploded on the internet over a year ago should have prepared me, but I was in denial. It was a George A. Romero zombie film, I would find the merit even if others missed it.
I didn't find it.
The film never once successfully builds the apocolayptic mood necessary for a zombie film, captured so well by Romero in the pessimistic black-and-white photography of 'Night of the Living Dead' and the expansive mall spaces devoid of life in 'Dawn of the Dead'. Romero is trying to capture a similar mood, in the misty night sequences or the gravely spoken voice over but he never raises to such heights.
The social critique is especially heavy-handed, instead of being built into the narrative, we have a character offering it in the form of repetitive and long-winded voice over. It fails to offer anything new, with the recent events in Iran and the G20 protests we do not need a filmmaker lecturing us over the ability to extensively document public events in the digitial age.
Romero isn't helped by poor casting and especially poor make-up. He may have wanted to do this with a very small budget but it has hurt the quality of the film.
If Romero is prepping another zombie film right now, sadly I couldn't care less.
