Diary of The Dead

A reboot of sorts for George A. Romero’s ongoing Dead series, Diary of the Dead transpires on the first night of the zombie uprising and follows a group of college students as they attempt to make their way back to their respective homes. One such character (Joshua Close’s Jason) is trying to document the crisis with his camera for posterity, and the movie subsequently takes place almost entirely through his eyes. It’s an interesting gimmick that doesn’t always work, particularly as Jason elects to film the carnage rather than help his friends. Far more problematic, however, is the almost total lack of interesting or compelling characters; while Romero has effectively managed to avoid transforming these people into horror-movie stereotypes, the filmmaker instead offers up a series of uniformly underdeveloped and flat-out uninteresting figures that aren’t sympathetic in the slightest. It’s consequently difficult to care about their survival, and the movie undoubtedly suffers because of it. That being said, Romero has certainly peppered Diary of the Dead with a number of expectedly suspenseful and downright engrossing moments - with the highlight undoubtedly a short-lived appearance by a tough-as-nails Amish guy (who also happens to be deaf!) And while the film is ultimately a far cry from the first three installments in the series, it’s hard to imagine Romero’s die-hard fans walking away from Diary of the Dead flat-out disappointed.