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Variety calls Diary of the Dead a "gripping, intimate genre triumph"
Scaling back the broad sweep of previous horror opus "Land of the Dead" and largely jettisoning the increasingly comedic possibilities of the concept in favor of pointed, impassioned social criticism and close-in genre thrills, gore's godfather audaciously and successfully reboots his incalculably influential zombie franchise as a lean, mean teen-survival machine in "George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead." Gripping, intimate genre triumph reps a not-insurmountable marketing challenge in the wake of "Land"'s larger canvas, with emphasis on college-age protags and their tech wizardry sure to inject the fan base with copious new blood.
Fifth franchise entry might best be viewed as a provocative inverse of "The Blair Witch Project," with which it shares a general p.o.v. structure and some themes. At its heart a stinging indictment of child-rearing practices that produced sullen offspring, incapable of thinking for themselves or working in groups during a crisis situation, "Witch" has given way, less than a decade later, to "Diary'"s bevy of confident, savvy coeds.
These go-getters are highly motivated for success via self-expression, and possess the vidcam and Internet tech chops to attract attention to themselves by getting their personal projects made and circulated. In short, they create content to validate their own existence.
Though set in the present day, "Diary" rewinds to the mysterious zombie outbreak that set the franchise in motion. Suspicious of lies being fed through the mainstream media as society disintegrates, a surviving member of a student film crew has assembled a docu, "The Death of Death," from the crew's own footage and Internet grabs, as testament to what really went down. (The survivor apologetically warns that some music cues and thrills have been added for entertainment value.)
"The Death of Death" begins as compulsive filmmaker Jason Creed (Josh Close) tries to finish a student mummy film in the Pennsylvania woods. Hearing of the zombie crisis on the radio, lead actor Ridley (Philip Riccio) takes off in his expensive sports car for the family compound across the state, leaving cast and crew to fend for themselves in a rickety RV.
In addition to Jason, behind the camera and thus seldom seen for much of the movie, the core group for the bulk of the action includes his disgruntled g.f. Debra (Michelle Morgan); disbelieving film school rival Tony (Shawn Roberts); mummy scream queen and real-life Texas firecracker Tracy (Amy Lalonde); tech dweeb Eliot (Joe Dinicol); and cynically alcoholic Brit prof Maxwell (Scott Wentworth).
During their mad dash to Debra's house in Scranton, they encounter a nearly deserted rural hospital, an Amish farmer whose deafness doesn't impede his resourcefulness, a gaggle of renegade National Guardsmen and, eventually, Ridley's deceptively fortress-like mansion.
If the actual body count is relatively low, Romero's inspiration level is sky-high; at 67, he's got his finger squarely on the pulse of the younger generation's facile relationship with media and technology. He's also brought his always healthy skepticism of broadcasting and government to the fore; it's giving nothing away to point to pic's sad, brutal coda as one of the most powerful antiwar statements since America invaded Iraq.
Pic also reps a watershed in Romero's direction of actors. As Debra, Morgan is easily the most swaggeringly self-confident heroine of any "Dead" adventure, while Lalonde does a terrific job balancing the humor inherent in her story arc with genuine fear.
Production values are precisely what they need to be. Other than some perfectly miked characters deep in the frame, illusion of pic being stitched together from vidcam footage, Internet video and surveillance cameras is entirely logical. Decision to massage good, old-fashioned latex with CGI splatter pays off in imaginative and startling gags, produced with Greg Nicotero, Gaslight Effects and Spin. Ontario locations stand in nicely once again for rural Pennsylvania.
How influential is Romero's work? Closing credit crawl gives special thanks to Romero pals, disciples and supporters Wes Craven, Guillermo del Toro, Simon Pegg, Stephen King, Quentin Tarantino and Tom Savini. They should be proud.
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Here’s the first review of Diary - Ain’t it cool!
Hey Fellas! Magoo here
... We were in line to see GEORGE A. ROMERO'S DIARY OF THE DEAD!
There was pure electricity in the air! This was seriously one of my favourite TIFF experiences. Sitting in the theater before hand you could feel something amazing in the air, I'd say at least 40 people in the audience where members of the cast and crew (as it was shot in Toronto a lot of them where there). They hadn't seen the movie yet and you could just feel the excitement off of them. Then George was introduced, I have never seen so many people jump to their feet to give someone a standing ovation like this. The man is very well respected and at that moment it kicked in that we were about to watch a new George A. Romero movie and not one that was over seen by some major studio, but one he financed 100% independently. After a bit of an introduction the movie was under way.
The movie starts with a news crew outside an apartment building where several people have been shot. This is 100% raw uncut footage, we are seeing what they are seeing. As they are filming the dead bodies being put into stretchers one of em starts twitching. Us in the audience knows what's about to happen, but the people at the scene don't have a god damned idea. This is the first day of the zombie outbreak, no one knows what is going on. Sure enough the bodies come back to life and start causing shit. This opening scene was so brilliantly done that the audience gave it a huge round of applause after it was done.
The rest of the movie is shown through the eyes of several cameras. Mostly by one dude, a documentary film makers who was out in the woods with his classmates filming a mummy movie. We also see footage from security cameras, cell phones, web cames etc. This is NOT Blair Witch with zombies!!! The movie plays out as a narrative film, what we are seeing is all the footage edited together by a surviving member of the crew.
The hand held film work makes this movie down right terrifying at some points. The movie scared me.... movies don't scare me anymore! There are tons of jumps and shocks that make the audience yelp. I was sitting next to a chick who screamed each time something surprising happened, which in turn shocked me and made me remember why I love going to the theater to see movie instead of downloading it (a pox on all you downloaders!) Aside from the shocks there are some really tense sequences where you are on the edge of your seat. Not since when I saw the original "Night of the Living Dead" as a young lad have I ever been scared by a Zombie movie. You really feel as if you are right there, experiencing what is happening first hand.
How can you kill a zombie and make it fresh and interesting? There have been 100 zombie movies, it's all been done right? Hell no! Romero kills of zombies in some really interesting ways in this one. A jar of flesh eating acid smashed over the head of one of the living impaired stands out.
The Amish Dude!!! This guy was great! And he goes out in an awesome way to boot.
Another thing that must be addressed is the social commentary. It wouldn't be a Romero zombie movie without some underlying look at humans and how we live our lives and do our thing. The information age is clearly the target here. In this day and age as soon as something happens it is uploaded online or blogged about within a couple of hours. Everyone has a camera and everyone has access to YouTube, so we the people are the new media. News censorship is also a target here, footage of the initial zombie attack is edited by the news stations but the stuff uploaded by regular citizens is the real deal, we see what the major corporate media empires don't want us too. As with the rest of the Romero zombie movies the underlying message isn't shoved down our throats, it is merely something in the background that makes us go "yeah, that is true!"
The movie ending with a roaring standing ovation, the audience was behind it all the way. George looked like the happiest bastard on earth, his fans loved his movie. The Q+A actually had some decent stuff in it (about time people ask interesting questions instead of "what was filming the movie like?" ala Argento's screening on Thursday). One really interesting question was about the use of race relations in "Night" and also a small segment in "Diary". He basically said it is an issue that is always underlying and that will never change. He mentioned about the Katrina aftermath when news stations reported about black families "looting" when they where looking for supplies to live off of. He talked about the civil rights movement back in the 60's and how although leaps and bounds have happened since then, that it is still an underlying situation. He told a really interesting story about how when "Night" was finished being edited, they loaded it into a car and where on their way to New York City to drop it off when on the radio they heard about Martin Luther King Jr. being assassinated. Not sure if that lil' tid bit of info has been mentioned anywhere before but it was a prety cool story nonetheless.
"George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead" was friggin awesome! Wayyyyyyyy better than "Land of the Dead" and totally comparable to his original trilogy. When this one hits theaters GO SEE IT!!! Don't download it, don't wait for DVD, get yer ass in the theaters and watch it.
Well that's all for now. I still got tickets for a few others so I'll send em in as I see em.
