romero is famous for using a post-apocalyptic world as the backdrop for discussing social issues. in "dawn of the dead," the underlying theme was society's obsession with consumer culture shown by survivors fleeing to "safety" at the local mall. in "day of the dead" he discussed military control and the romance we have with weapons and war. "diary of the dead" is concerned with the issues of ever increasing voyeurism via the internet.
the premise of the film is that a group of university students are making a horror film to submit for a class project of sorts. the main filmmaker, jason, is really interesting in making documentaries and is said to always have a camera in his hand. the film brings up the fact that not only does he actually miss out on living most things because he is constantly recording them, but he alienates himself further from his friends by annoyingly taping them during a crisis. he is so obsessed with recording them and how they are feeling during this zombie uprising that he completely disregards their feelings and only views them as subjects in his movie.
"diary of the dead" further goes on to show the impact blogging and d.i.y. sites like youtube have on society and the dispersion of information [...and yes, i'm aware that it's somewhat ironic to be discussing said issues via a blog...anyways...]. when the first zombie attack occurs, a local cameraman for a news station captures it on video and uploads it to the web. soon after, people realize that what is being said on the news is generally a lie and they take to sharing their experiences in the crisis through the internet. they use the internet as a resource to find out what's actually going on.
i will say this: as always, romero is adept at holding up a mirror to society. he's an excellent commentator on the issues society faces and then beyond that, he throws in blood and gore. and this is why i tend to love his movies.
so why didn't i like this one? firstly, the film is shot with two handy-cams. it's like reliving "the blair witch project" all over again. but kudos to romero because this is something he hasn't really tried before. okay, beyond that, the movie is INCREDIBLY cheesy, even for zombie movie standards. it's just over the top at every turn. the actors either over-act or under-act all the time. the worst performance is from a virtually unkown actor by the name of scott wentworth who plays the student's drunken lethargic professor andrew maxwell. he sports a fake british accent that's extremely distracting while spewing forth woe-is-me monologues and one-liners about his days back in england on the archery team and his love-affair with booze. even before the end of the world, he's a drunken loser who could hardly be believed to be a professor. he seems more like a vagrant that the kids picked up on their trek home from their dorm rooms.
that's another thing: all these kids live in the dorm at a university in pennsylvania. they are all heading home to their respective home towns, in get this...a winnebago owned by one of the students. huh?? students who live in dorms are rarely even allowed to have cars on campus let alone a home-on-wheels. romero slipped up on that logic.
although "diary of the dead" has some pretty decent gore and new ways of killing zombies [a kid zombie is pinned to the wall from an arrow to the brain], it felt completely amateur and reminded me of when i was invovled in a haunted house back in high-school. for example, in a hospital emergency room, the group stumbles upon a flickering light behind a privacy curtain. of course there are two zombies dressed as a doctor and nurse feasting on the guts of a patient. this is so obviously meant to be a disturbing sight and it has the opposite effect and just seems like a pathetic attempt to scare and upset the audience. it was as if romero, the master of the genre, was some highschool kid trying to copy someone as great as oh, say, ROMERO, and failing miserably.
let's just hope papa horror isn't slowly becoming a zombie himself.
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