Heralded as a return to the genre’s roots by fans, yet equally lauded and panned by critics on its US release, George A. Romero’s latest entry into his much loved zombie series finally makes its belated direct-to-DVD release through Madman Entertainment. But after failing to secure a cinema release the question arises, is it any good? Thankfully, the answer is very.
Following a group of film students who decide to document a zombie plague from its initial break out, Romero’s fifth film in the dead series is one of his best. Shot on a shoe-string budget using a hand-held documentary style used in films such as Rec, Cloverfield and the Blair Witch Project, the film shows a director who has come full circle.
Gone are the cities of the undead, enabling the story to return to a small band of misfits trying to escape impending doom. As in the original Night of the Living Dead, the horror comes not only from the zombies, but the group’s reaction as they come to terms with what is happening around them. The make up and gore is consistent with other zombie films of the day, while the violence is more restrained and realistic than later Dead efforts.
As with any Romero zombie film, there is always much more going on that just hordes of undead. This time Romero takes a dig at the media and the overload of information purported as fact. Even the film students ``exposé’’ of the truth is hindered by their subjectiveness, raising questions of how hard it is to believe anything in a time of video blogs and YouTube. As with his previous films, Romero delivers his message too heavy handily at times, but a consistent pace and gore-drenched story ensures the zombie plague remains at the forefront.
Diary of the Dead isn’t perfect, but it’s a welcome return to form by the zombie master, and far better than a lot of the clones, ie. Rec, being produced today.
2 comments:
I'm in agreement with you, Mark, though many aren't. As I've said in a review elsewhere, this film felt like a "real" zombie film to me, in the light of all the poor, one-dimensional attempts that others have perpetrated of late.
The only thing I take exception to is the "return to form" bit. I don't think Romero ever lost his form. "Land of the Dead" is highly underrated in my opinion. I admired it. Again, it may not be perfect, but it was head-and-shoulders above the crowd -- though in a different way to "Diary".
I haven't seen this one yet -- hope it's better than Land of the Dead, a tragic sequel to Dawn of the Dead. Surprised they allowed him to do more. 8o)
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