Just saw Diary of the Dead
 

Well I just saw Romeros Diary Of The Dead. I was a bit worried about this as it was a handy cam Blair Witch Project job but I was very surprised. It's very well done and is quite enjoyable.
A worthy addition to the Dead franchise. Now lets hope he just gets busy and makes some more....

Diary is a fuckin' solid flick. Romero's best film in a long time. My favorite horror film so far this year.

Watching it shortly...from most of what I hear, it's a lot better/preferred than LOTD was.
Looking forward to it.

I don't know about a LOT better, but I found the atmosphere much more the style I prefer...the camera viewpoints didn't bother me at all, and I actually thought how the footage was put together was pretty cool.
Gory, suspenseful, and yeah, overall a bit more enjoyable than Land, IMO.
Very different type of film.

I'll say, it's almost up there with 28DL/Shaun right now for "modern" z-films.

I think that this was the film/quality that Romero fans would've ideally wanted for "Land", definately had more of Romeros trademark eerie.


**Slight spoiler below***




















I liked that not too much of that "zombie memory" stuff comes up, just a couple of throw-ins there, which was good - I don't feel as though an established continuity should be ditched because of fan dissaproval (not that I did personally), I'm glad he stuck to his guns there.

I have to say I was impressed with this film. With the large array of crap horror films that have been coming out. It's nice to see Romero go back to the beginning. Back to "slow" moving zombies. All around, it was a great flick.

I hope this gets a theatrical release over here. I really wanna watch it again on the big screen. No doubt I'll get stiffed again like Planet Terror and Halloween.

good lick .. it had a limited run on ONE screen in toronto.

any idea of what the population of toronto is :

5,555,912 (2006)

population of new zealand :

4,173,460 July 2008 (estimated growth)

it might happen - but it doesnt look good if based on something like this.

I likely hood of that is slim though...when here in the States it was only shown on something like 50 screens nation wide. Sad, I know...but horror films are kind of overlooked.

Thats a real shame cuz its a film I'd fork over the money for over priced tickets and popcorn for. Seems to be the case over here a lot of horror/genre pictures do poor business at the theatres but go on to do really well on dvd rentals. So now they just skip the theatre part :(
I was hoping it was gonna make it to the World Cinema Showcase festival but no dice. They screened El Topo and The Holy Mountain tho which is pretty cool.

thank frak! everywhere i kept reading really negative feedback and i totally LOVED it... everything was so funny and really not so funny at the same time.

I tried to watch the movie some nights ago and had to turn it off, because it TOTALLY SUCKED!!!!!! I love Romero's work and this was by far my biggest disappointment this year. I don't understand how anyone could enjoy that piece of crap.





***spoilers***


That first part when the girl explains to us that she's added sound effects to the "documentary" to scare us is a damn bad excuse for what we're about to see. It's like "oh this is real footage, the sound effects are just to make it a bit better". PUHLEASE! Maybe I'm being silly, but that explanation got on my nerves.

Besides, the acting is terrible, for instance, that blonde girl was so in love with her Thorson in the beginning and when he dies she's like "ok, let's move on." And all the other actor's performances are also... arghhh! Annoying!



****end spoilers***



The deaths were funny, but far from believable. That's probably what ruined it for me: a movie that's supposed to depict real facts but is miles away from a believable experience. Oh well, I just hated the 40 minutes I saw of it and couldn't bring myself to watch the rest yet. You think I should?

All I gotta say is that is I hope its better than LOTD. I liked Night, Dawn and Day but Land was pretty crappy.

I've liked every movie in Romero's Dead series and even Land, which is the worst IMO, is far and beyond better than the majority of zombie films. I used to like them in the order of their release but Diary has screwed that up.


Night, Dawn, Day, Diary, Land


I had to drive 45 minutes or so to see it, only one theater in MI was showing it.

Really...a BIG DISAPPOINTMENT!
 

No you shouldn't... you did the right thing! I have watched the whole movie only because it was a Romero film and at the end I was shocked, surprised and pissed off!! It was hard to believe for any Romero fan that how he could able to made this crap!

I really enjoyed Diary.

I know the characters were boring and unlikeable but I really enjoyed it.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Watched my copy last night. It was'nt bad, some scenes/situations worked really well & some were just stupid: hiding out in a house in the middle of a Zombi holocaust & leaving all the doors wide open! I think the problem is since 1985 i've been waiting for Romero to make his "once upon a time" of Zombi films, sadly it looks like it will never happen.

TERRIBLE. Same with remake with Mena Suvari and Nick Cannon, crap. The beginning of Diary had so much potential with the ambulance scene, but after that it was horrible acting and boring deaths.

Not seen Diary yet but Romero is a complete hack. He showed a lot of promise in his earlier work than forgot to make a decent film for over 20 years..

Maybe Diary breaks this cycle - if so i look forward to seeing it,

Did she say sound effects? I thought she just said music...


I'll have to watch it again, can't wait!


The "boring, unlikable" characters were closer to real people (including their flaws...) than most of the zombie films I've seen. Besides, I friggin' loved the teacher. Oh, and the fact that he decided not to go the Land route and use big names was really a good idea too.

Mixed
 

I liked some of it, but I got bored. I went to the refrigerator various times without pausing the film. I just didn't care. It was a real disappointment,but I'm glad I saw it.

I just finished watching it, I loved it!!! I like how he went back, I actually like the idea of making it a documentry type film, I liked everything about it lol! A must see of course!

Couldn't agree with you more dude.

I liked it as well, not quite as good as Night, Dawn or Day but much better then Land and thats good enough for me. To me it seemed Romero was trying to push his social commentary a bit much in this one but I was able to get passed that.

I just finally got around to seeing this. I really enjoyed it. More believable characters and situations than any other horror movie out there. The characters here actually weren't stupid which is a definate plus. The atmosphere and camera style were great.

Lot's of mixed reactions on here though, eh?

I personally didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.Had some very good parts but for the most I found it to be boring and dull.And I'm already getting burnt of the being film by a hand held camera crap.

I enjoyed it quite a bit, but [rec] really stole it's thunder .. a very tough act to follow.

Diary stands up to repeat viewing unlike [rec]. I saw Diary first so it's kinda the other way round for me.

I really liked it.

Samuel, the Amish guy, was hilarious. The Kills were great (especially the acid baptism) and it made me jump a few times. I saw it at the Egyptian Theater with George Romero, John Landis, Greg Nicotero, Robert Rodriguez and Adrienne Barbeau in attendance:D

good times!

I found the scene with the zombies in the pool to be quite memorable and some of the snapshots of the chaos breaking out all over were neatly done, I think that's a bit of a hallmark of Romero's movies,the attention to detail.

I had really mixed feelings about this movie. I've never really liked indie movies, so things like the Blair Witch Project never got me interested. I was kind of disappointed to hear this was going to be another "documentary-esque" film. After watching it I was really happy how it turned out, but I hated the ending. Romero did something no one has ever been able to do in my opinion by using the behind the camera view and actually making it good. But I don't think it was up to par with any of his other work. Even LOTD.

I thought it was good.The Characters were rally like normal people put in that situation,Not hollywoodfied



::::::::::::::::::::::::::::HERE BE SPOILERS::::::::::::::::::::::



The Amish guy was my favorite character,pity he died so fast.The main camera guy was annoying though.No matter what he would just shoot,his friends were in danger of getting eating and he just keeps rolling.Another thing i didn't like was the National Guard were annoying,:Give me all your shit bra!




:::::::::::::::::::::::::::END SPOILERS::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::




Overall I enjoyed it,alot more then Land.

Im looking foward to this and may even be wacky and buy it full price instead of waiting for it to go down!

i was gonna buy the zombie diaries but something put me off. I know its had some shiteous reviews but i kinda liked the idea that it looks at it from a spectators view

Saw Diary last night and i have to be honest and say it was so-so.

Sorry George but its time to let the dead sleep.

Land was ok but not a patch on the original trio of zombie flics but Diary has put the nail in the coffin i feel.Its wasnt bad dont get me wrong but the gimmick of camcorder is no longer new,Blair Witch anyone?

George,either go back to your roots and do another Dawn or leave well alone.

I know he wants to create a new and fresh approach to his famous walking dead but the fire has gone out i`m afraid.

Diary, although not a bad movie ranks bottom in his five zombie flics,not a great leap forward for me.:mad:

I didn't expect much from it and I was pleasantly suprised. It was amazing but its been the best thing ROmero made in along time. Hell he hasn't made a good film in over 20 years.

I pretty much agree with your whole paragraph.

Just saw this for the first time and I was really disappointed. Thing is, I'm not even sure it's that bad of a movie. Just not what I was expecting at all. Not to mention that the Blair Witch/Coverfield angle is getting a bit tiresome.

Didn't like "Land...", either. Romero needs to quit while he's still ahead.

I enjoyed this film a lot more then I expected.
Some decent thrills and a good addition to the "Living Dead" franchise

Romero makes the BEST zombie flicks. Even his poorly executed attempts rival most of the dreck we usually get.

i agree ..

with 2 exceptions ([REC] and Fido)

I'm not so sure about that... I thought that Diary, Day, and Land were incredibly weak. And I agree that there are a lot of bad zombie films out there, but there's also a lot of really really good ones. And I honestly feel as though Romero only directed one good whole zombie movie - Night. Dawn was good, but needed some SERIOUS editing.

Non-Romero Zombie films that have impressed me and are better than Diary, Day, and Land put together:
Zombie II
Return of the Living Dead
Fido

Films that follow the infection formula:
28 Days Later
28 Weeks Later
Mulberry Street


The films are out there; they're just few and far between. And I honestly think that Romero just does not edit well. Diary was flat out embarrassing. It pandered to a film-going audience of idiots with its heavy-handed poorly-written dialogue while creating an obvious allegory for media corruption. Its message completely lacked subtlety. The zombies looked great, but the message failed. He should have just focused on a horror film and not so much on preaching. blah.

I was VERY disappointed in Diary of the Dead. If there were betting editing and writing, it would have been significantly better. But, alas.

Zombi II was fun but nowhere near as good as Day and the only recent one you mentioned was Fido. Return of the Living Dead is a classic and I'd have to agree with Urge on [REC] too but the glut of cheap zombie movies that have been made recently is ridiculous. I loved Diary, I put it up there with [REC] and right now those two make one of the most brilliant zombie double features ever. Fido was just a breath of fresh air, something new and different that really told a different story without destroying genre conventions. I'll even say that Evil was a good zombie flick, probably on the same level with Land, but other than those few Romero's work still stand out as the best. Romero has never been subtle about his social commentary and I think he writes a lot of unlikable but realistic characters. I also liked a lot of his non-zombie work like Creepshow, The Crazies, Martin, The Dark Half, etc...