"Diary of the Dead"

“Diary of the Dead” is the most recent release in the zombie movie genre, February 15^th 2008 and it really offers a new angle in the genre in my opinion. I personally enjoyed it very much, even though it didn’t give me the major creeps. Graeme shared his thoughts on the movie too HERE.

The plot is simple: a group of students film their way to safety in an America, which is flooded by zombies. The movie starts with a short snippet of a camera man, who filmed two victims from a gunfight reviving and attacking everyone in sight. Then it moves on to a scene in a forest, where these students are shooting a horror movie with mummies, when the radio starts broadcasting reports of zombie attacks.

From then on the students appear on different scenery like their campus, a hospital, an Amish farm, homes and warehouses and on every place they fight off zombies. The accent on the movie falls actually on the media and how the 21^st century seems to have everyone connected. The characters learn how to beat zombies and that all over the world the same is happening through YouTube and blogs. The whole movie is turned into a video diary with editing from surveillance cameras, security cameras, cell phones and news reports of mass hysteria, born through misinformation and lack of knowing what is happening.

One of the main characters, Debra, who turns out to be the girlfriend of Jason, who stays mostly behind the camera, adds these internals that really make you think. She trails on about the human nature to stop and observe, when tragedy strikes at accidents, but never help. The most powerful is the ending, where two men are shown to shoot at zombies tied to trees. Debra basically explains how barely human people have become and questions whether we are worth saving.

The ending was a bit abrupt for me as the remaining students lock themselves into a vault hidden in a fault and the movies shifts to the said above ending scene. Nobody knows what happens to them really and that is what bugs me actually. It gave the vibe that is not ended properly. Apart from that and some forced dialogue at certain scenes, everything seems just fine.

I think I will give it a 7/10