Movie Review - Diary of the Dead

I was told this had hand-held camera work so I was afraid it was going to be Cloverfield all over again. It's actually nothing like that. Basically we start out with a bunch of film students making a horror movie so they already have camera's. The reason for having camera's is well explained there as is their desire to want to document their experiences. The hand-held camera work seems natural and isn't overly jerky like in Cloverfield. 2 of the group go off to 1 guys home, the rest take the Winnebago to try and find various friends and family. What we see is what they see along the way. The gradual breakdown of society and how different people react in very differing ways to that occurrence.

I won't spoil the plot any more, obviously people die and they encounter zombies along the way. It wouldn't be a Romero film if they didn't. There are some CG effects but they don't spoil the movie at all. I hardly noticed them to be honest. I did find the little interludes with the extremely preachy voice-overs were very annoying and slowed the movie down at all the wrong times for all the wrong reasons. Everyone knows the world is going to hell in a handcart. I don't need George Romero to tell me that, I have eyes! I don't like the ending either, its very weak and not the standard Romero fare. Normally you either know everyone's dead, it's implied their going to die or you know who has survived. Here its left very open. Someone mentioned there was going to be a sequel? I'm not sure how well that'd work.

Still this was a good movie, semi-decent script, actors weren't great but its worth a look if your a jaded Romero fan like I was.