George A. Romero's DIARY OF THE DEAD

I haven't written a proper review for George A. Romero's Diary Of The Dead because, well mainly because I don't want to spoil it for you. How do you spoil a zombie movie, you say (haha, nice question)? Well lemme tell ya, George puts a spin on his zombie mythos here that should plaster a rictus on the face of every fan alive.

All you need to know is, he really does reboot his series (I hate calling it a 'franchise' even though it is) for the 21st century, and w/all the piss and vinegar of his youth. He may be pushing his late sixties, but behind the camera he is ageless.

Diary Of The Dead showcases the evisceration of his original four-film series with a completely new start. Only this time, the zombie uprising begins all over again for a new "night" of terror in 2008; and brothers & sisters, it ain't the sixties anymore.

Romero cleverly implements every video cam motif since Blair Witch and succeeds in trumping even Cloverfield. Yes, I am stating that Diary Of The Dead bumps Cloverfield down from its current (briefly held) 1 spot of "Best Videocam Horror Movie Ever", which is un-ironic in the extreme, when you consider that it was George Romero himself who could most arguably be given the title for "Original Blair Witch" moviemaker, with his seminal Night Of The Living Dead hitting theaters and mass consciousness everywhere in 1968. With its "home movie" grainy black and white footage, the original Night Of The Living Dead can be seen now, with the clarity of hindsight, as being truly the forerunner for such fare as The Blair Witch Project.

In other words, George A. Romero's Diary Of The Dead IS that style of moviemaking's true Godfather come home to roost at last. And boy does he deliver. The levels of "film within a film" and multi-faceted reflections his multiple camera lenses reveal about us get to explore deeper than ever before that strange relation between zombies and ourselves his previous films hinted at so well.

In fact, Diary Of The Dead is an immense improvement over Land Of The Dead (which I enjoyed very much). It is DIARY's relentlessly independent spirit which annihilates LAND's bigger studio limitations.

It is not without its flaws; Romero's script seems to rub in a tad overtly some of what should have remained subtext. Perhaps in his zeal to focus on our human condition he forewent some of the subtlety captured in the original trilogy. But these are bold times and I'm afraid he felt it necessary to club a certain percentage of his audiences (*koff*/zombies) with the subtext in the form of his lead lady's commentary. Yet I felt these new unknown actors did a fine job indeed of capturing the hysteria and amateurism inherent to their characters (themselves an independent film crew attempting to film a cheap horror movie about a mummy).

And all you gore hounds out there, fear not. Like I mentioned, George is ageless behind the camera, so he will not disappoint you in that respect. There are plenty of wicked cool, creative zombie deaths here, and even a few quirky surprises to keep audiences laughing out loud as they gasp in shock.

I don't know what else to say without getting too much into the film itself. Other than to state, thank God for keeping Romero alive & well for us all to enjoy this immensely entertaining and pleasurable reboot of his beloved franchise (sigh). I'm certain any real self-respecting Romero fan will love this movie; I know our entire audience at Sundance in Salt Lake City sure did.

Despite having seen it @Sundance already, you can bet your ass I'll be there once again come opening night, when it hits major theaters everywhere in the next month or so.