In A Theater Near You - Diary of the Dead

Thanks George Romero, thanks a lot. I can honestly say I have never been as confused about my own feelings about a film I have watched as I am right now. It's the morning after, last night was a blur, and something awful, something brilliant or some sick combination of the two smacked me in the face and left me wanting for something more when I left the theater last night. What that something is, and whether it was better or more of the same, escapes me.

For the sake of anyone who's curious, I'll start off by saying that I don't believe Diary of the Dead is a film for the average movie-goer. It doesn't seem that this film was created for any purpose other than to serve the zombie movie connoisseur. By all accounts, the pitch for Diary seems like a gory recipe for mainstream success. Blair Witch, but with zombies (and something probably happens this time)! The film delivered anything but that however. It didn't have the cheap scares an average movie-goes would expect from their "horror movies" made by no names to try and turn a buck. It didn't deliver any of what a jaded gore-happy Eli Roth/torture porn fangirl/boy would desire. It did deliver plenty of Romero Brand Social Commentary® however, and how that was addressed throughout the film is what I believe would turn off the average movie-goer the most.

Romero's zombie films have always had a number important aspects featured; zombies, said Social Commentary®, some semblance of actual characters, gore, and humor, not necessarily in that order. What is problematic is the extremes to which Romero stuffs Social Commentary® into this film. It seemed a possibility that Romero has delved into the murky realm of self-parody. If that is what he was aiming for, bravo! The Social Commentary ® brought to you by "college age female" at the breaks between scenes and the constant references to the web/myspace/downloading/uploading makes slightly more sense if it was intended to be humorous. There was plenty of genuine humor to be found in the film as well, don't get me wrong, I certainly enjoyed aspects of this film thoroughly. Romero has consistently brought the funny since Night of the Living Dead and some funny even survived in the awful (read: boring) Land of the Dead.

I still can't decide whether personally this is a 6/10 or 9/10. Maybe I never will. But unless you are a fan of zombie flicks or really open minded about your "horror" movies Diary of the Dead is Not Recommended.