Diary of the Dead (2007)

Land of the Dead was the first new entry in George A. Romero's series of influential apocalyptic zombie films since 1985's Day of the Dead.  Instead of an isolated military base we got to see what society had become years after the dead had begun to rise, both for humans and the zombies, who had shown signs of growing intelligence in the previous movies.  By Land of the Dead some consciousness was returning to the creatures as they began rediscovering certain things rather than going through the motions of their past lives. Some, like Big Daddy, had even overcome most of the urge to snack on humans, as it was made clear in Day of the Dead that the hunger was instinctual rather than that for the nutritional needs.

The thing is that Land of the Dead re-used some ideas that Romero didn't have the budget for in Day of the Dead, and was a bit of a stop-gap movie as the series lumbered to its conclusion.  I was eager to see that now that it appeared that the dead and the living may have to come to terms with sharing the world.  Unfortunately, that was not to be.  Instead of continuing his story Romero decided to head back to the beginning, showing another bunch of survivors trying to figure out what was happening during the early days of the zombie apocalypse.  It would also be the next-to-last movie released in the series before Romero's death, meaning that, other than a book published posthumously, that ending we all hoped for was never going to arrive. 

Jason Creed (Joshua Close) is a young filmmaker making a horror film with his friends when strange reports on the internet and radio of the dead rising.  At first they are in disbelief, but Jason goes to find his girlfriend Debra (Michelle Morgan), who is wanting to get home to her parents and make sure all is well.  The group begins a journey in an RV owned by Mary (Tatiana Maslany), who early on suffers trauma from having to drive through what she thinks is living people.

Jason decides that it is his duty to document what is going on, so the events are seen both through his lens as well as other footage edited together by Debra.  It documents the first few days as the group makes their way across Pennsylvania searching for refuge.  Meanwhile, they find that the dead are not the only ones they have to be concerned about. 

Diary of the Dead received mostly positive reviews from critics when it came out.  I think most Romero fans were disappointed that the series suddenly went backward for a prequel, but many were fine when it turned out the movie itself wasn't that bad.  The four movies prior were all better, but this managed to be one of the better of the found footage genre.

I think that is the reason that fans have abandoned it over the years.  Found footage horror is definitely spotty in quality, but a number of movies, including this one, managed to do it right.  It does feel like Romero was reluctant to fully commit to the concept, having Debra give an explanation for having a musical score and making sure that the crew filming were amateur directors themselves, thus eliminating the shaky-cam issue.  If he had made this movie a normal horror film without the gimmick it may be a little more well-regarded.  It would be considered unnecessary, as we already got enough story in Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead that it didn't need to be told again, but there wouldn't be this knee-jerk rejection of the film.

The young crew does well throughout and Greg Nicotero does his usual solid job with the makeup effects.  There was still the unfortunate use of CGI blood in this that carried over from the last film, but a number of the gags work.  It is not the most action-packed film, and it doesn't have as much social subtext as the others, but it does serve the purpose of, at the time, updating the world the story takes place in so that it involves social media and its role in what would happen.  

As much as I like it Diary of the Dead could have spent more time on that or presented more of a story that set it apart from the others.  As it is this seemed another way for Romero to gather some money to potentially make the final movie he wanted.  Instead, it ended up being a direct sequel to this one in Survival of the Dead.

Diary of the Dead (2007)

Time: 95 minutes

Starring: Michelle Morgan, Joshua Close, Shawn Roberts, Schroeder Todd

Director: George A. Romero