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George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead

Romero's zombies refuse to die, but that's OK with us

By Geoff Berkshire

Metromix
February 13, 2008

Critic's Rating:

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This continuation/re-imagining of Romero's "Dead" franchise (which began with 1968's "Night of the Living Dead") follows a group of college film students who set out to make a horror movie only to discover the recently deceased are suddenly reawakening as flesh-craving zombies. The movie is a collection of their footage, "edited" after the fact by one of the students, Debra (Michelle Morgan).

Big question: Is there room for another scary movie from a first-person perspective after January's monster hit, "Cloverfield"?

Catch it: As Debra explains in her opening narration, "In addition to telling you the truth, I am trying to scare you." Romero succeeds at both. Who knew the guy could keep returning to the same concept and still find ways to make it fresh? His trademark wit and predilection for political and social commentary are on full display in a film credible enough to convince you it knows how a zombie-pocalypse would really go down.

Skip it: If you have a fear of clowns, you probably don't even want to know about the zombie who shows up at a kid's birthday party.

Bottom line: Think of "Diary" as "Cloverfield" with a political conscience—not to mention better humor and grosser special effects. Romero's latest compares so favorably to both that shallow monster movie and his own impressive past that it deserves a place in the horror movie canon. Right beside his legendary zombies-in-a-shopping-mall satire "Dawn of the Dead."

Bonus: Listen closely to the narration in the film's news broadcasts, Romero recruited friends Stephen King, Quentin Tarantino, Simon Pegg, Wes Craven and Guillermo Del Toro to lend their voices for those roles.

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