Dense Diary
Diary of the Dead a dull zombie apocalypse
By Beth Capper
Published: February 27th, 2008 | 4:35pm
"Unless it's happening on camera, it's not really happening right?" This is just one of the many overstated postmodern clichés from George Romero's fifth zombie movie, Diary of the Dead. And if you think that sounds annoying, brace yourself for the rest: The movie is shot and edited with a hand-held camera by a group of student filmmakers caught up in a zombie apocalypse, while in the middle of shooting a low-budget horror film. And much like a student feature, Romero's film is replete with tacky editing effects, rigid, hammy acting, and narration that makes one wonder whether he didn't let a group of interns handle his most recent release.
Supposedly a return to the schlocky social commentary (and low-budget) that defined Romero's first three zombie features, Diary focuses on our propensity to stand by and watch the horrors all around us, instead of offering a helping hand. Splicing in footage of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War, and with frequent references to YouTube, MySpace, and other Web publishing tools, Romero wants to address our position as spectators. But while social commentary remained in the background of his other films, Romero's point in Diary is so heavy-handed that it's hard to pinpoint where the zombies fit in.
It’s not just that Diary lacks subtlety, but that the point Romero wants to make is simplistic. Yes, people do film terrible things, but when their friends are being eaten alive right in front of them, it’s more likely they'll put down the camera than keep rolling — even in our hyper, media–savvy world.
Diary relies on a gimmick and not a new one. Romero's film follows in step with the most recent spate of home-movie “mockumentaries”, with Brian de Palma's controversial Redacted and dumb blockbuster Cloverfield as two prominent examples. Along with this gimmick comes the premise that in order to really live up to its meta-textual existence as a slice of "real" documentary filmmaking, Diary has to look like crap. Unfortunately, it ends up becoming the very thing it mocks.
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