DVD
REVIEW:
DIARY
OF THE DEAD
05/19/08
SYNOPSIS: A group of
film students are making an independent horror film when
they become trapped in a world being consumed by
flesh-eating zombies. In an obsessive, unflinching eye, one
filmmaker documents each death on camera. As the lucky
survivors take final refuge, the film continues to roll,
recording every detail for future generations… if any
survive.
REVIEW: George A Romero has done it once again. The
master of the dead has brought us a new and fresh version of
the story that made him one of the most famous horror
director of all time. In Diary of the Dead, George comes
back to his roots showing us the beginning of this horrific
tale. Continuing with his “dead” series, George prove once
again that he is still one of the best story-teller of this
time. Diary of the Dead takes a new turn in the well known
zombie story. The movie turns out to be highly entertaining,
tensioning, and full of realism that will make the audience
or fans of the genre focus from the beginning to the end.
This movie will surely get the audience involved by the way
it was filmed. The director did an excellent job in showing
us a great first person effect. It does not get you dizzy or
nauseated like the Blair Witch Project or Cloverfield. It is
true that it wasn’t filmed the same as this movies but the
effect is believable enough to make you think it is. But one
negative aspect about this effect is that in some scenes the
undead skip or ignore the camera holder , instead of
attacking him or her. Also a big plus to this movie is that
the director show us that more zombies does not necessarily
mean it’s going to be more scary. In this movie there are
fewer zombies than in any other zombie movie but the way
they were used managed to keep the audience alert at all
time. The cast, although unknown, did a good performance.
Each character look real and appealing to the viewer, they
portrayed their strengths and defects as good as it could
be, although their were some characters that were pure
clichés. The zombies’ look also improved more than previous
George Romero’s films, but its characteristics are still in
1968, it is surprising that after movies like 28 Days Later
and Resident Evil where this creatures are faster, stronger,
and somehow smarter, Romero still keep in showing them as
slow creatures, and used them to satirized the evils of
living men in some scenes. Special effects and sound wise
the movie is good enough to keep the viewer interested.
In conclusion, Diary of the Dead is a good choice for those
fans of Romero’s Dead series. It is a modern version of his
first chapter of the story. The way it is told and shown is
excellent, paying attention to detail. the dialogue is kept
simple which helps the mood of the movie, unfortunately for
gore fans this movie is in deficit, it did not have too much
quantity but the few kills that it has are pure quality.
Like in most of his movies, Diary of the Dead portrays the
American way of life, mentioning and sometimes mocking
current social issues. I recommend this movie to all Romero
fans, and zombie movie fans, it has some scenes that just
will stay with you for a long time. In one word, Diary of
the Dead is Awesome.
VIDEO:
Anamorphic Widescreen
AUDIO:
English,
Spanish
5.1 (Dolby Digital).
Subtitles - English Spanish - Optional
SPECIAL FEATURES: The
DVD has a descent amount of special features for fans of the
series. It is full with Extra footage that did not make it
to the film, most of it was well deleted from it. Also it
has the typical make of feature and some interviews to
director George Romero.
View Film with
Audio Commentary: George Romero, Michael Doherty, and Adam
Swica comment about the scenes.
The First Week:
as its title it is basically the first week of producing the
movie (4:20)
The Roots:
George Romero explain the idea of the movie and the
similarity with Diary of the Dead (2:06)
For The Record “
Making of diary of the Dead“ : it is basically the
making of feature it goes from preproduction, the cast, make
up, special effects, to photography and design.
(approximately : 80 Min)
Character
Confessionals: It is like deleted scenes where the
characters talked to the camera about the emotions they are
going through. They were well deleted because instead of a
first person movie it would have looked like a reality show.
This would have extended the movie more but also would have
taken away momentum. (20:28)
Myspace Contest
Winner: five Zombie films from filmmaker fans
(approximately 14 min)
RATING BREAK DOWN:
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VIDEO |
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AUDIO |
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Review
By Milo
milo@smartcine.com
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