Macabre...ish Horror Review: Diary of the Dead

 

Diary of the Dead, 2007/ 92 min.

 

 

 

 

Written and directed by George A. Romero, this zombie story is from the point of view of film students, navigating the zombie outbreak starting on campus. Most of the students scatter but some film students and their professor, take the camper to find their parents. On their way, the driver hits a zombie and attempts suicide, causing the others to take her to the hospital for help, where they encounter a mostly empty hospital and more zombies.

 

 

 

 

At the hospital, they take some losses as corpses animate as well as fighting between Debra (narrator) and Jason (project manager/cameraman) because of his insistence on documenting everything, instead of helping/fight of zombies. They take refuge in amish country with a deaf man named Samuel, who kills zombies with dynamite and communicates via chalk board.

 

 

 

 

When he is finally attacked by a zombie, he kills himself and the zombie by piercing his own skull with a scythe.

 

 

 

 

 

They eventually arrive at Debra’s family’s house and discover her Mom and brother eating her Dad, after discovering their bloody vehicle in the garage.

 

 

              Not these guardsmen!

 

The rest of the group repair their camper at the last second and hit the road again, just to be stopped by another group of former National Guardsmen who rob them of their provisions, leaving them with their weapons and vehicle.

 

Finally arriving at Ridley’s mansion, Ridley’s acting weird and as they settle in, they realize that their other friends that arrived with him are dead as are all the house help, who are corralled in the pool. Ridley eventually turns into a zombie and the house becomes overrun, while the last few survivors continue their story in the panic room.

 

 

 

 

This story is short and too the point but interestingly cross sects with Survival of the Dead, which is pretty cool. I did enjoy the narration and the focus on documenting the zombie apocalypse. It also felt pretty ‘realistic’ in the way the story unfolded. I enjoyed it and I put this in the ‘palate cleanser’ category because it’s very tame, low energy and more about the story. It is graphic and gory but there are far worse zombie movies out there.

 

 

 

Thanks so much for visiting! For more connect with us on Quora, Pinterestand Instagramfor clips. And check out the new gear ! Just so you know, some links found in my posts are affiliate links.

 

P.S. I appreciate the support Horror Fans! You people are the best kind of people!