Featured Audience Ratings

• Anthony L

  
  At first this seems like a good idea, looking at the role of the media in global events - in this case, a zombie invasion. It raises questions of voyeurism, ethics and the cowardice of the camera man, how putting yourself behind the camera somehow puts you in a position of no… More
  At first this seems like a good idea, looking at the role of the media in global events - in this case, a zombie invasion. It raises questions of voyeurism, ethics and the cowardice of the camera man, how putting yourself behind the camera somehow puts you in a position of no responsibility. It also raises the points on the good uses of social networks. Unfortunately, because it's trying to be so clever all the time it forgets to be good, scary and believable. Non of the actors can act and none of the zombies are scary. It tried to put a modern twist to the horror genres and even picks fault with certain over used formulas but still reverts to copying from them. I huge disappointment and by far the worst of Romero's Zombie saga.

• Samuel R

  
  Romero's 'Diary of The Dead' has become his first independent film for years. Personally, it deserves a bit more recognition that what its currently given. Romero still gives some political representation, but not as gripping or obvious. This time the message is;… More
  Romero's 'Diary of The Dead' has become his first independent film for years. Personally, it deserves a bit more recognition that what its currently given. Romero still gives some political representation, but not as gripping or obvious. This time the message is; don't believe everything on TV, the truth is more horrific, but everyone deserves it. It sadly doesn't reach the gore levels like Romero's previous films. However, this is still worth a try for any zombie, horror or hardcore Romero fans.

• xGary X

  
  A group of film students attempt to document the descent of society into chaos as the dead begin to rise again and feast on the living. I had a creeping dread of this film because I had the horrible feeling it would just be The Blair Zombie Project, particularly after witnessing the… More
  A group of film students attempt to document the descent of society into chaos as the dead begin to rise again and feast on the living. I had a creeping dread of this film because I had the horrible feeling it would just be The Blair Zombie Project, particularly after witnessing the shapeless waste of an hour and a half that was Cloverfield, but the latest in George Romero's "dead" series actually works reasonably well. The use of multiple cameras intercut with faux internet footage and closed circuit TV gives rather more scope for dramatic momentum than the usual sole first person perspective and the mockumentary approach gives the film the kind of structure woefully lacking in Cloverfield. Unfortunately it still suffers from the unavoidable weakness of this sub-genre. The acting is ropey and dialogue weak for the sake of "realism", despite the fact that somebody constantly filming while all these horrific events are happening to them is of course inherently unrealistic. But as a whole it's rather more intelligent than other offerings of this type, providing a little social commentary and sly digs at the media and the public's obsession with same. It's more a collection of decent moments than a credible and coherent story, but still probably the best example of this kind of thing I've seen and an adequate addition to the franchise.

• Zach B

  
  As of now, one of the main types of horror films that are taking reign as being the main ones made are the 'Found Footage' genre. In case you do not know, found footage is a genre that is a horror film that is filmed like a documentary on a certain event; characterized by… More
  As of now, one of the main types of horror films that are taking reign as being the main ones made are the 'Found Footage' genre. In case you do not know, found footage is a genre that is a horror film that is filmed like a documentary on a certain event; characterized by shaky cameras. Examples include Cannibal Holocaust, The Blair Witch Project, and Rec/ Quarantine. Diary Of The Dead is George A. Romero's take on this genre with his famous zombies and what is created is a film that is not terribly smart, but entertaining to say the least with a great political backdrop like most of his films have. Now, the direction of this film, as I have said, is different than the other films in the '... Of The Dead" franchise. With the use of shaky cameras, it gives more chances for scares that, in some ways, actually work and become effective. With the production quality, the only thing that really has improved are the gore effects which there are plenty of (as you can tell, it is not best to watch this if you hate gore). Some times it looks cartoonish and at times it looks good. So, that is a mix bag. Now we have the characters that try to survive this entire ordeal. For the most part, the actors were one dimensional with constant arguments over filming this epidemic and, to be honest, that did take away from the film a bit. The score for this film, unlike most recent horror films, actually works with creating the suspense with the film. There were a couple times here and there that I think it should have been different, but it is not that much to complain about. Now, finally, how good the allegory for this story was. Like with all of Romero's zombie films, there is an underlining message. Here it has to deal with people's usage of the internet and how dependent we are. The use of this allegory, and how it works with the zombies, I feel got the point across, but I doubt most others will get it. So, overall, my main opinion is this: to the general audience, this will be a rather unintelligent but fun zombie film to watch, but try looking for the underlining themes and understand what is really being said. A little fun fact: look for the cameos of Stephen King, Quentin Tarantino, Guillermo del Toro, Wes Craven, and George A. Romero!

• Coxxie M

  
  At the end of the movie, the surviving girl asks, "are we worth saving?" and the movie answers its own question by including the scene in which "the world's luckiest aspiring horror filmmaker" gets to tape his girlfriend while they are debating the meaning of… More
  At the end of the movie, the surviving girl asks, "are we worth saving?" and the movie answers its own question by including the scene in which "the world's luckiest aspiring horror filmmaker" gets to tape his girlfriend while they are debating the meaning of death and the two other guys are taping him taping his girlfriend. you know like, just incase someone spills fresca on his tape, then its ok cause they gots extras, bro. so my answer is, "eat us, spare us, save us, but please use a video camera with decent HD quality to tape it with."

• Carlos M

  
  Romero seems virtually incapable of following the language of modern horror films using the fake documentary style. The subjective camera is too steady and aseptic for an amateurish recording, the dialogue is unbelievable and everything else is just a pathetic embarrassment.

• Conner R

  
  I don't know what George A. Romero was thinking here. It was like a bad version of Cloverfield. It didn't look amateuristic at all, just corny. There were about two interesting characters and way too much cgi effects for zombies that could easily have been done with just… More
  I don't know what George A. Romero was thinking here. It was like a bad version of Cloverfield. It didn't look amateuristic at all, just corny. There were about two interesting characters and way too much cgi effects for zombies that could easily have been done with just make-up. I'm happy that it's not really in continuity with the other Of The Dead series because it sticks out like a sore thumb.

• Jeff "

  
  Diary Of The Dead is George A. Romero's latest Zombie nightmare. Much like Land Of The Dead, Romero tried something different. This time, he tried to do a documentary style zombie film. The camera work is similar to Cloverfield and The Blair Witch Project. I don't understand… More
  Diary Of The Dead is George A. Romero's latest Zombie nightmare. Much like Land Of The Dead, Romero tried something different. This time, he tried to do a documentary style zombie film. The camera work is similar to Cloverfield and The Blair Witch Project. I don't understand why this film got so many bad reviews. In a time where the Horror genre lacks originality, at least a few directors manage to turn out some good, original films. George Romero is one of them. Diary Of The Dead is a very good zombie film, filmed docu style and puts you at the centre of the action. Diary Of The Dead has plenty of thrilling moments and it has everything you'd expect from a Romero film, hell any good horror film for that matter. Enjoy!

• MisterYoda ?

  
  What is it with the classic directors; Spielberg, Carpenter, and now Romero, that they seem to produce such abysmal drivel as they get older? Dennis Leary once joked that Elvis should have been killed young so that people only remembered him at his best. If that was true, then Romero… More
  What is it with the classic directors; Spielberg, Carpenter, and now Romero, that they seem to produce such abysmal drivel as they get older? Dennis Leary once joked that Elvis should have been killed young so that people only remembered him at his best. If that was true, then Romero should have joined him before this dross was made. Like reality TV, these stupid home movie within a movie offerings are popular at the moment, probably because they're cheap to make. Blair Witch has a lot to answer for. If Cloverfield left you cold, this movie will give you rigor mortis, with its aimless plot, its set-piece action, and its massively, completely unimaginative, by the numbers encounters. To say that the basic premise of this film is ridiculous, is a huge understatement - and I'm not talking about the zombies either! Even if you accept that the film is set in a world where zombies can exist, I simply refuse to accept that anyone would tolerate the lead character constantly filming instead of helping his friends to survive. In the real world, I think it would be a dead cert that one of his friends would either have fed him to a zombie, or at very least, smashed the hell out of his camera to re-engage him with the real world.

• A.D. V

  
  I don't know if it's the whole documentary feel or the SOV gimmick or the fact it's not anywhere as gory as his previous efforts but it just doesn't feel like a Romero film. Or maybe its just the fact it sucked unlike any other previous Romero film.

• Dead A

  
  "I told you dead people walk slowly"... This camera movie idea is getting old. And the zombie thingy is like oldest. This was no near a good movie. But at some point it was okay.

• Cassandra M

  
  I have always admired the films of Romero and there can be no doubt that he is the godfather of zombie films. Alas, i think he should have finished his zombie career with day of the dead. Land of the dead certainly wasn't a bad film and this is far from the worst i've ever… More
  I have always admired the films of Romero and there can be no doubt that he is the godfather of zombie films. Alas, i think he should have finished his zombie career with day of the dead. Land of the dead certainly wasn't a bad film and this is far from the worst i've ever seen but the step down is none the less noticeable. The modern cinematic world owes a lot to Romero but it's clear that the modern cinematic world has moved on from him. Lets start with the main problems(and ignore the million little ones):- 1. An idiot who keeps filming even when he or his friends are in danger (at no point does the brilliant idea of putting the camera down occur to him) 2. A narrator that appears to have edited the film so that it looks polished and yet who chooses to leave in the moments when the camera goes off or turns black 3. A narrator (and editor) who thinks incidental music should be added for tension (imagine those who filmed 9/11 doing the same and you will arrive at the same tasteless nature of this) 4. A narrator (and editor) who wishes for us to witness her rotting corpse family attack her (journalists may pretend to put journalistic integrity before emotional involvement but this is perverse) 5. An allegory for the war in Iraq (we aren't being given the full information etc) that needs to be endlessly repeated. 6. The notion that they needed to film everything to show the world the truth (like walking zombies wouldn't do it for most people) 7. Romero getting the opportunity to remind everyone that he thinks zombies should be slow (and reminding us again and again) This isn't an absolutely awful film by any stretch but in relation to the history and reputation of Romero, it is alas.....somewhat of an embarrassment

• Phil H

  
  Yet another boring, unscary and totally unneeded zombie flick hurrah!! Yes I admit it is a clever twist to have it done like its really happening ala via a handheld cam and like all zombie flicks by Romero it is eerie and well made, BUT its just ANOTHER zombie flick, it seems to be… More
  Yet another boring, unscary and totally unneeded zombie flick hurrah!! Yes I admit it is a clever twist to have it done like its really happening ala via a handheld cam and like all zombie flicks by Romero it is eerie and well made, BUT its just ANOTHER zombie flick, it seems to be all Romero can do, enough all ready, we get it, you like zombie films jesus. He made some crappy zombie flicks along time ago and seems to think thats a license to make even more of the same, nooooooooooo STOP. To be honest as I said it is well made and some of the zombie deaths are cool as usual. The whole thing does take time to get going and the end sequences inside a mansion with cams looks very much like the Resident Evil computer game, not bad but not original either. The cast are the usual screaming teens who get popped one at a time till only 2/3 remain (one character looking very much like a young version of the Half Life computer game main character) and yes Im afraid its an open ending for yet more of the same, NOOOOOOOO. Lets leave this bloody zombie rubbish alone now please, yes the zombies win, yes the world must obviously surcome to the zombies, thats where it all seems to be leading in Romero's films and yes we all know how zombie flicks go now. Hopefully the last.

• E.J. B

  
  Of all the first-person handheld camera movies (Blair Witch, Cloverfield, and Redacted), Romero's Diary of the Dead is easily the best of the lot. He has made a solid horror film that raises concerns about the now. Like his previous films in the "Dead" series, which… More
  Of all the first-person handheld camera movies (Blair Witch, Cloverfield, and Redacted), Romero's Diary of the Dead is easily the best of the lot. He has made a solid horror film that raises concerns about the now. Like his previous films in the "Dead" series, which attacked or expressed concerns about the state of the times that each entry was released, Diary concerns itself with the human need to document stories. Think journalists in Iraq, and I'm pretty sure you're along the same lines that Romero is thinking. Romero shows it as both a selfish and a selfless act, showing how it can aid others experience what others have experienced, but also how the documentarian hopes that his/her actions will bring fame and recognition. Using a great post-modern film-within-a-film technique, and embracing the currents You Tube and my space trends, Romero occasionally stumbles in his execution of ideas, but nonetheless succeeds in pulling off what a horror film, namely what a zombie movie should be doing, and that is making a perceptive social comment while scaring the shit out of you at the same time.

• Stephen M

  
  It always amuses me when the potential victims in horror movies seem to inhabit a world of their own, blissfully unaware of even the concept of the particular nasty that is out to get them, until they're running away from it, screaming. "Vampire? What the hell's a… More
  It always amuses me when the potential victims in horror movies seem to inhabit a world of their own, blissfully unaware of even the concept of the particular nasty that is out to get them, until they're running away from it, screaming. "Vampire? What the hell's a vampire? They drink blood!!! You're pulling my leg, right?" After intermittently shouting, "Shoot it in the head, you idiot!" at my TV screen for the first half hour, I can only assume that the characters in <I>Diary of the Dead</I> have collectively never seen a zombie flick, which is doubly amusing since they're supposed to be film students making a horror film. Unlike a lot of other documentary-style horror movies, at least Romero's is intelligent enough to address the problem of camera battery life, but his handheld technical glitches look too much like what they are in actuality: cheap, half-assed post-production effects. If his intention was to draw the viewer into the story via the character of Jason - the film-within-a-film's director and chief cameraman, mostly represented by a subjective camera - Romero shoots himself in the foot by making him unsympathetic and unlikeable. Something's got to be wrong when the guy shooting the film-within-a-film you're supposed to be enjoying is the first person you want to see become zombie fodder! As the film progresses, Romero allows multiple camera perspectives and attempts at comedy and suspense to creep in, by which time his mockumentary, which ought to be coldly dispassionate, begins to resemble a conventional low budget horror, masquerading as something more important. He even makes excuses for some of his artistic decisions, for example the use of a traditionally manipulative score, via the character Debra's voiceover at the very start of the film. For the first time, Romero presents the dead coming back to life as a global phenomenon; it's a pity that this expansion of his vision didn't coincide with a more generous budget and a resurgence of his talent. Not recommended. Life's too short; wait till you're undead ;)

• Ken S

  
  sigh...

• Randy T

  
  Technology and expensive special effects does not a great horror film make. Romero needs to sit down with a copy of his original classic <i>Night of the Living Dead</i> and remind himself how to scare the daylights out of an audience.

• Dean M

  
  Masterpiece since master of the dead director George A. Romero returns to ground zero in the realm of undead after over two decades. This is geting better than <i>Land of the Dead</i> with the unknown actors and actresses in this Romero's latest zombie movie.

• Chris W

  
  Extremely unsubtle in terms of the satire and social message, but that's ok. This movie has lots of dark self-referential humor and in-jokes, and even though the whole hand-held camera thing is getting overdone, I like the fact that this film is a cross between Blair… More
  Extremely unsubtle in terms of the satire and social message, but that's ok. This movie has lots of dark self-referential humor and in-jokes, and even though the whole hand-held camera thing is getting overdone, I like the fact that this film is a cross between Blair Witch/Cloverfield and a zombie film. As I said, the film lacks subtlety, but it makes up for it with style, atmosphere, and some fun little cameos from the likes of Wes Craven, Quentin Tarantino, Guillermo del Toro, and others. This is far from being the best Romero zombie film, but it is still worth watching.

• Derek A

  
  I love George A. Romero and zombie movies, but WOW, this was a disappointment!<p><i>Diary of the Dead</i> carries the same similar plot: the dead have risen and continue to eat the living, otherwise they die of thirst. Yeah, we all knew that.... the twist here is… More
  I love George A. Romero and zombie movies, but WOW, this was a disappointment!<p><i>Diary of the Dead</i> carries the same similar plot: the dead have risen and continue to eat the living, otherwise they die of thirst. Yeah, we all knew that.... the twist here is that the entire movie is made on a small video cam recorder. <p><i>Diary</i> chronicles the Armageddon experience through the eyes of a group of film students, namely one little prick: Jason Creed, the aspiring film maker who will stop at nothing to make this documentary and spread the "truth" about what is happening. This in lies the problem with this film: disbelief. I know right, disbelief in a zombie movie??? I know that sounds strange, but hear me out. This guy continues to film during all instances, including while his closest friends are being attacked by zombies. One time he just watched as his female friend fended off a zombie by herself as she begged for his help, but he thought continuing to film was more important than saving her life. He also would choose some of his friend's deaths as an opportunity to get a close up. His actions were completely unnatural and unrealistic. There was also occurrences where he refused safe, secure places because he wanted to be out in the world filming this damn "truth." It was completely absurd! And even more absurd, his friends followed!! In real life, we would say "Hey man, you're an idiot. See ya!" Hmmmm... safe room or film zombies?<p>I had no empathy whatsoever for the characters. One couple in particular were being shown as infatuated, head-over-heels in love... but when one of them is killed, the other doesn't even cry. The event doesn't even move him/her!! Terrible acting... awful scenarios with huge plot holes. All of Romero's movies have made sense, but this one is just a complete disaster.<p>The only positive thing I can find is the cool, drunk, arrow-shooting professor. That guy was a bad ass. I wish he would've put an arrow through Creed's head.<p>It should also be noted that Romero used the slow-moving zombies opposed to the super-fast ones in Dawn of the Dead. This created a laggish pace for the movie with very little thrills.<p>If you love Romero, then you will inevitably see this crap. Don't get your expectations too high. I wish I would have never paid money for the DVD :(

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