Diary of the Dead

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This article is about the 2007 film. For the 1976 film, see Diary of the Dead (1976 film).
Diary of the Dead
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGeorge A. Romero
Written byGeorge A. Romero
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyAdam Swica
Edited byMichael Doherty
Music byNorman Orenstein
Production
companies
  • Artfire Films
  • Romero-Grunwald Productions
Distributed by
Third Rail Releasing[1]
Release dates
  • September 8, 2007 (2007-09-08) (Toronto International Film Festival)
  • February 15, 2008 (2008-02-15) (United States)
Running time
92 minutes
CountriesCanada, United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2 million
Box office$5.3 million[1]

Diary of the Dead (promoted as George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead) is a 2007 found footage horror film written and directed by George A. Romero.[2] Although independently produced, it was distributed theatrically by The Weinstein Company and was released in cinemas on February 15, 2008[3] and on DVD by Dimension Extreme and Genius Products on May 20, 2008.

Diary of the Dead is the fifth installment in Romero's Night of the Living Dead series of zombie films, taking place at the start of the outbreak.

Plot

Film footage from a news crew shows a story about an immigrant man killing his wife and son before committing suicide. The son and wife turn into zombies and kill several medical personnel and police officers, but leave one medic and a reporter bitten before being killed. The narrator, Debra, explains that most of the footage, which was recorded by the cameraman, was never broadcast.

A group of young

Pennsylvania State Trooper
and three other zombies. The group stops and Mary attempts to kill herself. Her friends take her to a hospital, where they find the dead becoming zombies, and thereafter fight to survive while traveling to Debra's parents.

Mary becomes a zombie and is slain by Maxwell, and the group dispatch several reanimated patients and staff, including Debra killing one with a defibrillator. Whilst escaping Gordo is bitten by a zombie and soon afterward dies from it. His girlfriend Tracy begs the others not to shoot him immediately but later is forced to shoot him herself when he reanimates. Soon they are stranded when their RV's fuel line breaks. They are attacked by zombies but are rescued by a

deaf Amish
man named Samuel, who blows them up with dynamite. Tracy then repairs the broken fuel line with the aid of Samuel, but before escaping, he is bitten and kills himself and his attacker with a scythe.

Passing a city, they are stopped by an armed group of survivors, the leader being a member of the

bloggers
.

When they arrive at Debra's house, they find her reanimated mother and brother feeding on her father and Maxwell kills them with a bow and arrow. They escape from the house and are stopped by different National Guardsmen, who rob them, leaving them only their weapons and their two cameras. They arrive at Ridley's mansion, where Ridley explains that his parents, the staff, and Francine were killed and he buried them out back. Ridley shows Debra and Tony that he "buried" his parents, the staff and Francine by dumping their bodies into his family's swimming pool.

Ridley then abandons Debra and Tony and is revealed to have been bitten by a zombie himself, explaining his odd behavior. Ridley soon dies and reanimates, then kills and infects Eliot and attacks Tracy and Jason. Jason is able to distract Ridley long enough for Tracy to escape at the last minute. Mad at Jason for not leaving the camera to help her, Tracy leaves the group in the group's RV. The remaining survivors hide in an enclosed shelter within the house, with the exception of Jason, who left the group to continue filming and is subsequently attacked and infected by Ridley. Maxwell kills Ridley with an antique sword and Debra euthanizes Jason, while continuing to film. Later, a large number of zombies begin to attack the mansion, including a reanimated Eliot. This forces Debra, Tony and Professor Maxwell to take shelter in the mansion's panic room.

Debra watches Jason's recording of a hunting party shooting people who were left to die and be reanimated as shooting targets, and wonders if the human race is worth saving.

Cast

Quentin Tarantino, Wes Craven, Guillermo del Toro, Simon Pegg, and Stephen King lend their voices as newsreaders in the film.[5]

Production

Development

Even before releasing Land of the Dead, Romero wanted to do a film about "emerging media".[6] After releasing Land, which he felt was "big" in scope, he wanted to go back to make a relatively low-budget film to relate back to the "origins of the thing" and felt that his "Emerging Media" idea could easily fulfill it.[6]

Casting

Even though the film is shot in a

cinema verite style, Romero still chose to use a cinematographer, as opposed to letting the cast film the movie themselves.[6] Romero would state: "I had this idea that I could use film students out shooting a school project and zombies begin to walk and they document it. I wanted to do this subjective camera thing before I knew anybody else was working on it. I didn’t know about Cloverfield or anything else. I thought we were going to be the first guys out there with one of these". In his decision, he cited what he saw as the failings of The Blair Witch Project, which he found "dizzying", also noting that "it didn’t quite make sense."[6]

Filming

Romero stated that the movie overall was more difficult to shoot than a traditional one: "It really needed to be choreographed down to the shoelaces".[6] He made an extensive use of computer-generated imagery because it allowed him to shoot the film quickly and add the effects later. Also, the film's style, as if shot with hand-held cameras, necessitated a shift from his usual method of working, which involves filming multiple camera angles and assembling scenes in the editing room. Instead, Romero filmed much of the action in long, continuous takes: "The camera was 360, so everybody was an acrobat, ducking under the lens when the camera came past you," said Romero. "The cast was great. They had a lot of theater experience. I think they could have gone from scene one all the way to the end of the movie, all in a single shot."[7] The whole film was shot in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The film is the fifth film in Romero's Dead series

Universal Studios, Diary of the Dead was produced by Romero-Grunwald Productions, formed by Romero and his producer friend Peter Grunwald, with Artfire Films.[11]

Home media releases

The DVD was released by The Weinstein Company and Genius Entertainment on May 20, 2008. Special features include a feature-length documentary, an

MySpace contest. It was released the same day as a new authorized edition of Night of the Living Dead on DVD was released by The Weinstein Company.[12]

The film was released on

Play.com sold an exclusive edition in a slipcase.[15]
On October 21, 2008, a Blu-ray version was released in the US.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 61% based on reviews from 131 critics. The website's consensus reads: "As Diary of the Dead proves, time hasn't subdued George A. Romero's affection for mixing politics with gore, nor has it given him cinematic grace or subtlety."[16] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 66 out of 100 based on reviews from 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[17]

Empire gave the film four out of fivee stars. Newman compared the film to The Zombie Diaries and •REC, saying that Romero matched them in horror and "trumps them in crazy inventiveness and humour."[20]

Jim Emerson of RogerEbert.com gave the film three stars.[21] Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club gave the film a C+ and said Romero's "heavy-handed intellectual concerns get in the way of a perfectly good fright flick."[22] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film two out of five stars, and said that "what more is there to say about the zombie genre and its metaphors for our undead society?"[23]

George Romero won a 2008 Critics Award for Diary of the Dead at the Festival international du film fantastique de Gérardmer.[24]

References

  1. ^ a b "Diary of the Dead". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2009-04-15.
  2. ^ J.C. Maçek III (2012-06-15). "The Zombification Family Tree: Legacy of the Living Dead". PopMatters.
  3. ^ "Diary of the Dead, Teeth and Quarantine Get Dates!". Bloody Disgusting. 2007-11-01. Archived from the original on 2007-11-03. Retrieved 2007-11-02.
  4. ^ DeDekker, Jeff (2006-10-21). "Regina actress makes her mark in 'Booky' role". Regina Leader-Post. Retrieved 2006-10-02.
  5. ^ "Capone With George A. Romero!!". Ain't It Cool News.
  6. ^ a b c d e Mcconnell, Marianna (14 February 2008). "Interview: George A. Romero On Diary Of The Dead". Cinemablend. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  7. ^ "Talking about 'Diary of the Dead'". Hollywood Gothique. Retrieved 2016-01-26.
  8. ^ Kincaid, Nina (2006-08-30). "Script Review: Romero's "Diary of the Dead"". Flixens. Archived from the original on September 2, 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-14.
  9. ^ Ginfgold, Michael (April 28, 2008). "Review: DIARY OF THE DEAD". Fangoria. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
  10. ^ a b Murray, Noel (13 February 2008). "George Romero". AV Club. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  11. ^ McClintock, Pamela (2006-08-24). "Romero will raise 'Dead'". Variety. Retrieved 2006-09-14.
  12. ^ Fangoria - America's Horror Magazine Archived June 21, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ "Single disc dvd on". Play.com. Retrieved 2016-01-26.
  14. ^ "Blu-ray release on". Play.com. Retrieved 2016-01-26.
  15. ^ "Exclusive double-disc dvd". Play.com. Retrieved 2016-01-26.
  16. ^ "Diary of the Dead". Rotten Tomatoes.
  17. ^ "Diary of the Dead". Metacritic.
  18. ^ Accomando, Beth (February 16, 2008). "George A. Romero's 'Diary of the Dead'". KPBS. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  19. ^ Dargis, Manohla (February 15, 2008). "Filmmakers Who Become Their Own Zombie Movie". The New York Times. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  20. ^ Newman, Kim (February 3, 2008). "Diary Of The Dead Review". Empire. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  21. ^ Emerson, Jim (February 14, 2008). "America's funniest undead videos". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  22. ^ Rabin, Nathan (February 14, 2008). "Diary Of The Dead". The A.V. Club. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  23. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (March 6, 2008). "Diary of the Dead". The Guardian. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  24. ^ "Festival international du film fantastique de Gérardmer". Sens Critique. December 22, 2013. Retrieved June 24, 2021.

External links

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