Cast/Notable Credits:
George Romero (Director)
Joshua Close (Jason): Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
Shawn Roberts (Tony): Land of the Dead, Stir of Echoes 2 (2007), X-men (2000), Skinwalkers
Chris Violette (Gordo): American Pie: Beta House (2007), Return to Sleepaway Camp (2008)
Tatiana Maslany (Mary): Stir of Echoes 2, The Messengers (2007)
Megan Park (Francine): Kaw (2007) (pictured right)
Trailer:
Plot:
University of Pittsburgh students are filming a horror movie on their own for class out in the woods when weird events start happening around the world. Scattered reports of the dead walking the Earth are surfacing over the media outlets. The students decide to head back to campus and pile into their Winnebago and head for town.
One of the students, Jason, decides that it is important to document the events over the next few days as he uses the camera to film the trip. As the students head back into town, they discover that the reports of the dead walking are true. They pick up Jason's girlfriend from campus and decide to head home...as if it's still there...while the world slowly is over ran by zombies. Tagline: Where will you be when the end begins?
Villain:
Zombies. What more can I say? If your one of those people who care whether they are fast or slow moving zombies...grandma speed zombies. Not the rabid super-charged that 28 Days Later introduced. This is actually a big deal for some people. For me, either one works. It's all good!
Cast:
I wasn't too impressed with the cast members. For once, I thought Romero did a horrible job making the audience connect with the cast. In his previous "Dead" films, he did a remarkable job with the cast.
The main guy, Jason, was a little irritating. I thought that he was a little too obsessed with filming the end of the world. It was way over-the-top in my opinion. Who cares if he films every minute of it? Who is gonna be alive to watch it? But I guess that was the premise of the movie, video taping the events. Could of been done better, I thought.
His girlfriend wasn't much better. She was just as dumb and annoying as him. In fact, they all seemed to be dumb. The hot southern blonde chick and the college professor were the only enjoyable characters in the film. At least ones that I could tolerate.
SFX/Gore:
A lot of deaths. But what do you expect? It's a zombie movie. The special effects were state of the art, not like the earlier Romero films with the fake zombie eating. Not like I disliked that quality of his earlier films. My favorite kill: the zombie out in the woods.
TNA:
They squeezed a few hot chicks into this one. Like Amy Lalonde (pictured right) and Michelle Morgan (pictured left). There wasn't even a flash of the twins. That's easy to fit in the film. Just have a chick changing a blood soaked top with a fresh new one. It's that simple. 
But there really was no room for the hibbidie-jibbidie. Wait a second...there's always room for that. Especially if the world was being overthrown by zombies. I would try to squeeze that in if my world was about to end due to a zombie infestation.
T.Gun's Take:
Diary of the Dead was a pretty fesh new idea about college students filming "real-life events" of a zombie take over that turns out to be a zombie-documentary. The film was done pretty decently but I felt that the film's pace and tone just wasn't there. I just wasn't "feeling it". Don't get me wrong, I liked the direction and idea of the movie, but overall I felt that something was missing. Maybe the underlining message was not all that powerful than I was hoping.
It was dubbed...The Blair Witch Project meets zombies. The audience's view from a hand held camera. The Blair Witch Project was the first, and people loved it.
Personally, I thought it sucked. That style went away until this past spring, and then it came back with back to back films in Cloverfield and Diary. Unfortunately I saw Cloverfield first, and it was done better with the use of only one camera. I guess that's the biggest hang up that I can't get over, seeing a similar style done better.
For some reason, the camera point of view didn't do it for me on this film. It's not like it was done terrible with flaws, because the movie was technically sound with it's use. I just can't put a finger on it other than I liked how Cloverfield did it better. The style of using the camera's point of view is a great idea, and if you can be the first to do it, then you've got a hit. It's always better to be the leader than the follower.
Misc. Movie Trivia:
-Film opened on February 17, 2008 in limited release and made $950K at the box office
George Romero (Director)
Joshua Close (Jason): Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
Shawn Roberts (Tony): Land of the Dead, Stir of Echoes 2 (2007), X-men (2000), Skinwalkers
Chris Violette (Gordo): American Pie: Beta House (2007), Return to Sleepaway Camp (2008)
Tatiana Maslany (Mary): Stir of Echoes 2, The Messengers (2007)
Megan Park (Francine): Kaw (2007) (pictured right)
Trailer:
Plot:
University of Pittsburgh students are filming a horror movie on their own for class out in the woods when weird events start happening around the world. Scattered reports of the dead walking the Earth are surfacing over the media outlets. The students decide to head back to campus and pile into their Winnebago and head for town.One of the students, Jason, decides that it is important to document the events over the next few days as he uses the camera to film the trip. As the students head back into town, they discover that the reports of the dead walking are true. They pick up Jason's girlfriend from campus and decide to head home...as if it's still there...while the world slowly is over ran by zombies. Tagline: Where will you be when the end begins?
Villain:
Zombies. What more can I say? If your one of those people who care whether they are fast or slow moving zombies...grandma speed zombies. Not the rabid super-charged that 28 Days Later introduced. This is actually a big deal for some people. For me, either one works. It's all good!Cast:
I wasn't too impressed with the cast members. For once, I thought Romero did a horrible job making the audience connect with the cast. In his previous "Dead" films, he did a remarkable job with the cast.
The main guy, Jason, was a little irritating. I thought that he was a little too obsessed with filming the end of the world. It was way over-the-top in my opinion. Who cares if he films every minute of it? Who is gonna be alive to watch it? But I guess that was the premise of the movie, video taping the events. Could of been done better, I thought.
His girlfriend wasn't much better. She was just as dumb and annoying as him. In fact, they all seemed to be dumb. The hot southern blonde chick and the college professor were the only enjoyable characters in the film. At least ones that I could tolerate.
SFX/Gore:
A lot of deaths. But what do you expect? It's a zombie movie. The special effects were state of the art, not like the earlier Romero films with the fake zombie eating. Not like I disliked that quality of his earlier films. My favorite kill: the zombie out in the woods.
TNA:
They squeezed a few hot chicks into this one. Like Amy Lalonde (pictured right) and Michelle Morgan (pictured left). There wasn't even a flash of the twins. That's easy to fit in the film. Just have a chick changing a blood soaked top with a fresh new one. It's that simple. 
But there really was no room for the hibbidie-jibbidie. Wait a second...there's always room for that. Especially if the world was being overthrown by zombies. I would try to squeeze that in if my world was about to end due to a zombie infestation.T.Gun's Take:
Diary of the Dead was a pretty fesh new idea about college students filming "real-life events" of a zombie take over that turns out to be a zombie-documentary. The film was done pretty decently but I felt that the film's pace and tone just wasn't there. I just wasn't "feeling it". Don't get me wrong, I liked the direction and idea of the movie, but overall I felt that something was missing. Maybe the underlining message was not all that powerful than I was hoping.
It was dubbed...The Blair Witch Project meets zombies. The audience's view from a hand held camera. The Blair Witch Project was the first, and people loved it.
Personally, I thought it sucked. That style went away until this past spring, and then it came back with back to back films in Cloverfield and Diary. Unfortunately I saw Cloverfield first, and it was done better with the use of only one camera. I guess that's the biggest hang up that I can't get over, seeing a similar style done better.For some reason, the camera point of view didn't do it for me on this film. It's not like it was done terrible with flaws, because the movie was technically sound with it's use. I just can't put a finger on it other than I liked how Cloverfield did it better. The style of using the camera's point of view is a great idea, and if you can be the first to do it, then you've got a hit. It's always better to be the leader than the follower.
Misc. Movie Trivia:
-Film opened on February 17, 2008 in limited release and made $950K at the box office
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