Diary of the Dead
Directed by George A. Romero
Starring Shawn Roberts, Joshua Close, Scott Wentworth
Rated R
Release date: Feb. 15, 2008 (limited)

Zombie master George A. Romero brings the dead back to life for the fifth time with his latest film, Diary of The Dead. This film follows Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985), and Land of the Dead (2005).

Diary of The Dead revolves around a group of college film students who are attempting to film their own horror movie. Much to their surprise, strange things start happening while they are filming and their movie quickly becomes a documentary of an unexplained phenomena taking place throughout the world. The students’ motivation for filming the movie changes from GPA to their newfound obligation to inform any survivors of what is really happening. After seeing falsified news clips, the students felt that when uploaded on the Internet, their documentary would show the unexplained horror for what it really was, should normalcy ever return.

Romero claims that his films were always inspired by his observations of the real world and while watching Diary, I could not help but think of real-life events like the television news-media’s recent manipulation of the presidential debates.

Seeing Romero’s zombies set in the information age was a bit different. Who would have imagined MySpace and cell phones playing a role in a George Romero movie!? The film seemed to suggest that most of the information floating around on the Internet, along with all of the physical trinkets we surround ourselves with are pretty much useless when all that matters is survival. I was even inspired by the movie to clean my house and throw out some useless stuff! Is the information age turning us into zombies?

The film seems to focus on building up the living characters over the dead ones. You won’t find Bub or Big Daddy in this film, but you will find a really cool Amish mute named Samuel. Diary of The Dead captures a creepy hopelessness in a world gone wrong as only Romero can do. The movie is a must-see for true Romero fans. If you are looking for a high-budget film filled with generic special effects or if a vivid imagination isn’t your thing, you will probably want to skip this movie and perhaps see what’s happening with the next Spider-Man flick.

Check out the Diary of the Dead MySpace page for more information on the film.