Currently, George Romero's Diary of the Dead is playing in selected cities and theaters. I saw it today in Toronto and thought I would share my views.


Diary of the Dead - ** and a half / ****

Short version: Diary of the Dead is a Disappointment

George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead is a film with a sound premise and an important social critique to make, but it dies in its execution due to heavy-handed exposition and overbearing visuals; however, like Romero’s zombies, there is a faint glimmer of life in its eyes.

Conventional writing wisdom suggests that good stories show; they do not tell. Despite his pedigree – films like Night of the Living Dead and Martin that clearly illustrate Romero is an expert editor who can judiciously balance visuals with dialogue – Diary decides to show too much and tell too much so that the film ends up feeling more like a club trying to bludgeon the audience with Romero’s message.

Now, I love Romero’s messages. Known for his more or less subtle social criticisms, Romero usually infuses his plots and stories with strong subtext. My favorite Romero film is Day of the Dead, so you know I am not afraid of a character-driven, introspective zombie film. For whatever reason, however, in Diary Romero has turned his subtext into such obvious text that you just can’t escape. The general conceit of the film is that you are watching a documentary called “The Death of Death,” which Debra (Michelle Morgan) has put together from footage shot primarily by her boyfriend Jason (Joshua Close). Jason begins filming after a zombie outbreak takes place on the night he and his classmates Tony (Shawn Roberts), Tracy (Amy Ciupak Lalonde), Eliot (Joe Dinicol), Ridley (Philip Riccio), Gordo (Chris Violette), and Mary (Tatiana Maslany), as well as their teacher Maxwell (Scott Wentworth), are making a monster movie. “The Death of Death” is compiled from the different cameras used by the characters, as well as from online video, surveillance tapes, and news footage. Romero is a man keenly aware of the power of images, so it is no surprise that this film focuses on a critique of the mass and independent media.

However, the film’s heavily edited form dilutes the terror and horror of the supposedly gritty, raw, and “real-life” events depicted in Jason’s “The Death of Death”. Deb has cut, edited, and scored the film, and she provides narration throughout the film. Big mistake (her voice is monotonous and she has nothing interesting to say). Unlike the recent film Cloverfield, Diary lacks the raw immediacy of witnessing an inexplicable disaster that makes things like zombies or giant monsters so terrifying. Zombies are not really scary when put on film in the light of day with no visual style, as is often the case with Diary. The characters also seem too willing to accept the situation. Although we as an audience are already very familiar with conventions of Romero’s genre, the characters could have stood to seem a little more shocked. No one seems phased by the idea that not only are the dead back but they are eating the living. Finally, the use of multi-angle shots and Deb’s redundant and monotone narration process the immediacy out of the movie. Romero shows us too much; multi-angle takes on the same situation mute the terror that made Night of the Living Dead so great.

Besides showing us too much, Romero also tells us too much. It is almost as if Romero didn’t trust the images to tell the story. The characters’ dialogue is painfully expositional, flat, redundant, and unrealistic. Romero’s message about the untrustworthiness of the media is hard to miss. It is impossible not to grasp his social message by the first ten minutes of the film between Deb’s narration and other characters belabored debates about the media, but the point is dragged out over and over throughout the movie’s dialogue right up to the last blatant shot. For example, at the beginning of the film, Jason is filming a Mummy movie where the Mummy is chasing the stereotypically busty, blonde Tracy. Near the end of the film, a similar situation occurs in which Tracy is being chased by a zombie while Jason films. Fine enough, but Tracy has to turn to the camera and blurt, “This is just like your damn monster movie, but this is real life!” A little on the nose, don’t you think? I spent the whole moving feeling that I was being talked down to and beat over the head with what were already not-so-subtle themes and self-referential criticisms.

The best thing, however, about the film was the way it forces the audience to question its own desire to see the horror unfolding. While Jason seems obsessed with capturing the events on film, he is constantly criticized and berated by his friends for his sick, annoying, and voyeuristic desire to document the carnage (including some greatly inventive gore scenes of which my favorite includes dispatching a zombie with acid). In my favorite bit of dialogue, the pretentious professor Maxwell, who proves quite capable of killing his own students when they go zombie, turns to Tony and says with disgust towards the gun, “Take it. It’s too easy to use.” Later on in the film, Deb refuses to film the events from a second camera. She gives away the camera, stating it is too easy to use. This is an obvious refrain, but it underscores the more subtle idea that both the gun and the camera are a technology that are too easily used and too easily abused when used to “shoot”. Our desire to kill and our desire to see death on screen is something quite pathological. However, Romero abuses his own premise and insight by belaboring the point over and over again through Deb’s narration and the unrealistic dialogue of his characters. In times of crisis, few people are as philosophical as this bunch -- too bad their philosophy is so shallow.

Diary of the Dead is a film of unfulfilled promise. By overdoing every aspect of social critique and underplaying any sense of fear or dread, the movie fails to entertain. It surely does not entertain the intellect by providing us with something more subtle and complex to interpret, and it does not entertain with horror due to a lack of atmosphere and lack of zombie mayhem.

As much as it pains me to say, wait to catch this one on video folks. Stay home and watch your favorite Romero zombie film instead.

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