GEORGE A. ROMERO'S
DIARY OF THE DEAD

Starring:
Joshua Close, Michelle Morgan, Scott Wentworth, Joe Dinicol, Shawn Roberts, Amy Lalonde, Philip Riccio, Megan Park, Chris Violette and Tatiana Maslany

Writer/Director:
George A. Romero

Running Time:
95 mins

Out to buy on DVD (Region 1) 20/05/08

"What do you want me to say Jason"

Student filmmaker Jason Creed (Close) is shooting a horror movie when real life horror starts to break out around the world. When footage of the dead coming back to life hits the Internet, Jason instantly changes his direction and decides to make a documentary about what is happening. With his cast, crew and professor joining him, the group decide to head to Debra's home and getting there with the undead claiming more and more victims is going to be difficult but Jason is going to give everything to documenting everything.

Legendary filmmaker and master of horror George A. Romero returns to his Dead franchise again to gives us a very different look at the Zombie plague took over the world.

Starting in 1968, George A. Romero's 'Dead' franchise has become the definitive Zombie movies and set the standard for horror. Starting with 'Night of the Living Dead' and followed by 'Dawn of the Dead', 'Day of the Dead' and 'Land of the Dead', for the fifth film in the franchise 'Diary of the Dead' takes it a new direction.

Watching the film from the camera's prospective is nothing new but after the success of 'The Blair Witch Project' and more recently 'Cloverfield', George A. Romero utilises the technique to give the 'Dead' series a very different look. With zombies attacking in the first person, the horror is all the more graphic and bloody, having a look of the classic video 'House of the Dead' than the usual Romero approach to the living dead. This technique works extremely for the 'Dead' franchise and brings a whole new prospective to the classic zombie series.

This new look would be nothing without a good story to complement it. Instead of been a continuation of the 'Land of the Dead' storyline, Romero takes us back to the start of the outbreak. In essence he is restarting the franchise, the dead start to wake up in modern times, a time were the general public have access to the unlimited video clips on YouTube or MySpace, showing everything that was happening. This modern, Internet technology allows lead character Jason Creed to share his footage with world. Of course this is also a story of survival, as the undead hordes try and eat their living flesh and many a human and a zombie meet extremely gruesome deaths.

'Diary of the Dead' is an excellent restart to a classic franchise. As with all of the 'Dead' series, Romero injects current issues into the zombie carnage with the political cover-ups and the power of the Internet to all the public to reveal the truth. While not as good as the classic 'Dawn of the Dead' and is filled with actors who haven't been in much before, this is still a welcome addition to the classic Zombie franchise.

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in Widescreen 1.85:1 Anamorphic with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, the transfer is good.

BONUS FEATURES

Audio Commentary
Writer/Director George A. Romero, director of photography Adam Swica and editor Michael Doherty come together to provide the commentary 'Diary of the Dead'. Romero talks about the theme of emerging media, giving a technical commentary for his reboot of the 'Dead' franchise. As usual the legendary horror director gives a great commentary that keeps you enthralled throughout.

Character Confessions (20.28 mins)
Elliot, Tracy, Tony and Debra talk to Jason about what they feel about the outbreak, the dead coming back to life and taking part in Jason's movie. We also see their emotional reaction as their journey continues.

The First Week (4.19 mins)
Filmmaker Michael Felsher takes us behind the scenes of the first week's filming of 'Diary of the Dead'. He talks about the rebooting of the 'Dead' franchise, interviewing producer Art Spigel, actors Shawn Roberts and Alan Van Sprang, co-producer Ara Katz and producer Peter Grunwald about working with the legendary George A. Romero.

Familiar Voices (5.04 mins)
Listen to Guillermo Del Toro, Simon Pegg and Stephen King recording their media voiceovers for the movie.

For the Record: The Making of Diary of the Dead

Master of the Dead: Writer/Director George A. Romero (13.18 mins)
Producers Peter Grunwald, Ara Katz, Sam Englebard, Arthur Spigel, executive producer John Harrison and George A. Romero talk about the legend horror writer/director and he reveals how he got into movies and about rebooting the franchise.

Into the camera: The cast (17.04 mins)
Writer/Director George A. Romero and stars Joshua Close, Michelle Morgan, Scott Wentworth, Joe Dinicol, Shawn Roberts, Amy Lalonde, Philip Riccio and Megan Park talk about the characters of the film.

You Look Dead!: Make Up Effects (10.56 mins)
Special make-up effects producer Greg Nicotero and special effects supervisors Kyle Glencross, Chris Bridges and Neil Morril talk about then challenges of in-camera effects used in 'Diary of the Dead'.

A New Spin on Death: Visual Effects (19.00 mins)
Spin FX Steven Lewis and Colin Davis talk about creating the digital effects for 'Nurses Eyes', 'Amish Death', 'Acid Kill', 'Arrow Kill', 'Pool Undead' and 'Head Split'.

A World Gone Mad: Photography and Design (20.23 mins)
Director of Photography Adam Swice, costume designer Alex Kavanaugh and production designer Robert Lazarus talk about shooting in the first person, the modern look of the film and the new zombies.

MySpace Contest winners
Entitled 'The Final Day', 'Deader: Living through Chemistry', 'Opening on the Living Dead', '& Teller' and 'Run for your Life', these are the winners from the 'Diary of the Dead' MySpace site.

OVERALL

The DVD treatment for 'Dairy of the Dead' is one that fans should really enjoy. With an excellent commentary track and featurettes that cover every aspect of the film's production, this is an excellent example of how to do a single disc DVD release.

DVD

Night of the Living Dead

Dawn of the Dead

Day of the Dead

Land of the Dead


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