I heard such horrible things about Diary of the Dead that I was afraid to watch it. Really. People had me scared. I’ve actually had the film in my possession for a few months now but because of all the crao I head I was afraid to watch it. As you might know I dig the zombies and am especially fond of anything Romero touches so hearing such reports from so many folks had me worried. Today I finally decided I couldn’t resist any longer and watched it.

Guess what? It’s not that bad. It’s different for sure, but it’s very Romero. The social commentary is front and center, and I can see how people might be quick to write it off as just following the Blair Witch or Cloverfield style [see the trailer] but I think to tell this part of the story that was the best choice. As with other Romero flicks the zombies are just the setting for a much larger discussion but for the first time someone in the film actually says “they are us” pointing out the crux of the struggle has never been how do we deal with this outside menace but rather how do we deal with ourselves. I thought the conflict of the people who were filming everything trying to decide what was more important, helping out in a single instance or documenting it for the future was very well thought out.

At the same time I can see why people who were looking for something like the remake of Dawn of the Dead or 28 Days Later might be disappointed, though I was amused with the jokes about dead things not moving fast. This has action, but isn’t an action movie. It has gore, but isn’t a gore fest. It’s definitely the most introspective in the Romero series which could put someone off if they weren’t in the mode for it. That said, I enjoyed it. It’s not my favorite thing he’s done, and it’s not the best zombie flick to come out in the last few years but it’s entertaining, thought provoking and worth watching for sure. That is assuming you like zombie movies, and since you are reading this I’ve gone ahead and made that assumption.

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