Diary of the Dead

Name: Diary of the Dead
Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller, Horror
Released: February 15, 2008
Duration: 95 min
Rating: 66
Cast: Joshua Close, Michelle Morgan, Shawn Roberts

2008

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critics

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USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 88 Ratings

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5.3

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5.3	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 88 Ratings

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DIARY OF THE DEAD

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Movie Details & Credits

Third Rail Releasing | Release Date: February 15, 2008

Starring: Joshua Close, Michelle Morgan, Shawn Roberts

Summary: Jason Creed and a small crew of college filmmakers are in the Pennsylvania woods making a no-budget horror film when they hear the terrifying news that the dead have started returning to life. Led by Jason's girlfriend, Debra, the frightened young filmmakers set off in a friend's old Winnebago to try to get back to the only safety andJason Creed and a small crew of college filmmakers are in the Pennsylvania woods making a no-budget horror film when they hear the terrifying news that the dead have started returning to life. Led by Jason's girlfriend, Debra, the frightened young filmmakers set off in a friend's old Winnebago to try to get back to the only safety and security they know: their homes. But there is no escape from the crisis or any real home for them to go back to anymore. Everything they depend upon--all that they hold dear--is fractured as the plague of the living dead begins to spread. (The Weinstein Company)… Expand

Director: George A. Romero

Genre(s): Sci-Fi, Thriller, Horror

Rating: R

Runtime: 95 min

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Awards & Rankings

84	#84 Most Discussed Movie of 2008

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Metascore

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

100

Premiere - Glenn Kenny

A giddy kick-out-the-jams entertainment. Diary takes a tack that's not exactly new, but is new to Romero, and as one might expect, the director brings a sharp and uncompromising new perspective to it. Read full review

Rolling Stone - Peter Travers

This one belongs with the leaders of the scare pack. Isn't it time that we give Romero his due? It's hardly an accident that Stephen King, Quentin Tarantino, Guillermo del Toro, Simon Pegg and Wes Craven recognize Romero as a master. He is. Read full review

Austin Chronicle - Marc Savlov

Diary of the Dead is meant to scare your pants off, blow your mind out the back of your skull, and then deposit you ungently back into reality, quaking a little, maybe, but still alive and, unlike the undead, thinking. Read full review

Village Voice - Nathan Lee

Visually, Romero's ersatz-DIY experiment isn't as suave as Brian De Palma's similar effort in the recent and risible "Redacted," nor as exactingly engineered as the video convulsions of "Cloverfield," but its scrappy, ultra-low-budget edges are part of its charm. Read full review

Entertainment Weekly - Owen Gleiberman

Diary of the Dead isn't bad; it's a kicky B movie hiding inside a draggy, self-conscious-work-of-auteurist-horror one. Read full review

Baltimore Sun - Chris Kaltenbach

With Diary of the Dead, Romero goes back to the beginning, only this time the amateurish look is calculated and the resulting film far less effective - if only because a handful of filmmakers have beaten him to the punch. Read full review

Salon - Andrew O'Hehir

A limp and dreary experience, at least after you get past its intriguing premise. It's poorly written and woodenly acted, completely formulaic and hopelessly imprisoned by both its genre and finally its form. Read full review

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User Reviews

TarekM.

Aug 16, 2008

Not Romero's finest, but still a dazzling gore fest.

1 of 1 users found this helpful

ShawnS.

May 19, 2008

This film is easily an 8/10. It gets a 9 from me, to counteract some of the biggest morons like "Daniel C.." who gave it a 0 calling it one of the worst movies ever made. My advice to people like Daniel C. is to stay out of the genre, and grab his copy of "Joe Dirt" off of hi sshelf. As far This film is easily an 8/10. It gets a 9 from me, to counteract some of the biggest morons like "Daniel C.." who gave it a 0 calling it one of the worst movies ever made. My advice to people like Daniel C. is to stay out of the genre, and grab his copy of "Joe Dirt" off of hi sshelf. As far as zombie movies go, IMO this one is the best since Romero's 1985 masterpiece "Day of the Dead" Decent zombie films are few and far between these days, despite the fact that there are at least 10 new zombie films released a week. George Romero is a master at this genre, and deserves the recognition as such. Without George Romero, there would be no zombie films. Films like this are a cut above the MTV generations poor excuse for a zombie filme, for example the 2008 remake of Day of the Dead. Officially, George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead gets an 8 out of 10 from me.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

ChadS.

May 25, 2008

"Diary of the Dead" just might be the most shocking zombie picture yet in this filmmaker's oeuvre. Blood has nothing to do with it, or exposed guts. This latest tale of the undead by the guy who made little kids wet their pants at bijou matinees all across America back in 1968 with "Diary of the Dead" just might be the most shocking zombie picture yet in this filmmaker's oeuvre. Blood has nothing to do with it, or exposed guts. This latest tale of the undead by the guy who made little kids wet their pants at bijou matinees all across America back in 1968 with "Night of the Living Dead", delivers a horror film that's more about filmmaking than zombies. In particular, the decisions made in post-production are foregrounded. Debra(Michelle Morgan) finishes the film for Jason(Joshua Close). It's out of his hands. He doesn't get final cut. She does. If you think the voice-overs and the lyrical flashbacks of their deceased friends are hokey, remember that Debra is a college student, not Thelma Schoonmaker. Jason would hate what Debra did to his masterpiece. "Diary of the Dead", among other things, is shrewd about the subjects in a documentary film. It's not reality; it's movie reality, because the people in your non-fiction film are indeed acting; acting as if they're not aware of the cameras. And finally, in the final scene, this filmmaker brilliantly fesses up to the inherent immorality of staging pretend murders in grisly fashion for fun, in a roundabout fashion. He knows he's not subtle when it comes to depicting violent acts. He shows everything, albeit wittily. But Jason, the film's filmmaker within the film, makes the directorial choice to not point the camera at a transformed friend who's put down by friendly fire, during their stay at the hospital. Jason is like the filmmaker's alter ego, so the filmmaker experiments with his normal manner of shooting a scene, because he's Jason Creed, student filmmaker, not the guy who made "Dawn of the Dead". This film is so much more fun than Michael Haneke's "Funny Games", another film that tackled the complicity of filmmakers and audiences in pertaining to movie violence.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

MattBrady99

Jan 15, 2016

I don't know if George A. Romero knows how cameras work, because the camera literally has clear audio even when the characters are having small conversations too far away for a camera to pick up anything. It's like everyone got a mic on them.

The one thing I notice in this movie that II don't know if George A. Romero knows how cameras work, because the camera literally has clear audio even when the characters are having small conversations too far away for a camera to pick up anything. It's like everyone got a mic on them.

The one thing I notice in this movie that I never thought about before, is that every time there was a zombie attack, it's always caught on camera and just by the way it was perfectly shot in time for someone to come behind it to shoot or stab it. It would be a lot better if someone died or gets attacked off camera, because it would add a lot to this movie and keeps you guessing on when the next attack happens.

The acting was a bit off at times, the effect's are really dated, and the characters are a bunch of idiots.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

EricM.

Jul 3, 2008

This movie was poorly produced and had a cheap, almost made-for-tv feel to it. The acting was lame also. I turned it off after 40 minutes. What happened to Romero?

0 of 1 users found this helpful

ArthurV.

Feb 19, 2008

This is another great example of reviewers losing the plot and reviewing the legacy of the filmmaker and other films of the genre and NOT reviewing the film in front of them. This film is one of th worst I've ever seen. The acting is absolutely terrible and drew many unintentional This is another great example of reviewers losing the plot and reviewing the legacy of the filmmaker and other films of the genre and NOT reviewing the film in front of them. This film is one of th worst I've ever seen. The acting is absolutely terrible and drew many unintentional laughs throughout. The "social commentary" in the film is delivered with the subtlety of a sledgehammer and is best left to films that are not terribly written zombie flicks. A couple of the zombie deaths are noteworthy, though hardly worth the price of admission. How this got theatrical distribution is beyond me...this should've been straight-to-video all the way! Thanks to all the big-time mainstream reviewers who, as they did with their reviews of 'The Host' last year, proved their lack of relevance and out-of-touch-ness all the more by giving this movie ridiculously high grades. To those who have not yet put down money to see this film yet...I tell you this with the best of intentions...DON'T DO IT! Save your money, honestly you'd be better off burning it or eating it...at least then it'd be put to better use!… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

DanielC.

Mar 11, 2008

This is quite simply the worst movie ever made, from the shocking script, to the terrible acting and to the even worse directing, this film was an embarrassment. Its possibly the closest i have ever been to walking out of a cinema. People were laughing at bits that weren't meant to be This is quite simply the worst movie ever made, from the shocking script, to the terrible acting and to the even worse directing, this film was an embarrassment. Its possibly the closest i have ever been to walking out of a cinema. People were laughing at bits that weren't meant to be funny and as for the English guy (who seemed to have just fallen out of a Shakespeare play) his 'Mornings and Mirrors' speech was possibly the biggest load of old rubbish i have ever heard. As for the part where the guy dressed as a mummy chases the girl into the woods, OH MY GOD..was that meant to be funny?!! Anyone who gives this film a good score must be one of the undead themselves, because no one in their right mind would actually enjoy this pile of nonsense... This film should have gone straight to DVD, actually no its so poor it should have gone straight to video, preferably betamax so no one ever has to sit through this ever again!!!… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

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