Diary of the Dead
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- This article is about the George Romero film. For the 1976 film, see Diary of the Dead (1976 film).
| Diary of the Dead | |
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| Directed by | George A. Romero |
| Produced by | George A. Romero Peter Grunwald Sam Englebardt Artur Spigel Dan Fireman John Harrison Ara Katz |
| Written by | George A. Romero |
| Starring | Shawn Roberts Joshua Close Michelle Morgan Joe Dinicol Phillip Riccio Scott Wentworth Tatiana Maslany |
| Music by | Norman Orenstein |
| Cinematography | Adam Swica |
| Editing by | Michael Doherty |
| Distributed by | Voltage Pictures The Weinstein Company[1] |
| Release date(s) | September 8, 2007 (Toronto International Film Festival) United States: February 15, 2008 United Kingdom: March 7, 2008 |
| Running time | 95 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2,000,000 (est.) |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Diary of the Dead (also known as George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead) is a horror film by George A. Romero. Although independently produced, it is distributed by Dimension Films and was released on February 15, 2008.[2]
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[edit] Plot
The movie begins with some news reporters filming a story about the death of an immigrant couple and their child. As they are wheeled out of their apartment building on a gurney, the mother and the child suddenly wake up and attack the emergency services crew on site. Both are shot in the head, but not before biting quite a few of the people.
After an introduction to the zombie documentary ('The Death of Death') mostly filmed by Jason Creed, a film student at the University of Pittsburgh, the film cuts to the group of students filming a mummy horror movie in the woods, with Jason directing. The actor playing the mummy, Ridley, is lectured on the way a corpse moves and the make-up artist, Tony Ravelo, on not doing a good enough job on the make-up of the zombie. While the group argues, another student named Elliot declares that something strange is on the news. All the students, and their supervising professor hear the reports of the dead waking, and Tony scoffs at the news. After hearing the report, Ridley decides to head to his home in Philadelphia, along with Francine, another student.
The group gets into their Winnebago and head over towards the university dorms to pick up Debra, Jason's girlfriend. Entering the abandoned dormitory, he finds Debra in her room, attempting to get through to her parents, but to no avail. On the laptop next to her is the news report that was shown at the beginning of the movie. They get on the road once more, and Jason requests that each of the people introduce themselves to the camera, because he believes what is going on will be a part of history, and wants to document everything. Each of the group members introduce themselves hesitantly, starting with Mary, the driver, and moving to Debra and Tony, then to Elliot, Gordo and his girlfriend Tracy, and finally their professor Andrew Maxwell. While they drive, they encounter a car accident on the side of the road, where a State Trooper slowly stumbles towards the caravan. The students are frightened as he looks as though he has been fried from the fire of the accident. He begins to pound on the door, and the group quickly drive off, running over three other zombies as they escape.
Mary falls quickly into depression as she realizes that she has murdered three people. Stopping for a break outside, Mary shoots herself with a pistol she was carrying, prompting the group to panic. Discovering that she still has a pulse, they rush to an abandoned hospital, looking for help. The group splits up, and Gordo hears a chaotic radio transmission. The group eventually find a doctor hidden behind a curtain. They call for his help, only to discover that he is a zombie. After firing shots into his torso, they realize the only way to put an end to him is to shoot him in the head. After killing him, an undead nurse starts to stumble towards them. After losing its eyes due to Debra zapping her head with a defibrillator, Gordo puts an end to her.
Running out of battery for the camera, Jason opts to stay with a comatose Mary while it charges. He hears Debra screaming, but remains where he is, not wanting to leave his camera. Debra comes back, with another video camera in hand, and lectures Jason about his documentation being more important than their lives. Mary suddenly groans as she begins to turn into a zombie. The professor confiscates the pistol from Gordo's hands and kills Mary. On their way out of the hospital, a zombie patient bites Gordo in the arm before Elliot stabs the patient in the head with an IV pole.
A few hours later, the group bury Mary, and Gordo is dead. Tony prepares to shoot him, but Tracy stops him, pleading for him to wait and see whether he will turn. Gordo then wakes up, and Tracy kills her boyfriend herself. They get on the road again, only to have the caravan break down due to a broken fuel line. They find a barn and its deaf owner, Samuel, an Amish man. After repairing the fuel line, the group prepare to leave, but Samuel is bitten and stabs himself in the face with a scythe, thus killing the zombie behind him in the process.
The group encounter a band of survivors who have stocked their warehouse with supplies. Jason uploads the footage he has shot so far on the net, and gets 72,000 hits within 8 minutes. Debra receives a text message from her little brother, claiming they are safe and heading home. Just before leaving, Ridley calls Jason via webcam and invites him over to his mansion in Philadelphia. The group gather some supplies from the warehouse after Tony kills a zombie and begin to drive to Debra's home. When they arrive, they find Debra's parent's car in the garage with the passenger window smashed and bloody. As they search the house, Debra is ambushed by her undead brother, who is quickly killed by Professor Maxwell with a bow and arrow. Debra also finds her mother who had been chewing on her father. She is also killed by the professor, who claims that they need to leave.
Deciding to head over to Ridley's home, the group encounters the National Guard, who stop them. After ordering Jason to turn the camera off, they quickly take all their supplies, save for their weapons, and drive away, leaving the students with no food. They arrive at Ridley's home, only to find the front door open. Searching the home, Ridley surprises them as he comes out of a panic room. Tracy and Jason go and unload the caravan while Tony films Ridley going through the kitchen, looking for some food. His strange behavior alarms both Tony and Debra, who ask where Francine and his family are. He claims that they are all dead, and that he has buried them. He shows the two their bodies, who have been carelessly dumped into the swimming pool, but not before Tony noticing a bite wound on Ridley's hand. Ridley quickly turns, and goes outside where Jason is filming Tracy unloading the caravan. Ridley suddenly attacks her, but she manages to run. Jason follows them with his camera, and distracts Ridley as Tracy smacks a stick into Ridley's back, knocking him out.
Angry that Jason simply filmed her as her life was in jeopardy, she takes the caravan and drives off on her own. Elliot dries his hair with a blow dryer as he is ambushed by Ridley, causing him to fall into the tub and killing him from electrocution. Professor Maxwell suggests they head into the panic room after seeing Elliot's death on the monitors, but Jason refuses, claiming he doesn't want to be shut off from the rest of the world. He lies that he'll go into the panic room, and while the rest of the group are busy stocking up, he sneaks away, only to run into Ridley. The group hears the commotion and find Jason being bitten by Ridley on the ground. Ridley's head is sliced in half by the professor, leaving Jason lying on the floor. He begs Debra to shoot him, which she does.
Vowing to continue his movie, Debra uses the camera and takes Jason's place and begins to record their actions. They spot a lot of zombies breaking into the mansion and a dead Elliot walking around the house. The professor quickly locks the panic room door as the zombies move inside the house as we await their fate. The movie ends with Debra explaining how inhumane some humans were, and questions whether they were worth saving.
[edit] Cast
- Shawn Roberts as Tony Ravello[3]
- Joshua Close as Jason Creed[3]
- Michelle Morgan as Debra[3]
- Joe Dinicol as Eliot Stone[3]
- Scott Wentworth as Andrew Maxwell[3]
- George Buza as Biker
- Amy Ciupak Lalonde as Tracy Truman
- Tatiana Maslany as Mary[4]
- Tino Monte as Newscaster
- Megan Park as Francine Shane
- Martin Roach as Stranger
- Alan Van Sprang as Colonel
- Matt Birman as Zombie Trooper
- Laura DeCarteret as Bree
- Janet Lo as Asian Woman
- Chris Violette as Gordo
- Todd William Schroeder as Brody
- Alexandria DeFabiis as Zombie
- Nick Alachiotis as Fred
- Philip Riccio[3]
- George A. Romero as Chief of Police
- Boyd Banks as Armorist
Quentin Tarantino, Wes Craven, Guillermo del Toro, Simon Pegg and Stephen King cameo as voice overs as newscasters on the radio.[5]
[edit] Re-establishing the Dead franchise
The film is the fifth film in Romero's Dead series.[6] However, in "an attempt to re-establish a profitable franchise," the film is "a rejigging of the myth" says Romero.[2] Even though the fourth film, Land of the Dead, was studio-produced through Universal Studios, Diary of the Dead was produced by Romero-Grunwald Productions, formed by Romero and his producer friend Peter Grunwald, with Artfire Films.[7]
[edit] History
Romero announced the film in August 2006 after signing a deal to write and direct it.[7] Filming began its four-week shoot in Toronto on October 19, 2006.[3]
Despite the low production budget, somewhere around 2 million dollars,[8] director George Romero made extensive use of computer-generated imagery, because it allowed him to shoot the film quickly and add the effects later. Also, the film's style, as if shot with hand-held cameras, necessitated a shift from his usual method of working, which involves filming multiple camera angles and assembling scenes in the editing room. Instead, Romero filmed much of the action in long, continuous takes: "The camera was 360, so everybody was an acrobat, ducking under the lens when the camera came past you," said Romero. "The cast was great. They had a lot of theatre experience. I think they could have gone from scene one all the way to the end of the movie, all in a single shot."[9]
The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Midnight Madness on September 8, 2007.[10] According to a poll taken by the Toronto Star, it was one of the most anticipated films at the Festival.[11] Just four days later, The Weinstein Company announced that it had purchased the rights to distribute Diary of the Dead in the United States and Mexico for $2.5 million. There, Dimension Films are distributing the film.
[edit] Reception
The film had a very mixed reaction from critics. On the film review website Rottentomatoes.com it sports a 60% approval rating[12], certifying it as "fresh". It is currently the lowest-rated entry in Romero's series. On Metacritic, the film has a positive overall score of 66 (out of 100). Roger Ebert however awarded the film three out of four stars saying "Diary” presents a world of post-9/11, post-Iraq-invasion paranoia and distrust of the “official story.”
[edit] DVD release
The DVD was released by The Weinstein Company and Genius Entertainment on May 20, 2008. Special features include a feature-length documentary, an audio commentary, deleted scenes, Behind the Scenes featurette, and five short films that came about via a MySpace contest. It was released the same day as a new edition of Night of the Living Dead. [13]
[edit] References
- ^ CHUD.com - A film site for the brilliant
- ^ a b Diary of the Dead, Teeth and Quarantine Get Dates!. Bloody-Disgusting.com (2007-11-01). Retrieved on 2007-11-02.
- ^ a b c d e f g Diary of the Dead shooting and more Cast!. MoviesOnline. Retrieved on 2006-10-29.
- ^ DeDekker, Jeff. "Regina actress makes her mark in 'Booky' role", Regina Leader-Post, 2006-10-21. Retrieved on 2006-10-02.
- ^ Capone With George A. Romero!!.
- ^ Kincaid, Nina (2006-08-30). Script Review: Romero's "Diary of the Dead". Flixens. Retrieved on 2006-09-14.
- ^ a b . The film was produced by Romero's company and many might say it fulfils Romero's modern Dead film better than the mixed reviewed Land of the Dead. That being said, many stylistic conventions of previous Romero Dead films are absent. The film has virtually no musical soundtrack which has been a Romero staple (Specifically Dawn of the Dead with the Goblins). Since the film is captured by internal sources (within the film and narrative) Romero's long still shots and crafty moving cranes are virtually absent. Since the film is taking on a different concept, and "re-establishing" a legendary horror tale, this all makes sense. McClintock, Pamela. "Romero will raise 'Dead'", Variety.com, 2006-08-24. Retrieved on 2006-09-14.
- ^ The zombie king returns to the 'Dead' - CNN.com
- ^ Hollywood Gothique: "Talking about 'Diary of the Dead'"
- ^ TIFF '07 - Films & Schedules George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
- ^ Romero's 'Diary' breathes new life into the dead - USATODAY.com
- ^ Diary of the Dead at Rotten Tomatoes
- ^ FANGORIA® - America's Horror Magazine
[edit] External links
- Diary of the Dead at the Internet Movie Database
- Diary of the Dead at Apple
- Diary of the Dead at MetaCritic
- Diary of the Dead at Rotten Tomatoes
- The First Week – A look at the first week of filming on Diary of the Dead, hosted by Special Features Producer Michael Felsher.
- Official Site UK
- Trailer, the first trailer of the film released January 10, 2008.
- Interview: George Romero on Diary of the Dead
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