Diary of the Dead

Saw this Romero movie, Diary of the Dead. Decent flick. 2007. Decent effects for a low-ish budget movie. The genius from Romero is the mood and the performances he gets out of the actors. One tedious part at the end which added up to making a foolish critique of wholesome country people, people of the soil... that happen to like beer and nascar… you know, Hillbillies. He made a moral equivalence between mindless predatory flesh eaters and people that enjoy hunting and shooting. Not cool, but that is a long running theme in Romero movies. I think George might just hate Rednecks or something. Newsflash, George. It’s not the same breed of Redneck today that you had back in 1968. Ease up. They aren't society's bane.

But that’s really a minor quibble. The movie is worth the rental despite that. Sure the acting is REALLY clunky in parts, but, hey, it’s a zombie movie. Zombie movies are good.

The premise is; a film school class is making a mummy movie in the woods outside of Pittburg. The Type 4 outbreak starts in the middle of this and they decide to vamoose on back home. To Harrisburg, Scranton, and/or Philadelphia and whatnot. So a small group, unsure of what is happening in the world and what a zombie is, head off in a Winnebego. One of the students records it all with the video camera because he has some compulsion to be a documentarian. Picture Michael Moore, but this guy doesn’t make stuff up.

This type of Level 4 Zombie outbreak is the worst possible. It is even more hopeless than sprinting zombies infected by a Rage virus. In Romero style outbreaks, EVERYONE becomes a zombie when they die. Yes, if you get bitten, the bite will fester and kill you and you’ll come back to feast on the living, fine. That's typical of all zombies. But. If you die of old age you come back as a zombie. If you drown you come back as a zombie. If you starve to death in your impervious zombie shelter you come back as a zombie. Unless you die of a destroyed brain or severed head you will come back as a zombie. The film students call their documentary “The Death of Death.” No one just dies in a Romero movie. You are alive, an undead, or you have a head wound and can finally rest. These zombies have unlimited endurance, too, and don’t need food for energy to stay mobile and dangerous. Sort of a violation of the laws of thermodynamics, but… whatcha gonna do? At least they are shamblors. If it was universal undead conversion AND sprinters? Well, it’d be a very short movie. As it is, it doesn’t take long to spread such a horror, globally.

There is a little chrome gun at the beginning. It does most of the shooting in the movie. And the college kids shooting are really good shots. It looks a tiny bit like a Colt Pocket Hammerless. I say that because it is really the only small gun I am familiar with, so, my head turns to it whenever I see small guns. It was certainly in the .380 style. But the gun must have held 24 rounds in the tiny grip. And you had to rack the slide of this semi-auto randomly. Not for the function of the pistol, or because it malfunctioned, but for dramatic effect. You know how it is…

There is some M16 action. One revolver is prominent and looks cowboy style. And a very effective bow and arrow set. There is a flash of 2 boobs. 4 gallons of blood are spilt.

T-Bolt says check it out