“If it’s not on camera, it’s like it never happened.”
- DIARY OF THE DEAD

Legendary horror icon, George A. Romero, returns to the big screen in this month’s highly anticipated film, “Diary of the Dead.” This film was independently financed making it Romero’s first indie zombie film in years, and has already announced plans for a sequel.

Horror fans will be pleased to see the same type of flesh eating zombies we have come to know and love from Romero’s previous films, as well as his signature social commentary. However, unlike the typical horror cult classics including, “Night of the Living Dead,” Dawn of the Dead,” “Day of the Dead,” and “Land of The Dead,” Romero chose to focus more on the subject of human interaction, and first hand experiences with the dead roaming the earth, rather than the actual zombies themselves.

The entire duration of the film takes place within the first three nights of the world witnessing the dead becoming the “undead.”

This film challenges the basis of human morality, and the issue of reality vs. the media. How far will you go to ‘get the story,’ and when is it enough? How do people in the midst of tragedy choose to react, or not react? When there is an accident on the highway, why do we as humans feel the need to slow down and look? “We feel compelled- not to help, but to watch.”

The Diary begins with a zombie encounter caught on tape, only to be shown later on in the film from an edited perspective- the media’s perspective. (Fans may recognize some of the newsreaders voices as Wes Craven, Quentin Tarantino, and Stephen King). This sets the catalyst for our group of main characters who had been filming their own horror movie in the woods of Pennsylvania during the time of this zombie apocalypse. The film’s student director decides to use his own camera to capture the real story in a documentary entitled "The Death of Death." The film is shot from the perspective of several video cameras which are then edited together and narrated by the films female protagonist.

Because of this style of filming, the audience feels closer connected to the characters, as if they are really there witnessing everything first hand as these people are. This makes for some interesting jumps and scares because the audience is only seeing what happens on camera, until it pans in the direction of the horror that these people are experiencing. They are forced to fight for their lives with the reality of having no food, no fuel, no weapons, and only an old vehicle to seek shelter.

Like “The Blair Witch Project,” this film may make you dizzy with its sudden jumps and camera movements.

“Diary of the Dead” is about humanity, and how people choose to react to different situations. It is a horror film with flesh eating zombies and underlying subtext. It is a blend of drama, gore, campyness, and added slapstick in just the right places. It challenges the fact that these zombies may be eating human flesh, but how different is that from humans feeding off of the tragedy of other human beings? They would rather watch someone die and capture it on tape, instead of helping them. And to them, it’s just another day’s work, because they ‘got the story.’ After all, “If it’s not on camera, it’s like it never happened.”

-Michelle Romano

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Photos From Diary Of The Dead Screening NYC 2/6/08