Diary of the Dead

[PosterOfStuff]

Ok I am a complete nutter for Zombie movies, especially from George Romero (well except day of the dead).

I only just noticed this had been released in the US about a month ago, and I have been searching everywhere for stuff about it. I would kill to see it, but being in Australia its not out here yet .

So anyone out there seen it, and feel like posting some thoughts about it ?

[Cybsled]

It hasn't been released in theaters in the wide-spread release sense. AFAIK it's only been played in a couple locations so far. Most of the early buzz I've heard has been luke-warm at best, although most still rate it better then Land of the Dead.

TBH the only zombie movie I've really liked lately is the Dawn remake. Although I heard they are making a World War Z movie...that could have awesome kickass potential. In my mind I see the perfect trailer for that movie:

Have some closeup on the eyes of some soldier. Have them wide with fear. The muzzle blasts are reflected in the surface of his eyes. As the camera slowly pans back, a voice over starts talking about cliche war stuff...it's hell, it's brutal, etc. As the the camera pans out more, we see he is on the top of a tank, which is also firing. The camera angle is purposely looking from a down-to-up angle. We still can't see the whole scene. Finally it pans out more...we see some more soldiers. One staggers back with a bloody arm, screaming something we can't hear. A couple other soldiers look at eachother briefly before raising their firearms and gunning down the wounded soldier. Finally the voice over says something to the effect of "Someone once said only the dead have seen the end of war. They couldn't be farther from the truth". Then we finally have a larger panout. We see a small defensive circle of soldiers and armor, but they are literally surrounded by an unending sea of millions of zombies. The zombies have begun to breach the perimeter of the circle. In the background we see the burning buildings of New York and helicopters firing missles in the sea of zombies. Fade to black. Show a screen that looks like the cover of the WWZ book. Then have the words "Z Day comes Summer 200x". That trailer would pwn.

[Burkex]

Originally Posted by Cybsled

TBH the only zombie movie I've really liked lately is the Dawn remake. Although I heard they are making a World War Z movie...that could have awesome kickass potential.

I agree with Dawn of the Dead that remake was fantastic. 28 Days Later was also great. I would say those have been the only two good zombie movies in awhile.

As for this movie I have not seen it in any theaters in Florida.

[Frax]

You forgot Shaun of the Dead!

[PosterOfStuff]

I really like the remake Dawn of the Dead as well, having super fast zombies is pretty cool. I don't think the movie tried to be anything more than just a well movie really which is fine.

I noticed George Romero (who likes to put some kind of social commentry into his movies) is remaking Day of the Dead, so I really hope that goes well.

[PosterOfStuff]

Oh and thanks for the cool youtube links Burkex.

[w166um]

Don't forget Terror Planet.

[TheOkapi]

I'm a huge zombie movie fan, and just eat them movies up (except the 28day/weeks, can't stand those). I'll be seeing this on release day. I don't care how lame the idea is, which I don't think this idea is. Though I do know a lot of folks who do think this is a lame idea for a movie. Wuteva, if brains get et, I'll be good.

[Cybsled]

Oh yes, Shaun of the Dead. That rocked

"Mom, there is NOTHING left of the man you love in that car! NOTHING!"
*zombie turns off the loud music*
"Ok, time to go!"

[huh]

Zombie thread comes back alive!

DVDrip of this hit the net a few days ago for anyone interested.

[Bottle]

Fast zombies suck.

Premutos Lord of the Dead is one of the best zombie movies of the last decade or so.

[Astrocreep]

this thread made me find this off the net today, it was an ok movie but sometimes these movies piss me off. i mean these people just saw a million zombies eat a million people and the first house they see they totally drop their guard and act like everything is ok. the one dude just assumes hes safe and sound in that mansion and doesnt even see the zombie in the bathroom until its too late.

[Burg-Hyjal]

I saw this a month ago or so at a theater, I really love zombie movies and specifically the Romero ones. I felt like the movie was ok, my only gripe was pretty much all of the characters and some of the plot points. I would have liked to see more with the Amish dude and the black guys in their fortress. The college kids were almost all too cliche to take seriously or give a shit about. The story and social message the movie points out is really good though, and while not a slaughter fest, there are plenty of good action scenes as well.

Unrelated to the movie, I decided to go during the middle of the week at like 1 or 2 in the afternoon. I live in smaller town, so this meant I was the only person in the theater. The movie was being shown in the largest auditorium at the theater, probably seats a few hundred people. This made it one of the most fucked up / scary movie viewing experiences of my life, and I recommend it to anyone that gets lucky enough to try it. The manager came in halfway through to see if anyone snuck in (or maybe to see if I had left, who knows), and I heard the door kinda slam behind me. I stood up immediately and turned around, and he asked "Bad timing?" (during the hospital scene if you've seen it) and I said yeah. We both got a pretty decent laugh out of it.

[Arbitrary]

First of all, compared to Land of the Dead, this film was totally superior. It had some ok scares, a few visually interesting scenes, and the camera use didn't piss me off quite as much as Cloverfield. Towards the end things started to get too dark.

Problems include -

1. Wes Craven Scream style opening with characters making fun of the horror genre.

2. Empty hospital? In a time of crisis? No fucking way.

3. If everyone who has recently died reanimates than what is transmitted through bites that is lethal? Corpses reanimating worldwide on the same day doesn't fit with a contagion spread through fluids. As this is supposed to be a relaunch he really should have handled that problem.

4. Romero introduces interesting side characters and then wastes them. The main characters are all cookie-cutter archtypes.

5. He is still lagging far far behind World War Z in terms of logistics.

He still cannot top what he accomplished in Night of the Living Dead in terms of psychology and simplicity.

[Gwen Rockpounder]

In before the same bunch that trashed the Cloverfield thread come in and shit on it for not being realistic...

As said above, some very different visuals from the norm here and there. The standout one for me was the zombie after having the bottle of acid smashed on its noggin. I laughed like a loon at "Im Samuel. Hello" whilst dynamite is exploding around.

Adding in that everyone reanimates after dying seemed a bit overkill, not sure why he went for that when the original premise is bad enough. Again, like Cloverfield, I wouldn't mind knowing what happened next, did humanity survive or not etc.

Cloverfield's camera work nearly made my puke, this didn't affect me in the slightest so if that's putting you off don't let it.

All in all, if you like zombie movies, give it a look.

If you do, then like me you will be wishing World War Z gets a 200 million budget and is allowed to be 3+ hours or even 2 films if needed, for great justice!