chrislawuk

Every time I watch it I like it a little bit more. As usual, my review will be about general tone and characteristics, as plot twist are best left untold.

One of the initial characters reminded me so much of Geppetto, which is funny right, given the fabulous remake he made a few years back.

There are obvious influences from body horror and its predecessors Hellraiser & Phantasm had strikingly similar concepts. However it is its own movie, and builds on that subgenre carving its own place.

So its good now to go back to these early movies, after the director has now achieved such commercial success.

When it was released back in 1990 you had to place it amongst the other zombie movies of that time. It has some stiff competition, majorly from Romero himself. Looking at it now it is a very strong remake. If I had to watch either this or the original, I would go with this movie. It builds on it by having better effects, cinematography etc. Sure original was better because of its originality, but all in this is a better movie. Has a strong end as well which bridges gap to Dawn a lot better than I remember from the original. Cast & crew, this movie definitely belongs sitting aside the best of Romero's own Directions. The effects post Dawn, do set the series apart from the earlier productions, although the earlier movies tend to attract all the acclaim.

It is easy to dismiss Diary, as there was a plethora of found footage/ social media films around this time. It became very cliche that the movie had to involve social media at some level. However, communication-how surviving factions communicate, has always been central to the franchise.

The breakdown of main stream media, and corporate news, being replaced by camera phones & social media at point of apocalypse, is something central to this movie, and something Romero clearly felt he had to respond to at the time.

So of this specific branch of horror I would say this is one of the most well made. It looks cheap as it is a "found footage" film, filmed on video cameras. It has the cheap look you associate with this genre. Romero always responded to socio economics of the time, and the metaphorical commentary on capitalism was one of the things that made Dawn great. Its the socio-political, socio-economic analysis in these movies which raises the bar above simple horror. They are actually very immersive, and you feel yourself living out these fictional scenarios. It is well considered and researched, very much like my next point-the effect.

The effect sequences, as we have come to expect, are outstanding. There are a number of scenes which I am still trying to figure out. Their practical effects are so good its hard to tell them apart from CGI now. This is evolving throughout the franchise over the years (very much like their zombies lol), and I do fell the franchise does not get enough credit for that.

So all in all very well made. We start with a very broad vision like Dawn, and Romero explores contemporary questions, tightening the scope to great effect here in this further sequel almost 3 decades later.