World of the Dead: The Zombie Diaries

Having seen the first "The Zombie Diaries", I wanted to watch through part 2 as well. Not because I was overly impressed with the first one, but simply because it is a zombie movie and because I love all things zombie.

It was painfully clear that they had a bigger budget behind them this time in this production, and that really helped the movie along a good deal. Now with that being said, then let me just nail it clear that the whole hand-held camera point of view is not in my liking. So seeing a whole movie through that point of view was a notch down in the enjoyment of the movie for me.

Looking at the DVD cover I think to myself 'what the...?' The cover has two solders on it, yeah they are in the movie. Alright. But then in the background there is a metropolis in ruin and in flames. Right. Well there were no metropolis in the movie. The entire movie took place in a military base, a forest, a small village and a military bunker! Moving on, in front of this crumbling metropolis is a vast army of zombies. Again, what? There weren't that many zombies in the movie. Come on! The DVD cover was a total scam! It had very little to do with the actual movie, and it is a cheap trick to lure people in.

The zombies in "World of the Dead" could have been done more to make them look like zombies. It was basically just people with some wounds here and there. That whole gore and gross decomposition effect was lacking and it made the zombies look more like drunken stumbling buffoons.

Having seen "World of the Dead" now, I can scratch it off the list, and I can say that it is not a zombie movie that I will be watching a second time, because it had no real appeal and it just didn't have enough contents to make it worth a second watching. "World of the Dead" is good if you are a zombie aficionado and just have to watch zombie movies for the heck of it. Other than that, there is little new to be seen in this movie.

Remember that bit in the Zombie Dead where they let all the zombies into the house because 'maybe its the house they want'? Well, within the first five minutes of this film, during a zombie epidemic, some guy leaves his family to go out and check out a noise, then his wife leaves their kid in the house to look for him (while filming, of course), then runs back into the house and keeps the camera focused on her kid while something climbs the stairs, enters the room, and then kills them both. That's not a good start to any film.

Some army guys (one with a camera of course) have to take to their heels and leave their base after the gates get open. They had for the coast with a view to getting to Holland, and run into zombies and some raping redneck types. Now, I'm all for zombie films, and this film works when the army takes on the dead, either in the base or in a house they end up in, but when these rapist guys show up, the film heads towards Straw Dogs territory where they torture and attempt to rape on of the soldiers. It's not pleasant to watch and puts a dampener on the rest of the film, which wasn't much to begin with.

You'd need to suspend your belief if you want any enjoyment out of this found footage film. In this world, when someone drops the camera, someone else picks it up and immediately starts filming. This film had some good points but it didn't need the rape and torture stuff - that's a genre I tend to avoid.

Also: Do the British army use the phrase 'clicks' when talking about distance?

What can I add that hasn't already been said in the other reviews? Well, I sat through it and at no point did I consider turning it off. So that has to be a big PLUS right? I turned TRON:Legacy off halfway through but for very different reasons so I won't use it as a benchmark ...

I haven't seen the original Zombie Diaries so had no frame of reference which may or may not be a good thing. Suffice to say that while I can't argue against what has been expressed by others, I cant say that I found it as bad as it is claimed. And it IS bad! However, if (and i do mean IF) you can look past the poor acting (They do at least TRY!), barren script and poor direction then it MAY just be worth 90 mins of your life.

This film is not about zombies in the way that Romero's films tend to be. In WotD it would be possible to replace the undead with other elements such as rednecks or bikers and still get the same results. WotD appears to focus on the main characters - which is very difficult given the script! What makes WotD watchable is its Point-of-View (PoV) technique - it's almost entirely seen through a Handy/Steady Cam of a military journalist 'embedded' with the unit. This alone saves the film from being appalling - as many editorial gaffes and directorial no-nos are hidden or avoided completely.

If, after reading these reviews, you DO decide to give it a go then be prepared to switch it off. If you're a zombie fan like myself then it MIGHT we worth your while.

You have been fairly warned ....

3/10

Most of this film is instantly forgettable, acting is so so, story is generic and doesnt hold on any one concept long enough for it to have any real impact. I would have given this a 2/10 except the ending was very good, I really liked that, too little too late really though.

This kind of sucks because Zombie movies are usually a good genre. I don't think I saw the first one, but I can only assume it must have been decent if they decided to make a sequel. Then again, I've seen movies that suck but still got a second installment.

It was a interesting story about a new society that is a lawless England, were a few civilians construct a new army in order to defend themselves. When a message that a rescue boat is coming in 2 days reaches them, the team risk traveling across lawless land to get to it. the big problem is that the authority of the military is not liked as they are blamed for how bad the Zombie apocalypse got, so anyone wearing that uniform will not be welcomed.

Form what was said in the bonus features the original film predates Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity, both of which are excellent found footage films. I hope the first Zombie Diaries is that good, cause this one an'it. It's bad ones like these that really screw up the genre for me.

It's a slow zombie film whose characters are too underdeveloped for my taste. That's what a zombie flick for me is about, getting to know the type of people who can survive a Zombie Apocalypse, but these people I did not want to know.

Once again. I don't think I've see the first, but hopefully it's good enough to take a look at, but skip this one.