I’ll say this for filmmaker George A. Romero - he’s done us all a big favor. By virtually creating the zombie genre with “Night of the Living Dead” way back in 1968, the filmmaker paved the way for great movies like “28 Days Later,” “Shaun of the Dead” plus that great “B****, get out the room!” scene in “The 40 Year Old Virgin.” But I think he should have stopped hemorrhaging fake blood and wanky scripts way back in the 70s.
Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s an unpopular opinion. Romero’s a “legend.” A “master of the craft.” Sure, he made some great horror movies years ago that worked as brave social commentary. Yes, he inspired some maverick filmmakers. Fine. But, did you catch his last movie, the dreadful mind-numbing wreck “Land of the Dead?” That one made it official - Romero’s knack for weaving unexpected social messages into genre movies has been successfully passed on to other, finer filmmakers. Plus, the dude really needs a good editor and a dialogue writer.
Now, since no one seems to be able to stop him, Romero is releasing “Diary of the Dead,“ about a group of young YouTube-savvy film students battling real-life zombies while trying to film a no-budget horror movie. Sounds trite you say? Well, the critics who screened the thing at the Toronto International Film Festival agree. It’s been widely panned. Here’s what SlashFilm had to say:
“‘Diary of the Dead’ is a concept with out substance, an idea without a clue.”
FirstShowing wrote, ” the concept, while great on paper, falls apart on film.”
And IGN says, “‘Diary’ is severely lacking in tension, horror, and the thought found in something like ‘Dawn of the Dead.’”
So far the promotional footage for this touted return-to-form for Romero looks cliched, boring and just plain dumb. It’s supposed to be a commentary on the irrelevance of mainstream media in the age of YouTube, etc, etc, but the thing looks like little more than a desperate mash-up of “Land of the Dead” and the worst attributes of “The Blair Witch Project.”
I know, I’m bringing the hate, but when the press release for the thing calls it “an attempt to reestablish a lucrative franchise,” you know it’s gonna be bad. Word is the Weinsteins are distributing “Diary” and, if it does well, Romero’s promised a sequel. Please. Let’s stop this now. If you must watch this flick, wait for it on DVD. Don’t encourage the guy to keep taking the fun out of the zombie genre. He can always direct episodes of “Painkiller Jane” or something.
Watch this short “Diary of the Dead” making-of clip to judge for yourself.
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Photo courtesy The Weinstein Company
See, you assume he has a carreer.
Honestly, what has George Romero done in the last 20 years? I love the guy’s work, and more importantly, he created a new genre of horror…. despite the fact that it’s been copied by every idiot with a camera has driven that genre into the ground.
I say, let the man make zombie movies… if anyone deserves to, it’s him.
What needs to happen though, for both his career and zombies as a whole, is have George as producer hook up with writer Robert Kirkman and HBO to make an on-going Mature Audiences TV series about zombies.
Zombies 365 days a year. Heck yeah.