Diary of the Dead (2007) Review

Synopsis

A group of young film students run into real-life zombies while filming a horror movie of their own.

Diary of the Dead Good Points

• I enjoyed the themes at play here, about attention and people wanting to be seen, and it’s also not subtle at all, so while not overly original of course, it was handled pretty decently.
  
  
• Some of the cast are decent enough, and come across well, showcasing the feeling of real people stuck in a situation they can’t handle.
  
  
• It has a rough, low polish feel, but that actually suits it most of the time, and while it’s messy, it’s messy in a way that does fit what’s happening on screen.
  
  
• The way people keep repeating the same mistakes under pressure also feels pretty accurate, and just like if it was happening to you, it would be hard to adapt properly, and also hard not to just panic, argue, freeze, and then do it all again.
  
  
• There are moments where the idea behind it actually comes through clearly enough, especially when it decides to slows down and focus on how people are reacting to everything instead of just throwing shit at you.
  
  
• The pacing is good, so even when it gets uneven and a bit on a tonal mess, there’s always something at least happening to keep you interested.

Diary of the Dead Bad Points

• The tone jumps around a lot, and it feels like the movie can’t quite decide if it wants to be serious, chaotic, or make a point about media and attention, so it just kind of swings between all of them without much balance.
  
  
• While some of the performances are decent enough, as mentioned, others do feel a bit too aware of the camera, and when that happens, it obviously breaks the sense that this is all unfolding naturally, which is of course very important for found footage.
  
  
• While it does hint at some interesting ideas and slows down at times to focus on them, it doesn’t really slow down long enough to explore any of them properly, so just when something feels like it’s getting interesting, it decided to just move on again.
  
  
• The editing felt a bit too scattered at times, like scenes are jumping forward far too quickly.

Final thoughts on Diary of the Dead

Diary of the Dead was watchable enough I thought, but it does have some messy execution, but it kept my attention and has something to say, even it doesn’t always know how to say it cleanly.

Diary of the Dead Trailer
Diary of the Dead on IMDB