jikokeno3.3

The Death of Death

I went to see Diary of the Dead yesterday, on opening night, because (as you should well know by now) I am a massive fan of the zombie genre, and given George A Romero's last effort was totally shite I wanted to see him redeem himself. Warning: Though I've tried my best, I may have accidentally let some spoilers slip. They won't be serious ones, but if you really wanna see it you should do that first and then read this.

He did redeem himself. Oh, by Christ how he did.

When I said I was a fan of the zombie genre, I must preface by saying that my zombie film viewing has been lax. In fact, other than 28 Days Later (which I will defend to the death as a zombie style movie), I have seen Romero's Dawn of the Dead and Land of the Dead. I know there are others I apparently need to see, and I will, I'm sure. But that's by the by. After reading such books as The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z by Max Brooks, as well as the graphic novel series The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman, I'd say I know what's what.

Zombie fiction is never about the zombies themselves. The good fiction, anyway. It's about how human beings react to the new situation and world order they now find themselves in. Romero especially overdoses the audience on social interactions and Kirkman's comics are all about the human characters. They choose zombies because it's a timeless threat and it affects all humans equally; there are no race or gender differences, and anyone alive can turn into a zombie. That's what I like about it all - the really good zombie fiction makes you think about how you'd react to the problem and what you'd do in that situation. It's something that myself and my friend Elliott have given serious - very goddamn serious - thought to.

And in that respect, Diary comes up trumps. Let's go into the plot synopsis. Diary of The Dead is a truly modern retelling on the genre. The basic plot is very simple. A group of American university film students and their British professor are filming a horror movie for an assignment when news comes of the dead returning to life and attacking the living.

It's told brilliantly. Right before you see the opening horror scene you see events unfold from the camera of a news crew reporting on a simple homicide. I won't go into that scene too much, as it's the trailer on the official website. Over the top a voiceover from the character Deborah tells us that what we are about to see is the footage from her former beloved Jason Creed's camera. Creed is the director and cameraman from the horror film, and it's through his eyes that we see the events of the film.

I know what you're thinking. Cloverfield meets Dawn of the Dead. And, I guess, you'd be right in drawing certain parallels between the two. The entirety of Diary is told through first person cameras, be it Jason and his camera, a second camera found in a hospital or CCTV cameras. How it differs is the key, but I can see the uninitiated movie critic making mention of Romero's bad timing in releasing Diary just after Cloverfield. There are differences.

Deb narrates the film at various points of it. She mentions at the beginning that she has edited the footage, and added a soundtrack. She tells us that everything we see did happen, it's entirely true... but she does want to scare us. She wants to scare us so that we do things differently, so we know how terrifying the situation is. Which works nicely. The film is what it is - a motion picture - with sound effects and editing, but it still retains realism. That's where the name of the blog comes from - Deb's even put in an opening credit. The film we watch is Jason Creed's The Death of Death.

Realism is the key to the whole movie. Obviously, there are some dodgy acting moments and parts in the film you think "no way they would do that," but naturally people have different ways of coping with things like this; ignoring that it's an oft-mocked zombie flick, just think about it for a sec. You find that the dead are turning to life and will kill you if they get the chance. You find that anyone who dies, in whatever way, comes back as one of these creatures. You would, I'd imagine, be scared shitless. I know I would.

Which is what annoyed me in the beginning of the film. One character dies, naturally, at the beginning of the film, and naturally there's a lot of grief and anger. But then when the character reanimates and is shot, nothing. In fact, in the aforementioned hospital, Gordo, a friend of Jason, Deborah et all, shoots them in the head without any qualms. At this point in the film there is still some doubt as to whether these people are alive or dead - it is a bit of a far fetched concept, if you think about it - and yet BLAM BLAM BLAM they're dead within minutes. No problem. I'm not sure if I could do that. Obviously we don't have as free access to guns as the yanks do, but still. Also, on the subject of annoying unrealism, how come everyone is an expert headshot marksman?

Those were the sole niggles I had. The film was nicely paced, fucking orgasmically shot and built up tension and eeriness in just the right places. And, unlike Cloverfield, it had nice points where Jason was running out of batteries for his camera, and left his friends to find help whilst he stayed behind to plug his charger in. We don't see the action the kids mention they've seen upon their return, but it does add to the realism, and serves to build up tension between characters.

Aha, onto Jason and his camera. Now, from the first 5 minutes of the film we know he's dead. Deb refers to him in the past tense, he was a good friend, etcetera. I thought this might ruin it a bit. But no. About 30 minutes in and I was praying for the fucker to get bitten. He goes from a film school director who "wanted to shoot documentaries, but decided to do a horror because there's always a market for it" to a man obsessed. He checks his Myspace page at some point to find that the footage he's uploaded so far has received 70 odd thousand hits. He has decided somewhere along the line that he must record at all costs - even to a point where he refuses to help a friend with a zombie damn near on top of her. He puts the camera before all else, including his own life. It's annoying, but after watching Cloverfield (I'm sorry to keep harping on about that) and now this I can understand why, and I can see myself doing the same thing. Documenting for future audiences to see what really happened, without government spin. Just the truth of the matter. I guess that's just the nature of me, though; I keep a blog, I'm always writing my thoughts down somewhere, be it here, Facebook, forums, Dead Ends... I would hope that should a zombie apocalypse occur that I don't take it to the extent that Diary does. I value my life over the greater good, any day. Sue me.

So, onto key highlights.

The Professor. I forget the guy's name, but he's genius. A washed up British guy from Portsmouth with a drink problem. Never minces his words, though does flower them up a bit, and looks drop dead awesome with every weapon he uses - be it 9mm, longbow or sword. Sword!

Samuel, the Amish guy. If I ever get old, Amish and deaf, I wanna be just like him. Handy with a scythe.

The footage of military people breaking into an old couples' house is the thing that disgusted and disturbed me the most. And that includes a zombie turning over on a bed, his entrails falling out, and then he on top of them.

Jason's end. Brilliantly done, and really hit home his grown obsession with the camera.

Also, just for a three second laugh, the "human goldfish bowl". You'll know what I mean when you see it.

And you will see it. You should at any rate. Don't let the dire "all gore, no plot" Land of the Dead sour your view of George Romero. He's the pioneer, the artiste! Yes, there's gore, by Dawn and Land's Greg Nicotero no less, but there's also a lot more. And for that, I give the thing 7.3 out of 8.. Cloverfield is still my personal hit this year, and it's going to be hard to beat its score of 14 out of 8. But with the best directing Romero has ever done, a great cast of unknowns making believable 3 dimensional characters, make up to blow your mind and twists and turns at every junction, it's gotta be on your to-do list.

posted by Cos Ryan @ 4:19 PM