DIARY OF THE DEAD

Shakily handheld camera footage opens the film, as we see cameraman Brody prepare to film anchorwoman Bree for a TV news broadcast. She's reporting on police who've been called to a house where a man has shot his wife and son then blown his own head off.

As Bree reports, the man and his wife suddenly return to life in the background and attack the paramedics carting their bodies out of their house.

All Hell breaks loose, the camera shaking violently as Brody tries to rescue Bree from the teeth of the very hungry re-animated man.

Over the footage, Debra (Michelle Morgan, ROAD RAGE) narrates. She tells us that the footage was never shown on TV but that she's uploaded it from the Internet to use as part of a film made by her boyfriend Jason (Joshua Close, THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE). Why? Because she wants people to know "the truth".

We then go back in time as Jason's film, "The Death of Death", begins. It begins life at 11pm on October 24th, as a cheesy horror film Jason is making with his college mates as his senior class project. Jason, we learn, is a frustrated wannabe documentary maker forced into making a horror flick for his grades.

The first night of the shoot starts badly with the cast and crew freezing in the woods beside their campus, and Jason getting increasingly irate with unhelpful make-up artist Tony (Shawn Roberts, STIR OF ECHOES: THE HOMECOMING). All events are seen through the lens of Jason's camera, as he films everything religiously.

But things get considerably worse when the group hear a radio report that the recently deceased are returning to life. They don't know what to believe, but Jason - camera in hand, still recording all - decides to go and check on girlfriend Debra in the women's dormitory, just in case. The dorm is abandoned save for Debra, locked in her room sobbing. She's heard the news on TV and has been unable to contact her family by telephone.

Jason and Debra go back to the group and jump in a van, where the idea is to get everyone home as quickly as possible. Much to Debra's chagrin, Jason continues to film the events, making his own documentary of this momentous occasion. He encourages the group to introduce themselves on screen: Mary (Tatiana Maslany, THE MESSENGERS) drives the van nervously; computer savvy Eliot (Joe Dinicol, THE VIRGIN SUICIDES); drunker college professor Maxwell (Scott Wentworth, THE ICE STORM); nice but dim Gordo (Chris Violette, SLEEPAWAY CAMP 5) and his bonny girlfriend Tracy (Amy Ciupak Lalonde, HEARTSTOPPER); along with of course, Debra, Tony and Jason himself.

Introductions over with, it's not long before the group happen upon a road accident and are flagged down by a cop. The closer he gets, they realise he's all messed up facially and, panicking, Mary puts her foot down and mows him down.

After running a couple more apparently undead people over, Mary has to pull over to one side of the road and take time out to come to terms with what she's done. Unfortunately she can't console herself and shoots herself in the face.

Distraught, the rest of the group discover Mary is still alive and rush her to the nearest hospital. The building however is abandoned, save for a few zombified nurses and doctors. Luckily the group have by this time discovered that they can stop the flesh-eating undead by shooting them in the head.

Picking up another camera at the hospital but losing Mary and Gordo along the way, the group continue to film their trials as they move onwards toward home - never knowing what will await them if and when they ever get there …

Debra's narration reappears on occasion throughout the film, and is an undeniable distraction. Romero explains in the commentary track why he left it in (I see his point in one scene later in the film where Debra meets her family - Romero's reasoning makes sense), but I still feel the film would have benefited from it being removed.

The documentary-style of the filmmaking works quite well now and again, with the handheld footage lending a raw authenticity to some of the more panicked moments. Unfortunately a lot of this tension is undone by other scenes that have been edited in, presumably by Debra, such as TV footage (look for the brief cameo from Wes Craven) from around the world and flashbacks to certain moments from the film. Again, it's unnecessary and wholly distracting.

A further distraction is the script, which allows characters to make quips and one-liners here and there, when in reality they've just discovered zombies are real and their friends have been eaten. It doesn't add up, it's silly.

On the plus side, the performances are generally sharp, with Morgan holding her own well against a largely male cast. Wentworth is poor as the moralising drunk, although his character does - along with Debra - serve as Romero's platform for his usual social debate: Why is this happening? Is it right for Jason to be filming it? Does capturing an image on camera make it more real?

Greg Nicotero's zombie FX are as good as you'd expect, and there's some satisfying gore - although the film isn't as gory as DAY OF THE DEAD or the original DAWN. In terms of tone, DIARY is most in tune with DAY: the future is bleak for these characters, and all they're going to do in the meantime is bicker internally.

The film is presented uncut in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen and looks very good indeed. Of course, being shot on HD Video means it's never going to look as good as actual film, but we get a relatively sharp and clean picture regardless.

Colours are well saturated and although there is occasional ghosting, it's minimal and not a distraction.

The English audio is available in 2.0 and 5.1 mixes. Although the 5.1 mix does a good, well-balanced job, it's not really required. Optional English subtitles are available for the hard of hearing.

Disc 1 of this 2-disc set opens with trailers for ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE, THE ORPHANAGE and STORM WARNING.

A gorgeous animated main menu serves as a mock version of a You Tube- style site where extras can be selected as "downloadable files".

A scene-selection menu allows access to the main feature via 12 chapters.

Of the extras on disc 1, the audio commentary is undoubtedly the most interesting. An affable chat between Romero, editor Michael Doherty and director of photography Adam Swica, this is a lively and informative listen. Romero is true to form and laughs throughout proceedings, especially when the gore appears.

Disc 1 also offers 17 minutes of interviews with the principal cast members, introduced by Romero. Unfortunately these snippets don't offer much insight into the filmmaking process, as the actors seem more concerned about fawning over the genius of Romero.

Te first disc is rounded off by "Speak of the Dead", 15 minutes of video footage from Bloor Cinema in Toronto, where Romero appeared in August 2007 to discuss his early influences (EC horror comics etc). It's an interesting watch.

Disc 2 continues with a plethora of noteworthy extras.

"Master of the Dead" is another interview with Romero, this time focussing more on DIARY. This 13-minute featurette includes introductions from the film's producers (yes, they all fawn over old George too).

If you want more from Romero, then don't fret - next up is a 19-minute interview with the man conducted at the 2007 FrightFest convention.

For those more interested in learning how the film was made, there are some fairly insightful documentaries that follow: "A New SPIN On Death" is a good 19-minute featurette highlighting the technological skills of Steven Lewis and Colin Davies of SPIN VFX; "You Look Dead!" is 11 minutes with FX artist Greg Nicotero, focussing on the zombie make-up and non-CGI gore; "A World Gone Mad" takes a 20 minute look at the photography and visual design of the production.

Want more? Well, there's 20 minutes of "confessionals" from the main actors which sees them recording candid video diary-style asides to the camera, in character. These seem to be ad-libbed for fun, and frankly are embarrassing to sit through.

Stephen King, Simon Pegg and Guillermo Del Toro pop up (or at least their voices do) as we get to hear 5 minutes of their unedited vocal recordings used on the film.

Two short featurettes follow: "The First Week" (4 minutes) which finds an excited Michael Felsher on set on the first day of shooting; and "The Roots", another 2 minutes of wisdom from Mr Romero.

Inevitably, there's the original theatrical trailer here too.

Last but certainly not least, we get the excellent 83-minute "One For The Fire: Night of the Living Dead 40th Anniversary Documentary".

Worth the price of this DVD set alone, this is a staggeringly comprehensive look at one of the greatest horror films ever made, utilising hundreds of rare on-location stills alongside new video footage of many cast and crew members reminiscing fondly about the shoot.

Judith O'Shea and Russell Streiner open proceedings, re-enacting their famous cemetery drive from the film's opening. The smile on your face will already be a mile wide at this point, and it just keeps getting better.

Dedicated to actor Karl Hardman who died last year (but does get interviewed here), "One For The Fire" offers a whopping amount of insight into the making of NIGHT. Romero obviously is predominant throughout, although Streiner - who produced the original film - gets a lot of screen time too. His brother Gary, sound engineer on NIGHT, pops up too - in fact, everyone still breathing makes an appearance.

With rare archive footage and old early commercials from The Latent Image company to boot, this is a definitive document of a seminal horror film. It's up there with Blue Underground's "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: The Shocking Truth".

The documentary is presented in a nice 1.85:1 ratio, enhanced for 16x9 TV sets. The clips from NIGHT are exceptionally clean, and presented in windowboxed full-frame.

DIARY OF THE DEAD is a passable zombie film, and certainly much more fun than LAND OF THE DEAD. It's probably the edgiest film Romero's made in two decades. Which is cause for minor celebration, I suppose. But it's still seriously flawed and I suspect it'll struggle to hold up to repeated viewings.

The diary-style horror film format has been done to death now, with [REC] surely emerging as the only entry of this cycle that is truly indispensable. DIARY on the other hand is dispensable. But this two-disc package is interesting regardless, and almost worth its asking price simply for the brilliant "One For The Fire" documentary.

Also available on Blu-ray disc.

Review by Stuart Willis