George Romero - Diary of the Dead

[Isaac_Brody]

For all you zombie fans, Romero's going to helm another zombie film.


The storyline revolves around a group of film students who encounter real zombies when making a horror film in the woods.


http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=37652

[J.R. Hudson]

Lame

Romero is a hack.

[Blaine]

Lame

Romero is a hack.
Why don't you tell us what you really think, John...:Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)

[Kholi]

LOL.

This guy is the Zombie King.

[J.R. Hudson]

I love

Night Dawn and Day but LAND was just bizarely bad

[NO CA$H]

I agree Land of the Dead was pretty bad. I'm suprised he got the greenlight to direct another one.

[Kholi]

??? Who needs to greenlight him? He's got his own production company...

And he's the king of zombies, regardless. He'll make and sell until he passes.

[NO CA$H]

I never knew and I'm a fan of of his Dead films. Do you know what the company is called?

[Kholi]

Romero-Grunwald.

He needs to hurry up with Diamond Dead! GAHD. I remember reading that script like two years ago. That could be very interesting.

[NO CA$H]

Diamond Dead sounds pretty funny.

I see on imdb that they made a 3-D Night of the living Dead. Thats got to be pretty cool.

[Staven]

I can't see this being a theatrical release, at least not in North America unless it somehow lands a name actor.

Land of didn't do too well at the box office, so there isn't huge demand for Romero to do another.

As much of a "hack" as he is, he's still done something I dream about minutely - made it and had a career in the business.

As much as I loathed Land of when I saw it in the theatre, I bought the dvd for cheap and now sort of enjoy it; but mostly for the spfx and behind the scenes stuff - especially the part with the guys from Shaun of.

[donkathon]

Lame

Romero is a hack.
:Drogar-BigGrin(DBG) THANK YOU FOR SAYING THAT! :love4:
If I'd had said it, I would have been murdered. Everyone is too afraid of you to say anything else.

Mr. Verbinski can make a good horror.

[Staven]

:
Mr. Verbinski can make a good horror.
I totally agree. I was afraid during and after the ring. He did a great job. I'm also a little jealous of his ability to be good at every genre he takes on.(I know Weatherman wasn't that great)

[donkathon]

I totally agree. I was afraid during and after the ring. He did a great job. I'm also a little jealous of his ability to be good at every genre he takes on.(I know Weatherman wasn't that great)

My point. I hate horrors/scary stuff (not because theyre scary, but because theyre dumb.) , but he made The Ring GOOD and SCARY, which is hard to do. I applaud him.

[Zak Forsman]

I've met Gore Verbinski. The guy's an ego-trippin' douchebag. I'm just sayin'....

[donkathon]

I've met Gore Verbinski. The guy's an ego-trippin' douchebag. I'm just sayin'....

He can make a movie... but I can believe what your saying.

[HorseFilms]

Verbinski sucks.

[NO CA$H]

The Descent was good AND scary I thought. Not a big fan of Those Ring movies.

[Ogrus]

Day of the Dead was brutal (underground soldier one) The best zombie movie i have seen in years was the remake of "Dawn of the dead" (where they sniper a burt reynolds zombie lookalike)

[jpeck]

I am a huge fan of zombie movies.

Zack Snyder looks promising after the Dawn of the Dead remake. The first 10 minutes of that movie are absolutely entertaining and what every zombie fan has been wanting for years. Best action zombie movie!!! His next movie 300 looks really good, lets hope it continues the successof Frank Miller comics.

I have met Romero while he was in Toronto filming Land of the Dead. He is the nicest "famous" person I have met.

[spencer]

Did you guys ever see Bruiser?

Holy shit dude...

Let's just say I thought Land of the Dead was one of Romero's better flicks after seeing that one.

Good god.

[Super Trooper]

I only liked one Romero zombie movie:

http://www.internetweekly.org/images/zombie_mall.jpg

As for the new one...

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/images/blair_witch_project150.jpg

Been there, done that.

[Matthew B. Moore]

Land of the Dead was trash.
I can't imagine that this next one is going to be any better.
Movies aren't allowed to be what they once were. Romero is a victim of that trend.

[Bigmagic]

Dang the dude ripped off the title to my yet to be completed Zombie short from last years contest? Oh well I'm a fan I'll watch it and enjoy I like everything Zombie! Long live(do the undead live?) Zombie movies!

[Evan S]

I think that Romero is afraid to do something original which = really lame rehashed ideas.

[The Machinist]

After the laughingstock of land of the dead this is just...ugh.

The only way i can see myself enjoying this is if he takes a totally ridiculous John Waters approach to it.

Like Cecil B. Demented with Zombies.

[Draccan]

[deleted by user]

[Billy Pilgrim]

day .. was the least interesting..


I love Day of the Dead. Although I hated it the first time I saw it.

[Draccan]

[deleted by user]

[The Machinist]

The title screen of Day of the Dead has to be one of my all time favs.


If it weren't for the whole bub aspect of the film I probably would've liked it a whole lot more.

[Filmjunkie677]

I don't think Romero made anything good besides the trilogy... Land was bad... Bad.

Martin is cool just because of the way he plays the whole vampire angle, but it's so poorly made, I can't really sit through it anymore.

[Billy Pilgrim]

I don't think Romero made anything good besides the trilogy...

Creepshow is awesome (except "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" segment). I like Land of the Dead, but I'm probably Romero biased. It's nowhere near as great as the first three, not by a long shot, but it's entertaining, and has some great visuals. The cinematography is probably the best of the series too (Although Night is my favorite cinematographically because it's almost as if John Cassavetes had made a zombie film.) I've heard that KNightriders is pretty good, but I haven't seen it. I still need to see Martin and Two Evil Eyes.

[avortex]

I've seen "Diary of the Dead" at the Sitges Film Festival and is an excellent movie.
It reminds me of the best Romero films...

Romero has made lots of good movies apart of his zombie saga: Martin (one of my faves), Creepshow, Knightriders,... He's a real filmmaker, very passionate about his job, and he has been suffering a lot for trying to do the things he likes.

By the way, "Diary of the Dead" has been shot in part with the HVX-200 :beer:

[J.R. Hudson]

Romero just never has seemed to matured as a filmmkaer in visual terms or mi-en-scene

When I saw LAND, I thought I was watching a MADE FOR TV 80's film. NIght was great, Day was better ...

Other than that, I haven't been impressed with George.

[avortex]

Romero feels fine in any shooting style, and the prove is that "Diary..." is visually one of the best works I've seen in the field of false documentary.

It's true that he is a natural guerrilla filmmaker, but his skills always give good results in any kind of environment: "Land" has the look of today's hollywood films, "Diary" plays the game of the "shot-on-video" movie with oustanding results, "Creepshow" has a great comic feeling, "Monkey Shines" is an excellent example of good suspense,...

But in the end, he's not trying to impress you with his directing: what really makes his work so great are his scripts. He's a terrific screenwriter... original, sensitive, personal and intelligent.
Not the kind of stuff we can see today at our local cineplex...

[J.R. Hudson]

Creepshow and Monkey Shines are both entertaining films. But nothing really worth praising. Creepshow is fun for nostalgia more or less.

I think the only time Geroge has nailed it was with Night of the Living Dead and (my personal preference) Day of the Dead. Dawn is a gritty zombie film, but I still laugh at the absurd action sequences and the blue zombies.

Land; horrible film. This should have been a slam dunk with the height of Zombie popularity and it just was beyond bad. I think the only thing looking modern about it was the Fuji 35mm film. I wanted to like it, I really did.

His writing ? Nothing leaps out to me as "original, sensitive, personal and intelligent".

Night of the Living Dead is a great cult film, but he gets far too much credit for having this vision of world. Those are the words of the Film Commentary enthusiasts. Same goes for Dawn; give me a break with his 'visionary' take on American Consumerism and Shopping Malls.

But

I personally love the genre; so I applaud George for giving it too us. But I'm afraid he's lost his touch; I find Day being his last good film.

The thing with Land was that it felt like the work of someone directing in the 80's. and not to mention the absurd storyline.

[avortex]

Mmmmh... you're right about Romero losing part of his touch after "Day", but I think "Diary" takes him back to his original roots. "Land" is one of his worst films, of course...

But I really find his screenplays as good as I told you. That's just a matter of taste. I prefer his writting style over all the horror (?) movies that are made today. Very few of them have any interest for me. One of the exceptions are some japanese films like "Pulse" or "The Ring", but that's another story...

[J.R. Hudson]

Make no mistake; I am going to see DIARY and hope only for it's best !

[McLeish]

Okay so here's the deal. I caught this back at TIFF and it was largely dissapointing. I love Romero's work, specifically Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, and good or bad, I wont be kept away from his films. Diary of the Dead was definately gripping but it really lets you slip away. Here the rundown, he used way too many digital effects (I dont know of anyone who has better practical effect hook-ups). Also his characters are poorly motivated which is amplified by the cheesy acting (as in every one of films). And the exposition is reckless. HOWEVER, Romero's social and anti-authoritarian subtexts always get me, and he rightly focuses on a different issue rather than just rehashing the Marxism of "Land". The major pitfall is the editing, and I just cant defend it. It's shot too clean and cut too theatrically, losing it's grit. The good news: panny's a plenty.
Dont expect a wide release but im willing to bet that it'll be coming to a Rep house near you. I think at this point your either love the guy or you hate him, and as long as he keeps throwing zombies my way I'll be happy.

[Billy Pilgrim]

Dawn is a gritty zombie film, but I still laugh at the absurd action sequences and the blue zombies.

I don't think the action sequences are absurd, especially compared to a sequence where the characters drive a bus, which they've somehow re-enforced themselves, with slots designed for chainsaw-usage, into a crowd of CGI zombies, who are then blown up after a character tosses a gas tank into the arms of a zombie, and shoots it with a high-powered rifle. Although, they do also shoot a zombie baby in the face, so I'll give the re-make that much. But I'll still take the blue zombies over the running zombies any day of the week.

[J.R. Hudson]

Oh god no

Running zombies are much scarier; who would last 50 Yards on those dudes ?

-

With walking zombies; it's almost a mystery how one gets caught in the first place.

Although it doesn't seem too hard to reinforce a Mall Bus nor shooting a Propane Tank; the sequence could have been done without so much flaire.

DAWN 04 rules.

[Billy Pilgrim]

That's the whole point of slow zombies. You can outrun them, but if Romero has taught us anything, it's that if you get caught in a big group of them, you're going to die. I think the slow zombies are scarier because they imply a much slower death. Dawn '04 has better special effects, and faster zombies, but none of the charm of the original. It's just an action movie that happens to have zombies in it. But if there's one thing we can probably agree on, is that jumping zombies are just ridiculous.

[oldenarm]

LAND is an underrated film, and certainly far more interesting than the DAWN remake, which quickly turned to garbage after the admittedly fun opening sequence.

NIGHT is on the short list for literally the greatest movie ever made, and the other dead films, as well as MARTIN and THE CRAZIES pretty much guarantee Romero's status as an American master. The fact that he has been screwed over and ripped off so much should be a national scandal. He is a filmmaker of ideas, not cheap thrills for their own sake, and the deliberately banal look of them contributes a lot to their appeal and creepiness. I was disappointed he tried to slick things up for LAND, but being that DIARY seems to be shot mostly with cellphone cameras, etc., shows that he's returning to his earlier thinking.

I can't wait.

[avortex]

The DAWN remake is pretty bad compared to the original.
It's just another vulgar action flick...

The characters in the first DAWN are really interesting: very well developed (again the amazing skills of Romero as a screenwriter) and the actors are excellent.
The story is clever and gives you different interpretations...
I prefer substance over efectism any day of the week.

Oh! And the running zombies in the remake... they're no funny anymore...
(Romero has a joke about this on "Diary")

[ZFarms Productions]

trailer for Diary

http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=film

looks kinda good

[jpeck]

I have always personally found slow zombies scarier. However, I am sure fast zombies would be more likely to take over the world.

The worst part of the Dawn remake was when they fast zombies stopped at the bottom of the stairwell for a moment before continuing up.

[Zak Forsman]

anyone who did ZombieFest, HorrorFest, or All Hallows Fest should take note... George Romero wants your shorts!

http://www.myspace.com/diaryofthedead

[ugafan]

i saw it tonight and thought it was HORRIBLE! i love a good zombie movie as much as the next guy, but this was a total snoozefest. the acting just wasn't believable, and the handheld style only amplifies that problem.

[Grug]

I just wanted to chime in on this (yes we're a bit behind the 8-ball down under) I just saw Diary last night as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival and I have to say I enjoyed it (dare I say it) more than any of Romero's previous zombie films (though of course it's the previous films that inform and define Diary, and it couldn't exist without them).

Perhaps it's because I'm so much closer (in terms of age and occupation) to the characters in this one, but I just had a blast with it. I also think it's the most elegantly crafted example of using mixed-media in a film that I've seen.

I saw it projected in 35mm and I was amazed by just how good it looks; you can spot the HVX200 material (by it's lower quality) but the HDX-900 material looks fantastic: very clean, highly detailed and surprisingly filmic. With some decent filtering, I think you'd be hard pressed to pick it as digital.

[J.R. Hudson]

DIARY was enjoyable for Zombies sake.

[Capt Quirk]

I just caught most of it (Which is a personal record for movies in this house!), and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had your slow zombies, it didn't have a lot of B.S. like armored buses, and it had irony- The actress who complained about chicks in horror films? That was the best part of the movie :)

[nouou]

I just caught most of it (Which is a personal record for movies in this house!), and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had your slow zombies, it didn't have a lot of B.S. like armored buses, and it had irony- The actress who complained about chicks in horror films? That was the best part of the movie :)

my main beef w/ this film was that when someone would be attacked by zombies, the camera guy would just stand there so we could see whats happening, totally evaporating the immersion romero attempts to subdue us with by shooting the entire thing as first person handheld. i mean, if your friend was being attacked by zombies, would you worry about making sure it was properly in frame and as still as possible?

[Capt Quirk]

Well, in all fairness, they were using Panasonics. What could go wrong?