Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A better documentary style zombie flick, December 7, 2008
The Zombie Diaries Is not a knock off of Romero's Diary Of The Dead.The Zombie Diaries was filmed first.The same company bought both films,held back TZD and released DOTD first(Gorezone magazine Apr.'08 interview).The only similarity between the two is the documentary style.
The Zombie Diaries(TZD),takes place in England during a zombie viral infection.The plague of the rising dead is captured on video by several groups of survivors as they try to flee the approaching wave of zombie doom.The main group is a news crew interviewing people about the "flu like virus"epidemic.On the street interviews and scenes in the beginning add a realistic feel to the movie.Everyone trusting their government to tell them if it was serious.Most of the movie takes place in the country as the survivors flee the clogged cities.(Clogged with traffic as well as dead folk wanting to eat ya).The acting,characters,fx and basic story are handled very well.Good pacing and story developement.Characters act realistic when confronted with their...situation.Be very careful who you decide to hole up with during a zombie epidemic.With zombies,at least you know what to expect.There are some people who have a weird,sick lets say...fascination with death and dead things.Even cute,blond dead things are still dead.
The zombies are the slow,shuffling kind.They must be shot in the head to kill them.If you get bit,you join the zombie legions.All zombie laws according to Romero are observed.The make-up is awsome and little things like buzzing flies(zombies are dead,rotting meat after all)add to the realism of this movie.
I love Romero movies.But in the battle of documentary style zombie flicks,to me Diary Of The Dead takes a distant second place to this movie, The Zombie Diaries.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent serious film in the NOTLD tradition, December 22, 2008
"Zombie Diaries" is about several groups of people separated from each other in rural England outside London. A virus has spread across Europe and the Americas and has now reached England. Most of English society was ill prepared for this, following the news events in other countries while feeling a sense of apathy for being located so safely away from danger. The film documents the movements of these people as they attempt to get supplies or flush out infested areas. The characters are likable, ordinary people. There is hardly any character development, but we do get a feel for the psychological impact the trauma is having on the protagonists.
The film is shot documentary style. In light of Romero's recent "Diary of the Dead", one would think this is just an indie copy; however, this film does stand on its own separately. The Romero social commentary is absent. The videographer protagonists are many, and are driven to record for different reasons. Additionally, it's easier to care about these protagonists than in DIOTD. The videography is not amateurish like in "Blair Witch Project", and doesn't interfere with the ability to watch the film as in BWP. The voyeuristic camera style of the videographer's POV is more effective here than in Romero's Diary of the Dead.
The movie does have a very distinctly English feel to it in terms of pacing. It doesn't follow the now conventional zombie film of style of using twitch camera action, fast-charging zombies, heavy blood and guts, or archetypal horror protagonists; but instead merges the finer elements of Romero's classic "Night of the Living Dead" with Boyle's "28 Days Later". In some respects it carries elements from Ragona's 1964 classic, "The Last Man on Earth" with Vincent Price. The atmospheric music really adds to the sense of horror. The zombies follow the original Romero NOTLD and Fulci Zombi convention of being slow-moving, shambling corpses. What little noise they make is subtle. The makeup work is very effective. Another element which separates "Zombie Diaries" from other conventional horror films in the genre is the lack of intentional or even unintentional humor. The film is bleak from start to finish.
This is not a gorehound's treat however. If you're a fan of the "Dawn/Day of The Dead" remakes and revisions or of "Automation Transfusion", you will likely not like this movie.
As a lifelong fan of the genre, I can easily recommend this film. It's quickly becoming a personal favorite.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Yaaaawwwwwwwn......, May 11, 2009
I'm a long-time zombie fan and I actually didn't mind George Romero's Diary of the Dead. Was it his strongest? No way... but at least it had good effects and a more coherent story line. When I read some of the reviews of Zombie Diaries where people said that it was better than Diary of the Dead, I had to check it out. Some of the acting was decent, but it didn't make up for the acting that was just simply horrible.
Even for a movie that you know is going to have lousy, handheld camera film work, this one was terrible. The scenes that may actually have had the potential to have some action were ruined by crummy, camera-only lighting that just gave brief (and convenient) jumbles of images of the zombies, mixed in with longer scenes of complete darkness and off-camera screaming or yelling.
I really had to struggle to keep awake during this film.
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