“Diary of the Dead”/”Survival of the Dead” 3/5
Caught these two on AMC’s Fearfest marathon the past week or so. Even given the declining quality of his zombie movies over the years (with “Dawn” being the pinnacle of all zombie movies), being the Romero fan that I am, I couldn’t resist.
“Diary” is interesting only because of the modern social media aspect of it. The found footage technique is getting overused, but is well-deployed here. Romero may be old, but he’s still sharp in his social commentary. This may be no “Dawn of the Dead,” but it still has plenty to say about humanity. And the bad acting kind of works in this situation given these are just a bunch of kids running around with cameras at the beginning of a zombie outbreak. Zombie movies need a little camp anyway. 4/5
“Survival” on the other hand is a completely different story. A weak B-movie (and that’s being generous). Really bad acting and very little camp. I really didn’t see the point of this at all. Paycheck movie? 2/5
I think it’s safe to say that after 40+ years, George A. Romero has said all that needs to be said by a single person about zombies. George, please move on and do something else. You’re better than that.
