31 Days of Horror: The Zombie Diaries

Dirs: Michael Bartlett, Kevin Gates, 2006, 85′
IMDB Keywords: (none)

ometimes, movie-makers come to the same ideas entirely independent of each other. Think Armageddon and Deep Impact. Dante’s Peak and Volcano. And last year, we had The Zombie Diaries and Diary of the Dead. Unlike Romero’s movie, however, this one isn’t a complete pile of ass. As the name suggests, the story is told through a series of video diaries recorded by civilians in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Although, for a zombie movie, the zombies here are strangely secondary to the plot. They’re just the maguffin to set up a “we’re them and they’re us” commentary on the loss of our humanity in a crisis. The low budget definitely helps the filmmakers, forcing them towards more psychological Blair Witch-style scares, rather than the blood-and-guts gore of a lot of recent zombie movies. The result is an interesting blend of films. Sort of like if 28 Days Later had been more of a traditional zombie movie. Unfortunately, the film is let down in parts - most notably by some distractingly bad acting in the second act and a lazy ending that feels less like a part of an overall coherent design than simply tacked on out of necessity. Still though, it’s interesting, if not entirely successful at what it’s trying to achieve, and definitely worth checking out as a curiosity if nothing else.