MovieChat Forums > The Zombie Diaries (2007) Discussion > An intelligent, cerebral film about peop...

An intelligent, cerebral film about people, not zombies! - some reviews

posted 15 years ago by maryfromeire
54 replies | jump to latest

Hi all,

I have been observing a number of comments on both this board and amazon and it seems that a lot of hardcore zombie/gore fans have been duped into buying this film thinking it is going to be about a massive zombie apocalypse.

This movie is nothing of the sort - in-fact I doubt there was enough money to get in the necessary extras to do that.

Anyone thinking of watching this movie should be aware they are going to be seeing a shoe-string budget film that strives to show how human beings survive in post apocalyptic scenarios.

These reviews sum up the movie more appropriately:

"Simply one of the very best horror films ever made. The negitive critics just didn't get it. If your expecting an all out large scale zombie movie or your average run of the mill zombie romp then you must search elsewhere. This isn't just a sub genre zombie flick, this is a (mostly)realistic documentary style film compiled of footage from three different but related stories that occur within the early stages of a worldwide zombie/viral epidemic. This is not a zombie film! This is a true horror film with zombies in it. By the way kids... I'm glad the movie was nothing like the flashy generic dvd cover art. I'm more disturbed by the fact that the Weinstein Company apparently didn't have enough faith in the film itself and thought it would be a good idea to put it on the shelves with very misleading sleeve art."

"Looking further you see that each chapter illustrates contrasting behaviors ranging from denial and apathy in The Outbreak, to a mix of confusion and determination in the chapter The Scavengers, followed by an escalation of paranoia in The Survivors.

All of this seemingly corresponds to the coping mechanisms one might encounter in a situation where an apocalyptic virus is off-ing people then re-animating their corpses in order to further spread the disease. There is a slight twist at the end that I think further illustrates a darker, primitive side of humanity and ties into the apathy we see early on in the chapter The Outbreak.

Overall the story that each chapter tells was good and as a whole the plot was refreshingly cerebral for a zombie flick. The subtlety throughout the film was notable as this was not an attempt at making a zombie action film. The Zombie Diaries seems to align more with books like Walking Dead and Max Brooks's Zombie survival guide. The grainy imagery of the DV proliferates the depressed apocalyptic mood and actually enhances the make-up effects."

Maz

[–] jhray8417 15 years ago

so...it's a movie called "zombie diaries..."....that's not about zombies....and we shouldn't blame the makers of this trash for naming it that, but the box-art for the DVD.

uh, OK.

[–] maryfromeire 15 years ago

It is about Zombies on one level. So the title is appropriate. But it's a thinking man's (or girls) Zombie film.

But if you want to blame the makers of this film, go right ahead. I'm sure they have many sleepless nights worrying about what you think.

[–] jhray8417 15 years ago

"if you want to blame the makers of this film go ahead".

LMAO...that might be the funniest thing i've ever read. let's blame the light technician too. or maybe the kid who delievered lunch on the set.

[–] DoomTrooper 15 years ago

So how much did the makers of this awful drek pay you to write such drivel? Or are you dating one of them? Comparing this to Max Brooks' work or Walking Dead is laughable. Since both them heavily feature the zombies as opposed to ZD which they are a mere after thought. ZD had some promise in what it was looking to explore (Breakdown of human psychology during a castrophe) however don't try to cash in on the Zombie Film craze when you film is barely about them.

"An assassin's blade can be more effective than an entire division of soldiers" Tanaka Corp Proverb

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[–] maryfromeire 15 years ago

I like how just because of my Gender, and that I have an opinion he disagrees with, DoomTrooper says I am dating one of the filmmakers!! So now he's stupid and sexist!

[–] DoomTrooper 15 years ago

You left out the fact I asked if they employed you. As for stupid, I am not the one spamming lies about how great the movie is. I gave it an honest chance and when I was thoroughly disappointed I still gave it credit in certain areas. Fact remains most horror fans hate this steaming pile of drek. No matter how hard you try it will still be worse than anything Uwe Boll has produced.

"An assassin's blade can be more effective than an entire division of soldiers" Tanaka Corp Proverb

[–] elgilbro 15 years ago

I'd agree with you if more than 2 actors could make me believe that they weren't reading off of a card or forcing their dialogue. The acting was atrocious. When the acting is that bad, it's better to go campy and have fun with it. Instead, they tried to push a serious concept with terrible acting and you're left with a terrible movie.

Goke and the redhead at the farmhouse were the only two decent performances. The two guys and the girl looking for supplies in town were terrible. The film crew in the beginning was terrible. Most of the people at the farmhouse were terrible.

Whether it was solely the acting, poor writing, or a combination of the two, I didn't get the feeling of "Hey, this is how real people would react!" hardly at all.

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[–] elgilbro 15 years ago

The acting was great if it was a high school film project. Acceptable if done by first year film students. Otherwise, atrocious.

I think they came up with an excellent concept and rushed it out in order to be the first ones to do it at feature length. More of a "we did it first" at the expense of "we did it best".

[–] jhray8417 15 years ago

the actors, producers, and directors of this film could have taken 5 years to make it and it still would have sucked.

[–] maryfromeire 15 years ago

LOL love the hatred! You poor things. Do you lay awake at night because of your anger towards a pair of successful indie filmamkers. Did the Blair Witch disturb you so?

[–] DoomTrooper 15 years ago

Still waiting on the numbers to prove them successful.

"An assassin's blade can be more effective than an entire division of soldiers" Tanaka Corp Proverb

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[–] jhray8417 15 years ago

"well said"...uh i guess, considering you said it....

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[–] rogerdemarco30 15 years ago

Thanks for the confession. I was wondering if people were making multiple accounts on here to promote the film and now we finally get a confession.

[–] elgilbro 15 years ago

I disagree. I think if the time was taken to clean up the acting and a little bit of the writing, it could have been an excellent film. Even leaving the writing "as is" and just having better acting would have greatly improved the film.

[–] maryfromeire 15 years ago

Sometimes acting can be so good (Like Mulberry Street) it seems rubbish to people used to 'hollywood acting'. This film was very natural but I think the directors should have Hollywood-ized it as sometimes acting being too natural can be a detriment.

But I am just speaking in a 'please the masses' sense. Artistically I think it was right to be too natural.

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[–] elgilbro 15 years ago

"very natural"? Seriously? I saw nothing "natural" apart from maybe Goke and the redheaded chick at the farmhouse. Everybody else came across as "I'm acting but I'm trying to make it seem like I'm not acting, but I'm trying too hard and it's obvious that I am." I wonder how strictly the script was followed because it might have worked better to just let the actors ad-lib most of their lines. I got the sense that they were trying to remember their lines and trying to deliver their lines while trying to cover up that they were trying to remember them. It's what I would've expected from a film project in high school where expressing the subject is more important than how it's expressed. Like if a 10th grader did a video about Aristotle's life and was being graded on solely the information given and not how good the acting is.

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[–] rogerdemarco30 15 years ago

Director of Zombie Diaries alert!!! See previous posts from Justin-197.

[–] elgilbro 15 years ago

So you honestly believe that the acting in this film was good? And I don't understand why you label me as a troll. I've made it very clear what exactly it is that I don't like about this movie. I don't simply post "this movie sux" or "this movie rulz" like 99% of the posters on this board.

I give the film makers credit for a good concept and one or two decent actors. It's a shame that the rest of the cast couldn't come across as somewhat believable. I can accept the sub-par special effects, but the acting simply ruined this film. Better actors or a script that didn't expose the cast's weaknesses could've saved this film. I'd like to see the concept revisited, whether it's by the same film makers or a different group of film makers, with a more realistic feel. Whether that's accomplished by directing to the actors' skill, by writing to the actors' skill, or through the casting of better actors' doesn't make a difference to me.

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[–] rogerdemarco30 15 years ago

....and the cat calls the kettle black.

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[–] rogerdemarco30 15 years ago

I can't call you a "Zombie Diaries" fanboy. Because judging by your non-stop posting history of the film, you obviously were part of the production. So maybe I should call you, "Filmmaker Who Got Caught Trying To Promote His Own Film". Hey, that has a nice ring to it!!!

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[–] rogerdemarco30 15 years ago

It's not called thinking. It's called knowing.

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[–] elgilbro 15 years ago

I'm not that active of a poster. I lurk. Mostly on zombie boards. There's only a handful of movie boards that I've posted on over the years. Don't know why the older posts don't show up in my profile and frankly I don't care.

I've laid out numerous times what I don't like about this movie. I don't spam the board with 20 "This movie sux" threads a day. A vast majority of ppl that post here (on both sides of the fence) fit the definition of a troll better than I. And I don't consider Diary of the Dead a "good" movie by any stretch of the imagination. It pretty much sucked. Thanks to a higher budget and better production value, it sucked slightly less than this film. That's not saying much. Given Romero's reputation vs. the maker's of this film, I'd say the makers of this film out did him simply because they came from nothing and got something out there while he failed horribly at "his own game".

[–] DoomTrooper 15 years ago

The biggest failing of Diary of the Dead was that Romero decided for whatever reason to put his social message in the forefront of the movie. What made Night and Dawn so good was that the message was there but subtely. Whereas Zombie Diaries wanted to explore human nature after a diaster and tried to do it under a Zombie apocalypse and failed to deliver.

"An assassin's blade can be more effective than an entire division of soldiers" Tanaka Corp Proverb

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[–] DoomTrooper 15 years ago

*Yawns*You are no better at trolling then the people you claim are trolling. What amuses me is that you can't admit that Diary was a better film than Zombie Diaries.

"An assassin's blade can be more effective than an entire division of soldiers" Tanaka Corp Proverb

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[–] DoomTrooper 15 years ago

So you bump threads about it being on Metacritic which it is not. Then you cherry pick review sites only if it has a good review. Zombie Diaries was terrible as I proved with the Amazon Reviews and even on the Dimension extreme site.

"An assassin's blade can be more effective than an entire division of soldiers" Tanaka Corp Proverb

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[–] DoomTrooper 15 years ago

Once again you cherry pick your reviews. More people I know dislike the film despite your poor attempts at hyping it. As I said its status on Amazon and Dimension Extreme tell the truth.

"An assassin's blade can be more effective than an entire division of soldiers" Tanaka Corp Proverb

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[–] DoomTrooper 15 years ago

Sounds more like an excuse by you. Reality is most people I have lent the film to agree it sucks. I was disappointed by Diary due to Romero putting his preaching at the forefront of the film but at least I could enjoy that. There was actual large numbers of zombies and a much better feeling of a zombie apocalypse. I really think ZD could have been done better if the director spent more time with it.

"An assassin's blade can be more effective than an entire division of soldiers" Tanaka Corp Proverb

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[–] Justin-197 15 years ago

yes

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[–] Island_Of_Ireland 15 years ago

Mary from Eire, the only good things about this film were Goke and his "Ireland Rocks" T shirt

[–] Justin-197 15 years ago

I think the whole film was good.

[–] Fireangellc 14 years ago

I totally agree with you on this one. But could you explain the last scene in the movie?

[–] shadowstalk 14 years ago

As far as I saw last scene was the girl who the original cast were trying to find while they all got killed

I liked this movie, much more personal and believable than most hollywood garbage

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