Diary of the Dead (2007)

(In French, On Cable TV, May 2020) To reuse a quote, directors can either retire as geniuses, or work long enough to be seen as derivative hacks. So it is that while George A. Romero pretty much co-invented the modern zombie film in (whew) 1968’s Night of the Living Dead, forty years later he was stuck following the found-footage craze for Diary of the Dead. The story is intensely familiar, as the dead rise and start snacking on the living. In this film, the living are film students filming everything that’s happening, and they’re not that different (nor smarter) than countless other sacrificial groups of characters in other zombie movies. Diary of the Dead falls into the same traps than other found-footage films—the weird camera placement, surprisingly good angles and lighting and inexplicable determination to keep shooting no matter what. Romero throws in some philosophy, humour and nihilism, but much of the film plays in the same way as countless straight-to-video found-footage zombie films. While it’s better executed than most of them, Romero is here outclassed and eclipsed by so many imitators that even above-average Diary of the Dead feels dull.