Later in his career, George Romero never could win with audiences. If he was too campy, he was berated for not being serious enough. When he was too serious, he was berated for “losing his sense of humor.” With “Diary of the Dead,” Romero has a very unique and important statement to make about the media, misinformation, and the dangers of social media. With “Diary of the Dead,” Romero bounces back and forth between cheeky camp and some stern warnings about misinformation and sensationalism during very real times.
With this iteration of the zombie apocalypse, it isn’t so much the death of death that kills us, but the lack of information for the sake of entertainment.
I think “Diary of the Dead” is painfully misunderstood and spawns some great imagery Romero had a talent for. Whether it was the charred highway ranger shambling in a highway, or the CCTV zombie invasion, it leaves a considerable mark. “Diary of the Dead” isn’t a perfect movie, though, as the performances from the main cast stink, and character decisions don’t make a lot of sense. But the movie works in getting its point across and is pretty a damn spooky statement about humanity. It’s an aspect that Romero always thrived at, whether it was “Dawn of the Dead” or “The Amusement Park.” Romero didn’t have a lot of hope for us, even in the very end.
And can you blame him?
This Wal-Mart Exclusive Steelbook is primarily for collectors of this specific niche of the physical media market. There is brand new art that invokes the mood of the movie well. The art is ideal for this kind of movie, as the previous releases for this film always had shoddy art work. The Blu-Ray content is carried over from the 2008 Dimension Extreme Blu-Ray. Which were carried over from the DVD port.
In either case, for a refresher we get a commentary by Writer/Director George Romero, Director of Photography Adam Swica, and Editor Michael Doherty; there’s the eighty minutes documentary For the Record: The Making of the Diary in 5 parts. There’s also the two minutes The Roots: The inspiration for the film, the four minutes The First Week: A visit to the set, the five minutes Familiar Voices: Cameo outtakes, the twenty minutes Character Confessionals, and finally the very dated, charmingly vintage MySpace Contest Winners: 5 Zombie films from Filmmaker fans.