The Zombie Diaries (2006)

User Rating:

4.3/10   

Directors:

Michael Bartlett
Kevin Gates

Writers:

Michael Bartlett (writer)
Kevin Gates (writer)

Release Date:

29 October 2008 (Japan)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Brace yourself... This time it's for real.

Cast

Russell Jones	...	Goke
Craig Stovin	...	Andy
Jonnie Hurn	...	John
James Fisher	...	Geoff
Anna Blades	...	Vanessa
Imogen Church	...	Sue
Kyle Sparks	...	Greg
Alison Mollon	...	Elizabeth
Victoria Nalder	...	Leeann
Jonathan Ball	...	Matt
Sophia Ellis	...	Anna
Will Tosh	...	James
Hiram Bleetman	...	Manny
Ralph Mondi	...	Amine
Leonard Fenton	...	Bill

MPAA:

Rated R for violence/gore, language and some nudity.

Runtime:

UK:85 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:18 | Australia:MA | Netherlands:16 | USA:R | Finland:K-15 | New Zealand:R18 | Singapore:M18 (cut)

Filming Locations:

Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

Bleeding Edge Films

Great Concept, Terrible Everything Else

The premise of the movie is great. After a zombie epidemic, various video diaries are recovered. These video diaries tell the tales of survival of 3 groups of people whose stories eventually interweave.

Sadly, the acting is terrible. The best acting is done by the zombies. The special effects and makeup appear to have been done by students venturing into their first foray into gore. The best makeup/special effect is the clouded contacts and anybody with 20 dollars and Wal-Mart nearby can pull that off. Some zombies look downright comical, almost as if they are wearing cheap Halloween costumes.

This movie has some of the comedy that has come to be expected in the genre, but it's not intentional. In one scene, a shot from about 20 yards away with a rifle takes about two seconds before the zombies head is (poorly) blown apart.

The camera work is terrible. There is no sense of a "diary" in any of the 3 scenarios. Just groups filming their goings on and there's too much of a random feeling to it. And not random in the good way. More like "Why in the world would they be filming THIS?" There should have been more asides and narrating from the cameramen. Instead of having a sense of "this is a diary that recorded their struggles for whoever may find it", you had more of a sense of "this is a bad class project done by middle school children". The dialogue is forced. Whether it was written or improvised, it smacked of trying too hard to "act", and this totally destroyed the feel of "this is real people reacting to real events".

There are about 3 scenes that could have been very powerful. One of them has been done in almost every zombie movie before and the main difference this time around was the age of the "victim". The other two scenes were more confusing than anything. There's a difference between leaving things opened for interpretation and just totally dropping the ball.

All in all, I was very disappointed. A great concept was ruined.