George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead

Since Night of the Living Dead shocked the world in 1968, George Romero has been one of the few horror film makers to enjoy the attention of both film critics and fans. Forty years on, Romero’s mixture of social satire and other biting references with extremely amusing gore and high-tech bloodbaths is still fresh – and above all funny.
After Day, Dawn, and recently Land of the Dead that he produced under the wing of Hollywood, Romero is back in his independent niche with his most recent, very committed film. Romero focuses on the way in which the media look at disasters (think Hurricane Katrina) and the form he chooses is that of the ‘film within a film’. His starting point is a group of film students, led by Jason, who are making a low-budget mummy film in the forests of Pennsylvania. At first the fear is acted, but it soon becomes clear that the dead really are coming to life. The group tries to get to safety. While the government turns out to be incompetent in combating the crisis and communications with the rest of the world are cut off, Jason picks up the camera in the middle of all the chaos and destruction. Even though his friends fall victim to the undead who have to be killed time and again, he carries on filming. (GT)

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