Check Out The DIARY OF THE DEAD Poster

The Weinsteins have released the one-sheet for George A. Romero's new Dead movie, which premieres in February.
RYAN PARSONS at CanMag has posted the one-sheet for writer-director George A. Romero's eagerly-anticipated fifth zombie flick, Diary of the Dead, which comes courtesy of the Weinstein Company.

"Diary of the Dead is the movie that Romero's legion of cultists...have been screaming for," Fangoria's CHRIS ALEXANDER gushed in September, correctly expressing the feelings of that legion. But it wasn't always quite so universal.

Still smarting from the loss of control he suffered with 2005's "high-gloss" Land of the Dead, 67-year-old Romero decided to return to his independent roots for the next chapter in the series.

"I've gone home to the kind of filmmaking that I used to do, back in the day," he wrote on his blog, while shooting the low-budget Diary in Toronto.

Dead die-hards (Dead-hards?) cheered him on...until they caught a glimpse of the script, which "read like a postmodern Blair Witch Project-esque stunt," according to Alexander. The basic plot follows a group of film students shooting a low-budget horror flick in the Pennsylvania woods, when the dead begin to rise and multiply, providing the movie cast/crew with a "cinema verite'" opportunity.

But the plotline hardly tells the whole story, as fans discovered. When Diary of the Dead held its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, the screening was so successful that the Weinstein brothers (of Miramax and Dimension Films) snapped up the theatrical rights.

Bloody-Disgusting reporter MIKE PEREIRA called the film "equally funny, thrilling and genuinely moving," and said that "the building of tension and the execution of scares [follow] the cinematic techniques like an old pro."

But the "old pro" maintains his cred as a bold innovator by experimenting with new "stylistic guerrilla tactics," such as having the fictional movie crew splice security camera footage into their edited material (so that they get "on camera" while still behind it). According to Alexander, these tactics work because of Romero's skilled storytelling and his trademark social criticism.

"The one constant strength in Romero’s work is his social commentary," Pereira explained. "With Diary, Romero makes a potent comment on our society but never spoon-feeds a solution to the audience."

But, don't worry, gore-hounds. The master covers his broadly-comic (yet touching) critique of our media-obsessed culture with plenty of "gleefully revolting, prosthetically created, CGI-goosed, blood-spattered money shots."

Romero told Pereira in September that, if the movie is a hit in wide release, the Weinsteins will want a sixth installment, to pick up right from Diary's cliffhanger ending.

No matter what, Romero is satisfied with this one. "It's the first film since my original Night of the Living Dead that I can say is completely my own." He added that Diary of the Dead "comes from my heart. It's not a sequel or a remake. It's a whole new beginning for the dead."

So, Happy Valentine's Day. The Dead are coming for YOU on February 15th.
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PAnthony
1/25/2008
CanMag