Diary of the Dead (2008)
Directed by George Romero
A Second opinion by Gary G.
God, I fucking hated this movie. Okay, so the concept of a zombie outbreak documented through the amateur shot video of a group of survivors has amazing possibilities. But George Romero’s Diary of the Dead fucking sucks. A great concept without a great execution is a great big load of pretentious shit. I don’t fault Romero for trying to do something inventive but this film is just poorly done. First of all the performances from this cast of nobodies are truly atrocious. The star of the film, Michelle Morgan must give amazing head because I can’t understand how such a monotone, un-emotive, Botoxed performance could be allowed to anchor this film. Even in her big, dramatic scenes she looked bored and uninterested. And the rest of this D-level cast are barely worth mentioning. But in all fairness what could any actor do with Romero’s groan inducing, on-the-nose dialogue. When the dialogue isn’t filled with repetitive filler (One guy is attacked by a zombie in the hospital, in front of his friends, and his girlfriend runs over to him and asks “What happened?’ Weren’t you just fucking watching? I was.) the dialogue is too often filled with preachy, ham fisted, oration’s on media manipulation, and annoying tech talk about uploading and shit. For Romero’s concept to work we have to actually believe, in some way, that what we are watching is real. But due to the horrible acting, and Romero’s inability to be subtle anymore, at no point do these people or their situation feel real. As such the entire concept fails. It can be done. Anyone ever see Man Bites Dog, a “documentary” on the exploits of a Russian serial killer? Some people still think that was a real documentary. And as much as I personally hated The Blair Witch Project at least it seemed like actual amateur footage. And Cloverfield is purposefully filled with the type of shallow, annoying people who would actually keep their camera phones running as people die around them. Romero has to have his self important characters constantly justify why they are filming their friends being killed with some of the most eye rolling speechifying this side of Crash.
Continue reading ‘Diary of a Dead Sub-Genre: An Examination of Man’s Inhumanity to Zombie Movies’
This is part three of our exhausting 2007 Year in Review. We already gave you an in depth look at Eli Roth and Rob Zombie (Read Here), the two most influential people in the horror genre right now, then we listed our Top Ten Horror Films of 2007 (Read Here), now I give you The Best Alternative, Overlooked and Unappreciated Horror Films of 2007, again presented by our wonderful and eclectic 10% gay staff.
This is Part 1 of our “2007 Year in Review” which will be followed by our Top Ten of 2007 and our recap of the little films that deserve an honorable mention. LEADERS OF THE SPLAT: An examination of the films and careers of Rob Zombie and Eli Roth…
by Gary G.
Horror fans of all ages. I Implore you! Watch out! The EGG-HEADED DESTROYERS are among us and determined to extinguish you and every horror movie you love. They’ve decimated the once vital indie/art house movie scene with their endless overanalyzing and have set their beady, pretentious eyes on what used to be the most unaffected, loose and free genre of filmmaking left. The horror genre. And we are to blame for their infestation of our ranks.
“Lets show them what we can do.”
And with these words Prom Night turns from generic slasher film into camp horror brilliance. You know the story by now; a little girl is pushed out of a window by prankstering kids and six years later the offenders are ritually slaughtered at the senior prom. Prom Night is the quintessential slasher with its crime from the past being righted in the present, bitchy girl, horny boys, unifying event and Jamie Lee Curtis. But Prom Night is really something special.
Published by Gary Gaymon October 4th, 2006
in INTERVIEWS.
Welcome to Part 2 of our Director’s Spotlight W/ Greg Lamberson - By Gary G.
Read Part 1 HERE
Horror Yearbook: First thing I want to get to is a project your directing called Deadly Rites. I saw the storyboard art on your website. It looks cool.
Artwork by R.J. and Julia Sevin
Gregory Lamberson: This is one I [...]
Published by Gary Gaymon October 1st, 2006
in INTERVIEWS.
DIRECTOR’S SPOTLIGHT
Part 1
Interview By Gary G.
Here is the first in a series of profiles on genre directors that we personally admire here at Horror Yearbook. This is a way for us to shine the light on horror filmmakers whose work we want you to know about. Gregory Lamberson is just such a filmmaker.
Gregory [...]
Slime City (1989)
Directed By Gregory Lamberson
Written By Gary G.
Slime City makes me sad. I’m sad that the era that produced such a perfect jewel of low budget splatter is over. You see Slime City is the last of the great age of New York indie horror that includes such cult classics as Frank Henenlotter’s double [...]
Published by Gary Gaymon September 13th, 2006
in NEWS.
On the Internet there are many voices in the horror movie review game. Many of them are near worthless in that they repeat the same old sentiments you could get from a Blockbuster Video clerk. So finding an original, fresh perspective on the low budget, horror, b-movie genre is vital to those of us loking [...]
