Why Diary of the Dead failed

[Mikey]

Was just watching Romero's Diary of the Dead last night.

After it was over I was left cold ... Like something was missing.

At first I thought it was a few things including ....

--- annoying overused shakey camera
--- another reboot
--- laughably low budet

Then it hit me ..... It wasn't any of the above.

The problem with Diary of the Dead was there was no good guys to like and no bad guys to hate.

Everybody was just kind of blahhhh.

In away the Dawn of the Dead remake was like this too.

If you don't care about the people, no amount of budet or SFX will save it.

What do you think ?

[Gorn Captain]

Yeah, none of the characters you cared about.
To be honest, I can find very little empathy for people that are more interested in videotaping than in the human suffering around them.
I already disliked movies like Blair Witch and Cloverfield, so this one didn't feel right either.

It feels as if Romero sold out to the "hip young crowd" side...

[domino]

I have to agree with you. I bought the dvd when it first came out and after watching it and it was just mediocre. You hit it on the head with the characters. I wasn't rooting for any of them. I didn't hate any of them but I didn't like them either. I kind of had a "Meh" attitude towards them.

[toys2cool]

yeah it was alright, not good and not too bad....the crappy acting was probably the worst part

[Nostalgiabuff]

i heard it was so bad i never bothered to watch it

[toys2cool]

i heard it was so bad i never bothered to watch it

naw it's actually worth watching at least once

[Werewolf]

It feels as if Romero sold out to the "hip young crowd" side...

I think it's maybe a bit more of that he has run out of ways of retelling the same story over and over.

[Mikey]

I think it's maybe a bit more of that he has run out of ways of retelling the same story over and over.

I think people would be happy to see the same story over and over as long as he sticks to his old formula ......

Interesting people you care for and/or people you hate trapped in an unusual situation.

The trick is you have to like them.

A great example is Evil Dead

Evil Dead was a piece of crap, but Bruce Campbell made everyone love it.

[Hector]

Yeah, none of the characters you cared about.
To be honest, I can find very little empathy for people that are more interested in videotaping than in the human suffering around them.

You hit the nail on the head.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

I watched this the other day and was surprised; a LOT of folks HATED it, but I didn't think it was awful. It wasn't real GOOD; but it didn't blow huge. I think the biggest problem is that it's a really standard zombie movie. There's very little you haven't seen before; although it was nice to see a bit of the global situation during a zombie apocalypse, and the burgeoning new society that comes after.... although the latter is REALLY subdued (I noticed it 'cos the trade network/survivor camps thing is a big part of the "Dead Reign" RPG) and the former has already been covered fairly well in "Highschool of the Dead."

All told, I think it's damnably tough to come up with a novel take on the zombie thing.... especially for someone who's been watching/reading zombie stories for almost 40 years. Once you come up with the origin for the dead (or decide NOT to) you're pretty much stuck.

Don C.

[Drzsmith]

I liked it.