Terrifying Diary of the Dead Clip
In this new clip from George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead, the director preys on our paranoid fears of law enforcement by making the local sheriff into a raging zombie. But even beyond the zombie sheriff, there's genius in the way the scene, featured on Bloody-Disgusting, is shot.
The sheer panic in the students' breathless voices, the pure, foreboding darkness of the lonely stretch of highway, and the shaky camera combine to create a sense of impending doom. Look closely and you'll see in the students' van an angry nod to our times, a time in which terror rules, and fear of authority, according to Romero, is requisite. Scary? Hell, yes.
No. No. A thousand times no. That was truly terrible. There is fun bad acting, and then there is bad acting that makes you cringe in embarrassment for the performers and for yourself for watching it. This clip unfortunately falls into the latter category. Every word uttered by these nobodies sounded as if it was read it off a 3x5 card taped just out of camera range. And "teh stupid"--do they not recognize the stumbling man as a zombie *immediately*? They can't go *around* the accident? "He wants more than your license and registration"? Bad, bad, bad, bad. The concept isn't so horrible, I guess, but the acting is so utterly atrocious and inept that the whole thing falls completely and utterly on its face. Boo on this. Sorry, George. Next time, don't go for the amateurs.
Will E, I think you're kind of missing the point here. This is suppose to be the first Zombie encounter, kind of going back to 1968 and Night of the Living Dead, none of our protagonists here truly know what a zombie is according to what I read of what Romero has had to say.
While I respect your opinion on the acting, I think I disagree a little bit and it's really quite tough for me to judge the actings believability from one short scene.
Now if only the film was playing in my town this weekend I would better provide you with a review of the acting. But unfortunately I think I will have to wait until the DVD comes out or if they do finally release it wide.