A group of young film students run into real-life zombies while filming a horror movie of their own.

A lot of people hated the fact that Romero went into the “Found Footage” territory, but personally I thought it was great.

I know the ‘Found Footage’ setting isn’t for everyone but Romero moulds it into his own style and lets the story do the talking. The camera work manages to incorporate everything that’s going on whilst also making it feel more intimate which I really liked.

It seems with this release that Romero thought long and hard about what his next step would be, his modern day approach worked so well. In a world where news is instant and 24/7 Romero manages to incorporate that into his story and pulls it off.

In his previous releases Romero’s characters are holed up somewhere, isolated and stationary, a concept we’d gotten used to from him. With this he shakes it up and the cast move around freely, a bold move for him that really paid off, although there were fans who weren’t happy about it.

With the film having more of an independent feel to it than “Land Of The Dead” it has more of a Romero feel to it again, in my opinion huge studio budgets never suited Romero’s work. This feature was shot over a period of just 23 days and it played to Romero’s strengths.

“Diary Of The Dead” gets a-lot of undeserved criticism, but I see as Romero embracing a challenge and trying out a different style of film making. He also proved he’s still a great storyteller.

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Miscellaneous facts about the film:

In the warehouse, when the group is searching the RV for the missing dead body, you can hear a television report in the background. The report is taken directly from George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968).

Begins on the same day as Night of the Living Dead (1968), although the setting has been updated to the present day. The concept for the film evolved from an idea that George A. Romero had earlier for a “Living Dead” television series, which also would have begun on the same day as Night of the Living Dead (1968).

As the film was shot in long takes, George A. Romero deliberately cast stage actors.

Shot over a period of only 23 days.

Even before Land of the Dead (2005) was released, George A. Romero was planning a found footage take on the zombie apocalypse.

The documentary-within-the-film is called “The Death of Death.” This is also the name of George Romero’s four-part miniseries for the DC Comics zombie title “Toe Tags.”

Despite its freeform style, George A. Romero found this handicam interpretation required even more planning than a regular film.

Timeline wise, this is not an official sequel to Land of the Dead (2005) as it takes place at the start of the zombie apocalypse not in the middle of it.

Released around the same time as Rec, another found footage zombie movie.

Shawn Roberts who plays Tony in this film, would later play the villain Albert Wesker in Paul W.S. Anderson’s zombie films, Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010), Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016).

George A. Romero cameos as a police officer presenting a cover-up for the zombie outbreak at a press conference.

Quentin Tarantino, cameos in a voiceover role as a newsreader.

Simon Pegg cameos in a voiceover role as a newsreader.

Wes Craven cameos in a voiceover role as a newsreader.

Stephen King cameos in a voiceover role as a newsreader.

Guillermo del Toro cameos in a voiceover role as a newsreader.

In the scene with the zombie doctors, a voice can be heard on the radio inviting people to aim for the head. This is the voice of Tom Savini, a longtime friend of George A. Romero. In fact, this audio is lifted directly from the bonus features of the remake of Dawn of the Dead.