The Zombie Diaries (2007) Michael Bartlett & Kevin Gates

This film has been said to be…
  ‘Better than Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later” -beyond Hollywood.com
 (I wonder, did they see the same film I saw?)
  ‘The Zombie Diaries has been hailed as the most realistic zombie film ever made.’ -twitchfilm.net

 The premise of this film is that it is set in England during a world-wide viral infection, this documentary-style fright fest records the rise of the undead  from the video cams of several survivor groups. As each struggles against the flesh-eating hordes, an even horrifying fate lurks among them. “Dark, uncompromising and frighteningly real” (eatbybrains.com). The Zombie Diaries is smart horror at its bloody best.


 The filming is done fairly well… gives a good feeling as if this really is an actual documentary. The team of documenters are being in the stage one of the spread. Level one as some refer to it - when things are happening, that not everyone is aware of. The team leaves London, England just as word is being spread in the local news that something has happened in New York City, NY … headed to a small village for an interview with someone who may have some knowledge about the infection being spread. Reaching the small quaint English village which looks to be rather barren, arriving at the farm of the person they are hoping to have an interview with. Finding the lights all on but no one at home they decide to head back to the village to find a local pub only to have their car over heat.

 As the film progresses further into the outbreak,  the filming resembles The Blair Witch Project, as the camera man runs around with a flash light in the dark.

 One month later, there is just three now… from what the viewer can assume two of the original crew and an American they picked up along the way traveling to find supplies for their little band of survivors. Suffice it to say, remember kids even if you find a zombie laying on the ground and it appears “dead” be safe and just shoot it in the head.  A bit disappointed in the zombies thus far… slow moving shamblers that you could get away from by walking briskly. I am simply amazed how accurate the people in this film are at headshots, seems rather unrealistic even a month after the initial outbreak. I will not rant on how amazed I am that these folks are so capable of continuously achieving head shots… if you know anything about gun training then you will understand my issue with this.

 The camera follows a group as they “survive” , holding off the slow moving zombies that wander into the field of the farm they are now taking refuge at.  It’s all a bit haphazard, even for a documentary… really not sure of who is who and what they are trying to do.


  I find this film confusing - I have a hard time following the really plot of this film. Even as a documentary it's highly lacking. At least, with documentaries there is still a fluid motion to the story they are weaving. I feel like I am watching someone's morbid home video - though I would actually prefer someone's morbid home videos to this.

 I hate spoilers, so I am trying really hard not to go into the latter half of the film… let’s just say someone in the group likes a bit of necrophilia. You suddenly flashback to the original crew a month earlier, finally to see what became of them. All I can say is that this suddenly turned into a very cliché don’t trust the locals cause they are messed up in the head. Though to be fair sociopaths are blood thirsty, too. At least they don’t want to eat your brains... we'll sometimes.