George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead

Yes, I've been on a horror-monster-gross kick when it comes to movies and Diary of the Dead is the next on my list. This movie follows right in line with Cloverfield and Blair Witch Project in that we see the entire narrative through the lens of one filmmakers camera as the world is slowly dissolved by the undead. As with all Romero films we are given equal amounts of gore and politics and here he gets to comment on the media, on the lies we are fed by the media, on widespread panic based on the media. While this film doesn't feel as authentic in the storytelling as Blair Witch or Cloverfield as far as truly feeling like these people are real and are truly being terrorized, it does bring new life to the slightly stale line of Dead movies after the gorefest of Day of the Dead and the cheesefest of Land of the Dead. Welcome back Romero.

Cloverfield

Cloverfield is a movie that, like many others, is the child of what the Blair Witch Project brought into the light as a possibility for scares. Sure, in BWP you never see the witch or anything aside from sticks and you can't help but be creeped way out and in Cloverfield you get to see the monster from many angles allowing the fear to take a tangible image. Cloverfield isn't so much about the fear of the monster as it is the fear of not understanding. It is about a few people thrown into something so preposterous and unthinkable that there is no way to understand it so they grasp to the things they do understand like friendship and love. One thing that could be said of the incredibly thin characters presented here is that they do indeed care for each other. Cloverfield does it's job well outside of character development, it provides a different take on the Godzilla story from a different perspective and leaves you thinking afterward. What was the monster, where did it come from, why, what happens when the crap monsters bite you? Doesn't matter, this is just meant to be a small story of the larger terror leaving us in the dark as it does it's own characters.