Artfire Films, Romero-Grunwald Productions, 2008. Written and directed by George A. Romero. Special make-up effects by KNB. Starring Michelle Morgan, Joshua Close, Shawn Roberts, Amy Ciupack Lalonde and Scott Wentworth.

    By Stephen Pytak 

     Forty years after making history with "Night of the Living Dead,"
George A. Romero can still shake up an audience with a zombie
film.
     That's got to be tough, considering the genre's been done to
death (pun intended) since he unleashed those ghouls just
outside Pittsburgh in 1968.
     On top of that, he takes on another genre of sorts that's kind of
being overdone, the hand-held video movie, and gives it a pulse.
Made popular by "The Blair Witch Project (1999)," this style is
all over reality TV these days. This year it made a strong comeback
with "Cloverfield." While I'm sure some audiences are sick of
it (there were reports of people suffering nausea and throwing
up in "Cloverfield') Romero made the best of the technique. 
     "Diary of the Dead" is about a group of University of Pittsburgh
film students who are making a horror movie while news of a zombie 
epidemic breaks out. They get in a van and decide to go home. 
And they document their experiences with video cameras along the
way.
     By the way, these are the same kind of slow-moving, shoot-'em-in-
the-head zombies we've seen in Romero's four zombie epics. So what
makes the interesting here?
     The situations Romero puts his characters in.
     Everything's a set piece, a new labryinth, the potential for new
dangers. They go from hospitals to towns being raided, an Amish
farm to a mansion, where all Hell breaks loose.
     The cast is great, in particular the girl in the lead, Michelle Morgan,
who plays a frustrated brunette from Scranton who's determined to get
home. 
     I had to drive a bit to see this film. This independent production didn't
get great distrubution. But I'm glad I got to see it. Seeing a Romero film
in the movies is one of the greatest privledges. And going the distance to
see this was the best way I could possibly celebrate 40 years of "Night." 
    I'll never forget I was 16 when "Day of the Dead" came out. And
the management of the local mall where it played refused me admission,
even though my father was with me. Bastards.
    I eventually saw "Day" at Exhumed Films in Cherry Hill, N.J.
    To date, the only other Romero flicks I got to see on the big screen were
"Creepshow," "Monkey Shines" and "Land of the Dead." But if any come
around at Exhumed, I'll try to make it out.
    I'm hoping George has another one in him. His "Dead" films have always
been interesting. I don't care what approach he takes. I don't really need a
sequel to "Diary," even though there are rumors about it on the Web. All
George needs is a good story. And if he's got one in him, he's got my vote.