This movie is just pure trash. The found footage subgenre is pure trash. Romero has long lost his charm, and even here, where the thematic point isn't as stupidly obvious, he can't create interesting characters. On top of that, he chooses the format of found footage which is anathema to tension and drama. Throw on top the continued fact that zombies are terrible monsters, only made scary by characters acting stupidly, and you've got a recipe for a long, tedious exercise in an old man trying to understand a world changing underneath his feet.
Narrated (extremely flatly) by Debra (Michelle Morgan), a film student at Pitt who has survived to a certain point after the start of the zombie apocalypse. She and her boyfriend, Jason (Joshua Close), were part of a senior project to make a horror movie short. Their monster was a mummy played by Ridley (Philip Riccio). Their leading lady was Tracy (Amy Lalonde). Their professor is Maxwell (Scott Wentworth). Their makeup man is Tony (Shawn Roberts). There are a couple of others, but I'm not trying anymore. Anyway, the zombie outbreak spreads while they're in the forest making their movie at night, and they return to Pitt to find it deserted. I mean...why? The University of Pittsburgh is in the middle of the city. If the outbreak were huge and everyone was turning into zombies, wouldn't Pittsburgh be overrun and they wouldn't even be able to get to the dorms? See, this movie is dumb.
Anyway, the film turns into a road picture as they take an RV through the Pennsylvania countryside, mainly heading towards Debra's parents' house, and trying to figure out what's next. The problem is that the characters are thin, we never get into their heads, and the whole zombie apocalypse thing is played out to such an extent that watching character struggle to figure out the rules is tedious. Imagine having characters spend twenty minutes arguing over the rules of vampires, and the vampires are just straight Draculas. Throw in the fact that these long-takes are filled with padding, characters moving from one place to another and lots of empty space, and you've got a recipe for making a film's opening real boring.
The ironic thing about the film is that Romero's propensity for shoehorning thin points into his films is here, but it's all done through Debra's voiceover. No one actually talks about it. And yet, it's a series of points that are largely disconnected from each other. The most common refrain is about how old media is being replaced by new media, but it's awkwardly presented at all times. There are others about the fallen nature of humanity (Romero's deep misanthropy is definitely not absent) and race relations, but, again, it's all razor thin and unsupported by the actual narrative which is a simple monster movie done poorly.
There's a bit in a hospital, Debra's parents' house, and it ends at Riley's large mansion. Everything is dependent on characters being stupid, not understanding zombies at all, and petty little arguments fought while the dialogue is delivered flatly by actors who don't seem to have any direction from their director at all.
I will say, though, that there are a couple of kind of hilarious moments sprinkled in. One is definitely intentional. The other is not. The first happens when they come across a remote farmhouse where lives a deaf Amish man, Samuel (R. D. Reid). He saves them by throwing a stick of dynamite at a trio of approaching zombies, and, in perfect comic timing, holds up a sign with his name on it while a spray of blood moves past the camera. I guffawed out loud. The second sees a small zombie thrown against a wall by an arrow in comical fashion. I don't think it's intentionally funny, but I still laughed.
It's dumb. It's boring. It spends way too much time covering ground everyone already knows. It's ugly to look at. It's beset by the worst trappings of the found footage genre (no one puts down the camera for any reason). In fact, there are several moments where we can see the other camera in a shot and watch as the cameraman prioritizes getting the shot rather than running for their lives from a zombie feet from them. It's dumb.
If not for the handful of guffaws, I'd say it has no worth at all. But, I did guffaw at least twice. Maybe it was only twice.
Narrated (extremely flatly) by Debra (Michelle Morgan), a film student at Pitt who has survived to a certain point after the start of the zombie apocalypse. She and her boyfriend, Jason (Joshua Close), were part of a senior project to make a horror movie short. Their monster was a mummy played by Ridley (Philip Riccio). Their leading lady was Tracy (Amy Lalonde). Their professor is Maxwell (Scott Wentworth). Their makeup man is Tony (Shawn Roberts). There are a couple of others, but I'm not trying anymore. Anyway, the zombie outbreak spreads while they're in the forest making their movie at night, and they return to Pitt to find it deserted. I mean...why? The University of Pittsburgh is in the middle of the city. If the outbreak were huge and everyone was turning into zombies, wouldn't Pittsburgh be overrun and they wouldn't even be able to get to the dorms? See, this movie is dumb.
Anyway, the film turns into a road picture as they take an RV through the Pennsylvania countryside, mainly heading towards Debra's parents' house, and trying to figure out what's next. The problem is that the characters are thin, we never get into their heads, and the whole zombie apocalypse thing is played out to such an extent that watching character struggle to figure out the rules is tedious. Imagine having characters spend twenty minutes arguing over the rules of vampires, and the vampires are just straight Draculas. Throw in the fact that these long-takes are filled with padding, characters moving from one place to another and lots of empty space, and you've got a recipe for making a film's opening real boring.
The ironic thing about the film is that Romero's propensity for shoehorning thin points into his films is here, but it's all done through Debra's voiceover. No one actually talks about it. And yet, it's a series of points that are largely disconnected from each other. The most common refrain is about how old media is being replaced by new media, but it's awkwardly presented at all times. There are others about the fallen nature of humanity (Romero's deep misanthropy is definitely not absent) and race relations, but, again, it's all razor thin and unsupported by the actual narrative which is a simple monster movie done poorly.
There's a bit in a hospital, Debra's parents' house, and it ends at Riley's large mansion. Everything is dependent on characters being stupid, not understanding zombies at all, and petty little arguments fought while the dialogue is delivered flatly by actors who don't seem to have any direction from their director at all.
I will say, though, that there are a couple of kind of hilarious moments sprinkled in. One is definitely intentional. The other is not. The first happens when they come across a remote farmhouse where lives a deaf Amish man, Samuel (R. D. Reid). He saves them by throwing a stick of dynamite at a trio of approaching zombies, and, in perfect comic timing, holds up a sign with his name on it while a spray of blood moves past the camera. I guffawed out loud. The second sees a small zombie thrown against a wall by an arrow in comical fashion. I don't think it's intentionally funny, but I still laughed.
It's dumb. It's boring. It spends way too much time covering ground everyone already knows. It's ugly to look at. It's beset by the worst trappings of the found footage genre (no one puts down the camera for any reason). In fact, there are several moments where we can see the other camera in a shot and watch as the cameraman prioritizes getting the shot rather than running for their lives from a zombie feet from them. It's dumb.
If not for the handful of guffaws, I'd say it has no worth at all. But, I did guffaw at least twice. Maybe it was only twice.