Diary of the Dead

George Romero didn't invent the zombie film, but with Night of the Living Dead 40 years ago, he certainly provided the touchstones that have characterised the genre ever since, all the way to this fifth outing in the Dead cycle. The midway point in a current rash of home video horror (the weak Cloverfield last month, the outstanding [REC] from Spain next), Diary follows a group of college students trying to survive a mutant outbreak, the conceit being that everything we see is filmed either from one of their video cameras or surveillance footage. So consumed is Romero with satirising our obsession with citizen journalism that it results in a zombie flick with a startling lack of zombie action, his reluctance to feed the mouth that bites him leaving the film plodding and lacking in excitement. Worse still, much of the carnage is CG augmented, removing the viscera of Tom Savini's astonishing makeup that made Dawn and Day so memorable, to the extent that it barely deserves its 18 rating. [Paul Greenwood]