66
Metascore
29 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100PremiereGlenn KennyPremiereGlenn KennyA giddy kick-out-the-jams entertainment. Diary takes a tack that's not exactly new, but is new to Romero, and as one might expect, the director brings a sharp and uncompromising new perspective to it.
- 90VarietyEddie CockrellVarietyEddie CockrellGripping, intimate genre triumph.
- 90L.A. WeeklyScott FoundasL.A. WeeklyScott FoundasIn most horror movies, it's a given that we should root for the heroes to make it out alive, but Diary of the Dead isn't nearly so certain, and so it terrifies us all the more.
- 88Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversThis one belongs with the leaders of the scare pack. Isn't it time that we give Romero his due? It's hardly an accident that Stephen King, Quentin Tarantino, Guillermo del Toro, Simon Pegg and Wes Craven recognize Romero as a master. He is.
- 70New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinCompared with other first-person motion-sickness horror pictures like "The Blair Witch Project" and "Cloverfield," George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead is weak tea, yet there’s enough social commentary (and innovative splatter) to acidulate the brew--to remind you that Romero, even behind the curve, makes other genre filmmakers look like fraidy-cats.
- 70Village VoiceVillage VoiceVisually, Romero's ersatz-DIY experiment isn't as suave as Brian De Palma's similar effort in the recent and risible "Redacted," nor as exactingly engineered as the video convulsions of "Cloverfield," but its scrappy, ultra-low-budget edges are part of its charm.
- 67Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanDiary of the Dead isn't bad; it's a kicky B movie hiding inside a draggy, self-conscious-work-of-auteurist-horror one.
- 58The A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe A.V. ClubNathan RabinAs in the more successful "Land Of The Dead," Romero makes an admirable attempt to update his beloved franchise for contemporary audiences. But this time out, his heavy-handed intellectual concerns get in the way of a perfectly good fright flick.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenThe Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenThis "Living Dead" exercise delivers far less monstrosity and a great deal of pomposity, not to mention dull characters who aren't nearly as lively as those dead guys.
- 50Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesChicago ReaderJ.R. JonesDiary of the Dead features some of the most hilariously gross images since "Dawn of the Dead." In one online video the filmmakers find, a father playfully pulls off a birthday clown’s red rubber nose and the guy’s real nose comes off with it.