Zombie Diaries

Shamble, like a zombie, down Memory Lane. The ghost of FF2007 awaits you.
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AdeBrown
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Zombie Diaries

Post by AdeBrown »

This film was a reasonable attempt at a video diary of the damned tale.
A couple of sequences were overlong, and the reasons for filming in certain circumstances not too clear. Warning: EVIL Scousers !

I often find these sorts of things unrealistic and most of the performances were as naturalistic as was necessary.
Not great, but by no means a waste of energy.
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Jekyll
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Post by Jekyll »

Hmm taking account of the probably non existant budget and very amateurish look of it it was okay.

Was more of an extended short than a full film really or at least that is the way it felt to me.
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Post by DavieT »

Didnt really push any buttons for me - was OK but nothing really original and had me clockwatching. The only movie I walked out of before the end and that doesnt happen often.
jonbly
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Post by jonbly »

The first two segments were pretty effective... but the third was a bit too slow for jonbly's liking.

With such an unknown cast, jonbly's not really sure if any characters carried over from segment to segment - other than Goke obviously. The trick of 'One month earlier' really didn't help that - the movie would probably work better seen in chronological order, and then Goke's appearance in the third segment would have created more tension (as the audience will know what the other survivors don't).

Nice to see the 'classic' slow-moving zombies back in action.

7/10
iam_dan
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Post by iam_dan »

just didnt do anything for me this 1...it wasnt bad but certainly not great they tried hard but its always going to be a tough thing to pull off a zombie film nowaways...what with them suffling along and you can just kinda out walk them
jonbly
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Post by jonbly »

iam_dan wrote:you can just kinda out walk them
They don't get tired, they don't sleep...
lupogirl
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Post by lupogirl »

jonbly wrote:The first two segments were pretty effective... but the third was a bit too slow for jonbly's liking.

With such an unknown cast, jonbly's not really sure if any characters carried over from segment to segment - other than Goke obviously. The trick of 'One month earlier' really didn't help that - the movie would probably work better seen in chronological order, and then Goke's appearance in the third segment would have created more tension (as the audience will know what the other survivors don't).

Nice to see the 'classic' slow-moving zombies back in action.

7/10
Agree with the above comments. Was still a effective film in creating a sense of hopelessness.
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soulmining
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Post by soulmining »

I liked it, and again, it was different to everything else that showed over the weekend. :)
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Post by rawshark »

Again, I'm biased with this one, and I knew that some people wouldn't like it that much due to it's budget restrictions, but I think it's an amazing achievement for the two directors, and certainly has a lot more to say than most films (such as the nature of humankind in adversity and the choices taken in order to survive)...

Huge thanks to Ian and Paul for deciding to screen it at the festival...
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AndyJWS
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Post by AndyJWS »

Thought it was interesting and had some good ideas and concept going, but probably won't watch it again to be honest.

The shakycam worked against the film as often as for it in my opinion, and when segmenting why did they choose to segment both in terms of "substories" and time as well - the two methods didn't really work together when done in the same way...
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jonbly
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Post by jonbly »

Oops, nearly forgot to rant - this movie was shown in the wrong aspect ratio, and that always really annoys jonbly. Yes, the projectionists at Frightfest have to cope with a mad plethora of formats over the weekend... but it's frustrating to have to watch a whole movie like that.
scrobble
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Post by scrobble »

It was OK, not bad, not particularly good, just meh.

I wanted to think more of it, but came away cold.
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Post by streetrw »

I didn't care for this one at all. Much like Blair Witch, a lot of the photography, particularly for night scenes, is just a dark blur of stuff illuminated by torchlight. I never figured out whether the cameraman character was the same guy all the way through - if he's having to tote a camera around all the time he's not concentrating on the slightly more pressing business of not being eaten by the zombies.

I recognised Letchworth, where they shot a chunk of the second segment.

As Jonbly said, it was shown in full Scope when it should have been in 16:9. I'm puzzled that no-one told them to change it.
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Post by ghouldrool »

in the beginning i was hoping this would be a tad more political.

There were definate swipes at the Bird Flu/foot and mouth shambles and musings on public apathy towards the actions (or inactions) of those in government. id have liked it to have kept this up and been an underground expose of the mishandling of an epidemic, removal of civil liberities etc etc. And just how the plague got from eastern europe to rural england (ooo the potential for immigration policy satire here)

but from there it turned into run of the mill zombie movie fare. which is ok if thats your thing and quite frankly it clearly didnt have the budget to do what i was hoping for -the military uniforms alone must have been a fortune. the problem with the camcorder set up is in no way would some one continually film the things those at the farmhouse filmed. the camera would have been a hinderance.

better as a series of viral shorts supporting a larger movie
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