TIFF Report: Reflections on the festival so far, and, Romero’s Diary of the Dead

Posted by Mack at 5:54pm.

Posted in Film News , Cult, Comedy, Action, Horror, USA & Canada.

We’ve reached an interesting juncture here at Twitch. As we continue to build a loyal readership we also continue to establish good relationships with industry and press. But we’re slowly being torn apart; our core is being threatened by our success. No, it hasn’t gone to our heads. But, as we gain more and more respect in the industry side so do we gain the rewards. So, Todd, Kurt and Michael are blessed to have press credentials this year and guys like Swarez, who has flown in from Iceland to hang with us, and I are left on the civilian side, looking over, pondering what could be. Michael did say though that he misses the public side of the festival as it is such a part of the success and lure of TIFF each year.

There really are two festivals running at the same time here. P&I have a different schedule than the public, and it runs at least one day ahead of the public schedule. This results in a couple things. One, I don’t get to see my boys as much as I like. I only just bumped into Michael this morning as he was going out and I was going in. He’s been here almost a week. Two, when you run around with a bunch of guys who share similar taste in film you’re going to see the same movies. Having said that, Todd, Kurt and Michael are seeing these movies one day ahead of me so it puts me in an interesting position where I have nothing different to offer to you in as far as full reviews are concerned. Kurt and I lamented this as we met for the Chrysalis screening. For the most part what’s been said is good and it doesn’t need repeating. Hopefully, what I am going to end up doing is tag onto what has already been said, or, offer other insights. Let’s start with Romero’s Diary of the Dead.

Romero’s zombie films always include some sort of social commentary, and the message is punctuated by zombie action. In this neo-zombie age we’re seeing the opposite of that structure, where the social commentary is sacrificed to the point where it only punctuates a lot of zombie action. It is a sad direction away from what made a good zombie movie, something that Romero lamented with a shaking fist, grimacing about running zombies. Don’t despair zombie lovers. I think zombie violence is good and Diary of the Dead certainly delivers some great moments. Devices like acid, defibrillator, arrows, swords, scythes and an assortment of guns are used to hush the zombie horde. But there are also more important things that Romero says about society in Diary.

Apart from what Kurt said in his review, there is also a slight subtext about validation and approval of one’s work even if means that such validation comes from total strangers. If approval comes from people that you have never met and you don’t seek it out of the ones that are closest to you is it really redeeming in any sense? In a scene in the film, student director Jason uploads some of the footage from the onset of the zombie holocaust. The response to the footage is exceptional. Jason is overjoyed with the response. He asks the question; imagine how many more hits they’ll get the longer the footage is up. But you also pick up on the sick voyeurism under the guise of responsibility in journalism. The footage that Jason uploaded to the net was raw, untouched, and not the edited scene which followed where only his side of the argument was in the finished cut. More, more, give us more.

Will Diary succeed if released? I hope it does. But, the reality is that there is a new monster to fight if ever the holocaust should happen. With every neo-zombie movie that comes out with faster, deadlier zombies, feeding our endless appetite for violence there is little room for context and social commentary; things the genre found its legs on in the first place. Will the public opinion of Romero’s film reflect that of the young man who walked out of the theatre behind me, saying that he wanted more zombies? I hope not, but there seems to be little room for raising awareness of our own faults and vices with each younger generation as they pump themselves full of instant access action and real-time violence; only going outside as far as the power chord will reach. Perhaps the neo-zombie movies really have eaten the brains out of the zombie genre.