This is a fortunate turn of events, as small as it may be. Diary of the Dead?...not the best. This one? Not great, but at least a minor improvement in this second chapter that Romero started with that last one. I think he had at least one more planned after this but, well, you know. Time’s a bitch. Unless you’re a zombie. Then that just doesn’t seem to matter much.
Six days after the outbreak. We see an AWOL National Guard Sergeant carrying on with his unit, as decimated as it is. Directly linked to a brief scene in Diary, this follows their journey. After taking out a group of security guards who are, honestly, kinda dicks, they secure an armored truck. What to do? Where to go? There’s also a concurrent story of some old-school rivalry shit playing out. The two stories merge. The zombies continue to eat them all. Cycle of zombie life, it’s a helluva thing.
So this final chapter from Romero, takes it to one more different space. Clans fighting, even when they don’t remember what they’re fighting about anymore, and to what end? MacCloud vs McShane, or whatever their fuckin names are, battles to the death. Oh the allegories, Georgie ole boy loves em. But a better job here with the script, actors and characters than the last. Some action and suspense that’s at least somewhat involving as the story plays out. Smaller in scale, definitely more drama than gore, but implications still obviously big and returning to the zombie evolution kinda thing. But truth of the matter, it ends as it always does. The dead live on. Will the final chapter Twilight of the Dead ever come to fruition? George did have some ideas for this last story before passing. Only time will tell. Or maybe it should just...stay dead.
