Zombie Diaries 2 (2011) by Michael G. Bartlett and Kevin Gates


Director: Michael G. Bartlett, Kevin Gates
Year: 2011
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: World of the Dead: Zombie Diaries 2
Genre: Zombie

Plot:
Following a worldwide outbreak, soldiers from a compromised British military base escape into the countryside with a fellow survivor and come across a few holdouts under attack by not only the rampaging zombies but another deadly threat forcing them to protect everyone to get away alive.

Review:

This one wasn't nearly as bad as the original but does have a few problems. One of the main elements this one gets right is that the action for once is handled in a way that makes them visible and coherent this time around, which is a vast improvement. Even though once again this one is found-footage, there's a big emphasis on making the sequences much more notable, with the opening attack on the base as the creatures swarm out of the darkness coming towards them en masse with the massive horde approaching the hail of gunfire which carries deeper into the base where their escape attempts are held up by the outbreaks of violent attacks on the now- zombified civilians throughout the compound resulting in even more frantic gunfire to make their escape.

Leading into the later encounters of the troop out in the countryside, from their chilling attack in the deserted house where the zombies emerge out of the deeper rooms of the house or the utterly thrilling moment of them getting into that confrontation with the creatures in the middle of the forest which is captured completely through the night-vision qualities of the video camera to capture them going through the line of defenses and getting attacked by the creatures and the fact that these become all the more enjoyable because they can be seen with a great deal more competence this time around. Even into the finale, with the appearance at the camp does get quite nice with the amount of viable time spent on the showcase of actual zombie attacks which makes for a highly enjoyable amount of fun throughout here. Along with the fine gore and zombie make-up, these here are what make it rather fun.


Still, as good as this one is there are a few flaws to be found here. While there's a great deal of competence displayed throughout here, this one still has the shaking camera jerking around which makes the whole thing completely undecipherable at times. Thankfully this isn't during the action which takes a much more steadying influence here, but once it gets to the scenes of them standing around in the fields looking out into the sunset or spending endless time trying to enforce their newfound society this one really gets quite jerky as the person holding the camera bounces around quite often in the middle of these bland, boring scenes which are distracting and disorienting.

Not only that, but it also highlights the other big flaw to be found here which comes from the lack of time without any kind of real zombie action for large spurts in the film, as they really only take up a few small isolated sections within here as a great deal of this one goes by without a whole lot of the creatures appearing. Given that it brings up the plot line about the returning villain from the original for no reason other than to pad out the time without needing zombies also shows their lack of screen time, and overall it really lowers this one considerably.


Overview: **/5
Decent enough but does have some flaws, this is an improvement over the original even though there are some detrimental factors present here that hold it down overall. Those who enjoyed the original, hardcore zombie fanatics, or are fans of the presentation here will be the most entertained here while most others out there should heed caution.

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