This review contains plot spoilers.<br /><br />The first sign that The Zombie Diaries was going to suck? It's a low budget horror flick filmed on a hand-held camera. I'm not hating on movies filmed as if it's footage from a hand-held camera. I loved Cloverfield and Quarantine. But this movie turned out worse than Diary of the Dead, which is a pretty big achievement.<br /><br />The Zombie Diaries is presented as a sort of documentary-like presentation at first. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but the fact it's separated into three different accounts of the incident is a bit tedious.<br /><br />The first account, labelled as day one, is of a group of documentary makers. Albeit not very convincing ones. The actors portraying them are abysmally awful, not one of them can act even a little. I'm in no way overreacting here, but their performances are actually cringe-worthy. That being said the make-up on the zombies isn't too bad and the scares aren't too cheap, I did surprised myself when I jumped.<br /><br />Day two's group of people aren't much better. It's two men and a woman this time, the actors are a bit better this time round, but not by much. There's a bit more zombie action in this chapter and the make-up on the zombies is still quite realistic. Although both of the parts end quite abruptly, they are explored further later on.<br /><br />The final group is a larger one who have taken refuge on a farm. Much better actors this time around and the cameraman actually attempts to explain what's happening to the audience, something that was sorely missing from the previous two 'days'. Zombie action is highest in this part and I can't help feeling that The Zombie Diaries would have been much better if only this group's story was told.<br /><br />The film then goes from group to group, concluding each story and eventually links them all together in admittedly quite a clever way. Not that it saves this film though, it's a great idea which, contrary to popular belief, didn't rip-off Diary of the Dead as it was made before it. The film is boring though, to be perfectly honest and the good effects don't save it at all. Avoid.<br /><br />Rating: ★★½