'George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead'

"Diary" is neither a sequel to nor a remake of the original film. Romero's zombie films serve up social commentary along with brains and entrails; the groundbreaking "Night of the Living Dead" reflected the chaos and racial strife of the late 1960s. "Diary" focuses on a culture of technology-fueled information overload, where anyone can be a reporter or documentarian, and the results -- for better or worse -- can be sent around the world in an instant.

In "Diary," a college film crew is making a horror movie when real-life horror intrudes. As zombies advance, the students and their boozy faculty adviser speed off across Pennsylvania -- although the film was shot in Ontario -- to get back to their families.

Their travels are interspersed with requisite, and creative, blood and gore and an unexpected stop in Amish country. No longer filming their horror movie, the students turn the camera lens on the unfolding zombie invasion, insisting there's a need to document it -- even if it means risking their safety or the lives of their friends.

The action in "Diary" is filtered through the student film crew's camera work, as well as uploaded Internet video clips from others documenting the horror.

In the end, "Diary" marks a return to form for Romero and proves the aging horror auteur can still inject a relevant social conscience into a decades-old franchise.