Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
A group of young filmmakers encounter real zombies while filming a horror movie of their own.
Romero's return to zombie horror via found footage is a conceptually interesting meta-commentary on media and surveillance culture, but the execution is uneven. The film-within-a-film conceit adds some novelty, blending self-aware horror filmmaking with pseudo-documentary style, and the cinematography cleverly uses the found-footage format to build tension. However, the acting is stilted and unconvincing even by genre standards, the characters are thinly drawn, and the social satire feels heavy-handed and preachy rather than incisive. The plot is largely episodic with little dramatic momentum, and the ending fails to deliver a satisfying payoff, feeling abrupt and undercooked. A minor entry in Romero's zombie canon that squanders an intriguing premise.