YMMV / Diary of the Dead

• Anvilicious: It swings between New Media Are Evil and Old Media Are Evil. It tends to lean toward the former the majority of the time.
• Base-Breaking Character: Elliot. To some he's a overly goofy hanger-on who doesn't contribute much. To others he's a fairly decent Action Survivor (IV pole scene anyone?) with some Hidden Depths (per the Confession Cam featurette) who just catches some bad breaks.
• Broken Base: The fourth film hit some rough patches with a few fans, but this film either condemns or redeems Romero in their eyes. It's either a return to Romero's independent roots, or yet another poor "guy records horror" film with morals even more Anvilicious than the previous one.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Samuel, the most badass Amish man to grace a Romero film.
  • Tracy as well for being a Southern Belle Action Girl.
  • Professor Maxwell, for being the voice of reason and the only fully competent character, despite being drunk most of the time.
  • The female paramedic who kicks the male zombie in the head gained several fans just for doing so.
• Moe: Tracy inspires endearing or protective feelings due to being a sweet Southern Belle early on (with some humorous Of Corset Hurts complaining about her movie costume) and the way she gets gradually broken down by the traumas of the zombie apocalypse while still retaining some spunk.
• Narm: The documentary being named The Death of Death.
• Retroactive Recognition: Tatiana Maslany (Mary) is now far more recognizable for her roles in Orphan Black and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
• The Scrappy: Jason is not well liked by fans. Mainly because when Tracy is being attacked by zombies, he just films instead of, y'know, helping her. It does lead to an awesome Damsel out of Distress moment but still...
• Too Cool to Live: Samuel.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: The film ends with Debra watching footage of a hunting party using zombies as target practice and wondering if humans were really worth saving. But since the film takes place in a Zombie Apocalypse where anyone who does not kill the zombies becomes their next meal, the hunters seem sensible rather than the Fantastic Racists the film suggests they are. On the other hand, she may have simply viewed their killing method as excessively cruel, and it was certainly inefficient.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Jason is supposed to come off as a likeable, relatable main character, but his actions (or lack thereof) make him come across as a Dirty Coward. All he does is record his friends getting attacked rather than actually help them.