Samuel, the deaf Amish farmer!

[Doc]

So, did anybody else love this character! I thought he was freaking awesome despite, the short time we had with him! He should have lived and some other of those random losers in Diary should have been the ones to bite it instead. I wish we also would have stayed on his farm longer too. The scenery of it all gave me a Night of the Living Dead vibe. Plus, I'd want to see Sammy throw more sticks of dynamite at the living dead!

[bassman]

He's probably the best part of Diary. The gags actually worked, which is rare for Romero these days. I giggle a bit just thinking of him standing there with his board while the dynamite explodes nearby. And when he points out all the zombies behind them? Good stuff. Sadly the rest of the film doesn't hold up as well.

[Publius]

I agree, that was my favorite part of Diary and a character I would like to have seen fleshed out a little more.

[blind2d]

Yep, I agree with the above.

[bassman]

The scene as a whole is fantastic, but his death is a bit of a stretch. It's no fire extinguisher eye ball pop, but it's an eye-roller....

[Publius]

True. Why not just swing over his head?

[AcesandEights]

Okay, here's my say on Samuel. Samuel was an okay idea, but the implementation was a bit hokey and I wasn't prepared as a viewer for it to be wacky zombie kill fest day at the cinema. I do think the guy who played the character did a good job with what he was given and it seemed like he had a ball with it, but the overblown manner it was handled was another thing about the film that underlined that the final product just wasn't for me. That said, I adjusted expectations with Survival and enjoyed it much more. If Diary had been a SyFy original I'd probably have been more pleased with it, so I guess it's more a matter of my expectations getting in the way of the film, though I still say Romero dropped the ball in many areas and the overall product was a regressive showing. Not my intention to move this to a 'bash' Diary thread, as I know we've seen our fair share of those, just a flow of consciousness on the topic.

[zomtom]

I'm not as critical as alot of you. I rather enjoyed Diary. Samuel's segment was by far the best part of the movie. That being said, I was REALLY disappointed with Survival. That was just so damned hokey. Survival was the first Romero film I really disliked (but I still bought the blu ray). I've liked Diary enough to have watched it about 20 times so far.

[MoonSylver]

To all you poor bastards who loved Samuel but didn't like Diary: if only you'd figured out what he was trying to tell you in time...

[Wyldwraith]

Just don't get it, I've watched Diary 1 @ 1/2 times. Gave it a fair shot on a first viewing, and then after Survival I tried to go back to it, hoping that by comparison to Survival, it would've improved somewhat in my eyes. I just couldn't make it through a second viewing though. Going beyond every other element of the movie, not one single character engaged me in any meaningful way...and when you're down to rooting for a novel way for the zombies to devour X,Y and Z characters...you're pretty much done with a film. Then we come to things like the sheer smug snarkiness of the military deserters, and that STUPID scene of the 12-20 absolutely motionless zombies underwater in the in-ground pool....it's just the last straw. Like a previous poster, I don't want to just come off like a Diary-hater, but I just couldn't find ONE thing out of the entire movie that worked for me even as well as the really cheesy parts of Land....and when you're not within shouting distance of the worst parts of Land...you aren't even (IMHO) close to being a good made-for-SyFy movie. So that's pretty much all I can say about Diary. I'm past my GAR-rage phase, and "Woe, oh woe, GAR hasn't made a good movie in forever" angst has gotten old for me...it's just my matter of fact impression of the film. My latest movie-rage is being directed towards what will undoubtedly be the total piece of shit known as SCRE4M (Scream 4)...

[Doc]

He's probably the best part of Diary. The gags actually worked, which is rare for Romero these days. I giggle a bit just thinking of him standing there with his board while the dynamite explodes nearby. And when he points out all the zombies behind them? Good stuff. Sadly the rest of the film doesn't hold up as well. The scene as a whole is fantastic, but his death is a bit of a stretch. It's no fire extinguisher eye ball pop, but it's an eye-roller.... Same as, you I never oddly found it out of place, and tbh seemed almost like something I could see happening in the original "Dawn". Yeah, his death was the thing that did make me go- "Really?" I still find him the best part of the whole movie for me. Which, isn't too good consider there aren't to many good parts. My latest movie-rage is being directed towards what will undoubtedly be the total piece of shit known as SCRE4M (Scream 4)... Your expecting them to be any good after Scream 1? And yes I quiet like Scream 1.