Diary of the Dead

Geoff Redferns, a struggling filmmaker from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is preparing the ultimate documentary with his college students in a remote Pennsylvania farm house for their 'zombie film project'. This is their last chance to prove they can produce something worthwhile to their demanding instructor, Mark. Mark had assigned a film project to his students as a means of assessing their ability for storytelling, but none of them seemed enthusiastic enough. However, when a series of mysterious incidents unfold across the United States in the form of reanimated corpses, their lives quickly take an unsettling turn, bringing with it unexpected terror and uncertainty. Geoff is accompanied by his best friend, Justin, alongside Mark, and their classmates: Tina, a resourceful yet aggressive young woman; Mark's brother, Todd; and the group's tech expert, Michelle. The group is in a remote location filming the zombie apocalypse, but little do they know that they are also being captured on film. As events unfold, Geoff, who has become somewhat of an obsessive zombie fan, quickly realizes that they have stumbled upon the real zombie apocalypse and not just a movie scenario. They soon learn that the world they knew before is not just an elaborate fantasy but is actually unfolding before their eyes in the midst of panic, chaos, and horror. As panic sets in, Geoff decides that their best hope for survival is to keep filming the zombies and documenting their rise and spread. The students' primary goal is to film as much as possible to be the ones to document the zombie outbreak, which will ultimately make them renowned filmmakers. However, the group is under pressure to leave the remote film location but their journey to the city is fraught with danger. They soon discover that many people have become dishearteningly aggressive towards one another and that civilization is falling rapidly. One of the students, Todd, who seems not to be adjusting to the situation, gets increasingly desperate. His paranoia and desperation lead him to turn against his friends and family, eventually becoming one of the main threats within the group. Tina, who initially had her suspicions towards the group's survival efforts, develops close ties with Mark and eventually falls in love with him. The rest of the group finds themselves torn between personal struggles, fear, and their desire to capture the zombie epidemic on camera. Their desperate bid for survival and safety takes a toll on the relationships within the group, causing tension and stress that could eventually split them apart. However, they are forced to put aside their differences as they become increasingly threatened by an ever-increasing number of the undead. In their desperate attempts to flee Pittsburgh and escape the chaos, they eventually reach the city's outskirts. They discover a few other survivors, who initially present themselves as a friendly and welcoming party. However, their true motives soon begin to surface, and they become embroiled in one of the most treacherous encounters the group faces during their ordeal. As their time is running out, the group makes their last stand in the abandoned school that they first filmed at earlier in the film, hoping to make the ultimate film that would document their horrific experience. However, it seems that their attempts will ultimately not go unnoticed as they have unknowingly caught the attention of a large pack of the undead. With the school's location eventually being overrun by zombies, Geoff is left with a difficult decision on how to end the story. His last hope is a recording of a TV broadcast that is transmitted across the air, in the style of a public service announcement. The message on the TV broadcast gives a clue to how the outbreak occurred, which is caused by a virus created from contaminated television signals emanating from a particular news network.