Review of Land of the Dead (2005) by Sean G — 24 Jun 2009

The dead shall inherit the Earth.

A worthy entry in George A. Romero's great Zombie series.

At first Night fell, then Dawn broke and became Day. Now, humanity lives in the land of the dead. A small pocket of humanity has barricaded itself in the streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The rich live in the center of the city, a place called Fiddler's Green, and the poor reside outside of it but are still safe from the zombies. A feudal-like government oversees the people and the head of this state, Paul Koffman, has everything and everyone set in place the way he likes it. One man under his employ, Cholo DeMora, wanted to have a residence in Fiddler's Green, but Koffman won't allow it. DeMora is frustrated and threatens to blackmail Koffman. Koffman orders to have him executed but DeMora quickly escapes, along with some of his comrades and a heavily armored vehicle called "Dead Reckoning." DeMora informs Koffman that he will fire missiles at the city by midnight if Koffman does not hand over a ransom of $5 million. But this is not the real threat to the city. As humanity is de-evolving, the zombies are starting to evolve. They have primal forms of communication and are starting to learn how to use both melee weapons and guns. This last bastion of humanity does not know about this and the zombies have started to descend upon the city. One of the few lands of the living is about to become the land of the dead.

This film was released twenty years after Romero's last zombie film, Day of the Dead. Using updated visual effects and writing a serviceable story, Romero has directed a good zombie film sure to please fans of the series, horror fanatics, and liver lovers. This film does have it faults but it reignites Romero's talent to craft more zombie movies.

Simon Baker stars as Riley Denbo, a leader of a zombie execution and supply retrieval squad. He is ordered by Paul Koffman (Dennis Hopper), to hunt down the rebellious Cholo Demora (John Leguizamo) who has stolen a heavily armed vehicle and is holding Koffman for ransom. Riley enlists the help of his friend Charlie Houk (Robert Joy) and a prostitute and soon to be girlfriend Slack (Asia Argento). Koffman supplies Riley with three more soldiers who are obviously there to ensure Riley does not betray him. They are Manolete (Sasha Roiz), Motown (Krista Bridges) and the heavy-set Pillsbury (Pedro Miguel Arce). The acting isn't bad for this flick and I found Leguizamo to be the most likeable of the group as John almost always brings his 'A' game.

As in previous Romero directed zombie films, a black character always plays a vital role in the story. This time it is someone playing a character on the zombie side of the equation. In Diary of the Dead, there was the theme of zombies starting to think and show intelligence. Here, the zombies have clearly started to evolve and a leader of the pack has emerged. He is simply dubbed Big Daddy and played by Eugene Clark. Big Daddy was once a grease monkey at a garage and assisted in pumping gas there as well. He is both creepy and he just knows that those other, loud, non-pasty faced things are out to kill him and his kind. He decides to take his friends with him and follow the humans to where they live and either kill them, eat them, or turn them into a zombie. The only words Big Daddy says are grunts, but you get the point as to what he means. He is definitely the most interesting character in this story, much like Bub was in Diary of the Dead.

The music is good and there are no real complaints to be made about it. The blood and guts have the Romero touch and feel to them. In each entry of the Living Dead series, there is always at least one new grotesque zombie devouring moment to make you sick. As this movie was made in the new millennium, Romero had access to much better special effects than he did in the previous Dead installments. Here there are a wider array of weapons and vehicles. The most notable being a heavily armored vehicle that can venture out into the outside world of the dead with no problem. Its got miniguns, rockets, mounted M-60's, and fireworks to distract the walking dead.

The story of this film takes a jab on the modern day issue in America and in the world, where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. In the end, money does not mean you will live forever and the poor get all they need. Aside from that, the story is pretty straightforward with little surprises. The ending isn't great and character development could have had more work done on it.

Land of the Dead doesn't nearly live up to the masterpiece, Dawn of the Dead, but it is still a good zombie shockfest. Recommended for horror, Living Dead, and Zombie-philes.