Land of the Dead 

George A. Romero is a modern legend of horror.

He is the writer and director of 1968's Night of the Living Dead, which created the zombie genre and inspired countless knock offs. Romero mounted his follow-up, Dawn of the Dead, in 1978, creating arguably the greatest ever zombie film. The third film, 1985's Day of the Dead, was a quality sequel, but didn't live up to Romero's own vision of where he wanted to take the zombie genre.

Over the last twenty years, Romero has gone on to make some quality non-zombie horror films (The Dark Half, Monkey Shines), some crap ones (Bruiser) and some in between (Creepshow).

Then in 2002, a curious trend began to emerge. A film based on the video game Resident Evil (which itself borrowed from, I mean thoroughly ripped off, Romero's zombie films), was released to a surprising degree of success. Then came 28 Days Later, whose creators claimed wasn't a zombie film, but also borrowed heavily from Romero.

Last year saw the reverential zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead and the surprisingly cool remake of Romero's Dawn of the Dead. As these zombie films came and went, (for the record: Dawn was great, Shaun was good, 28 Days Later was overrated, Resident Evil was pants) - all experiencing success, all to some degree influenced by George A. Romero, I waited. Patiently. Then the good news finally came - the master would finally be able to mount a fourth "Dead" film. Finally!

Following the trend of Day and Dawn, Land of the Dead is set when the zombie phenomenon (i.e. the dead getting up and walking [that's walking, not running] around and eating people, turning them into fellow walking dead types) has progressed a little further along. The Earth's population is, for lack of a better expression, getting used to the zombie presence. While the zombies, in their own way, are evolving, and becoming capable of (extremely) rudimentary tasks.

The citizens of one area have cordoned off a large compound surrounded by rivers to create a safe-heaven of sorts. The rich (headed by area dictator Dennis Hopper) live in the centre in a pseudo-idyllic enclosed glass building known as Fiddler's Green, while the lower socio-economic groups populate the surrounding ghettos.

Groups of civilian commando types venture out into zombie-infested territory inside a specially designed truck to retrieve supplies and take out a few zombies while they're at it. But there is unrest, both in the downcast humans and their less-alive ilk.

Land of the Dead is the most action-heavy of all Romero's zombie films, and builds on elements foreshadowed in Day of the Dead. He crams the movie with more ultra-gross out moments and genuine frights than arguably all his previous zombie films put together. It is premium Romero. That is to say, it's spleen-spillingly awesome.

Land of the Dead at times recalls all three films that preceded it - the panicked mania of Night; the contained monotony of Dawn; the power abuse and zombie evolution of Day.

Elements of the over-analysed allegorical nature of Dawn of the Dead are present in terms of the physical separation between the haves and the have-nots, and how the zombies ignore such divisions. But I never really cared much for allegory in horror films.

That said, the action heavy nature of Land leaves little room for the ponderous nature of the previous instalments. Prolonged scenes of characters considering the zombie situation and what it means for society lent the earlier films a slowly creeping sense of dread, while this film just kind of gets on with the business at hand - separating zombies' heads from their bodies. I missed the ponderous moments.

Of the cast, John Leguizamo (Spawn, Carlito's Way) is the stand out, once again showing just how underutilised this fine character is by Hollywood. Like many of Romero's earlier films, the supporting cast is kind of "off" (a young skateboarder is laughably uncool - maybe that's intentional), but the other leads - Baker, Asia Argento (xXx, daughter of George's buddy, Italian horror legend Dario) and exploitation staple Dennis Hopper all do their jobs. Of perhaps particular relevance to a local audience is a Samoan character named Pillsbury (played by Pedro Miguel Arce) who has a couple of cool laugh out loud moments.

Hopper, who spends practically the entire film cackling up in a luxury penthouse, provides one particularly crowd-pleasing moment of casual violence towards the end.

I'll allow myself a minor quibble - in Land of the Dead, the civilians refer to the zombies as "stenches". In Day of the Dead, they call them "dumb f**ks". Call me lowbrow, but I preferred the slang of Day.

Land of the Dead is not quite the epic finale to the Dead series fans might have been anticipating - Romero has often talked about an epic war between regular zombies and human trained zombies that would no doubt require a budget Hollywood is resistant to provide. But in one interpretation, Land puts forward a more tolerant and humanitarian (zombitarian?) message than an all-out war film might promote.

And make no mistake, Land of the Dead is an extremely well made and enjoyable horror film that progresses the series forward provides a solid dose of what Romero does best.

Highly recommended. If you're into this sort of thing.

Dominic Corry

Land of the Dead opens in cinemas across the country on Thursday August 4th.