HORROR MOVIES

HORROR MOVIES

Land of the Dead
MoviesUnless you are a devoted fan you may want to skip Land of the Dead George A Romero seems to be on a bit of a cycle Every ten to fifteen years or so he unleashes upon the world another of the Dead horror movie This can be seen as either a good or bad thing depending on your point of view The latest of Romeros forays into the world overrun by flesheating ghouls or zombies theyre affectionately called stenches in this outing is the unfortunately lackluster Land of the Dead

Reviewing Land Of The Dead
I want to make one thing perfectly clear I love Romeros work From the original Night of the Living Dead to the bizarre yet intriguing Martin Romero knows how to touch a chord with his audiences and the films he creates become about much more than the grossout special effects for which theyre famous Theyre horror films to be sure but theyre on a completely different level than something like Friday the 13th or A Nightmare on Elm Street which is why Land is something of a let down The flick would be a perfectly enjoyable Bmovie for watching on video were it made by some new schlock director but knowing that its a true Romero entry into the series makes it a disappointment

The plot centers around a civilization of humans the last ones on Earth maybe the film never makes that claim living within a walled city The welltodo live in an expansive and expensive apparently despite there being roughly ten zombies to every human the economy hasnt collapsed skyscraper while the common folk scramble in the streets for food shelter and medicine The evil Mr Kaufman played sleepily by Dennis Hopper you just know hes evil for him its all about MONEY controls all of the goings on in town including the sending of raiding parties into nearby deserted rural towns for needed supplies and the occasional feeding of political dissidents to the stenches When one of Kaufmans flunkies Cholo played very well by John Leguizamo decides he wants to move upstairs with the big boys and finds out that hes not their type all hell literally breaks loose

Land Of The Learning
The real issue with Land lies with its titular Dead Over the course of his films in the series Romero has shown a small degree of Zombie evolution each time The walking eating machines of Night gave way to the humorous shopping mall flailing of the ghouls in Dawn which led to the antics of Bub a zombie trained to do parlor tricks in 1985s Day of the Dead Now the zombies have learned to rally together and even fire automatic weapons sure Day had Bub shooting a pistol at the Evil Army Captain but the effect there was suitably humorous while here its just silly at the defending soldiers

Simon Baker The Ring Two Book of Love and Asia Argento xXx round out Romeros cast Argento doubtlessly appears mostly because of her last name famed Italian horror director Dario Argento is her pop but looks pretty good in her fishnet bodysuit bad girl outfit The inclusion of names as big as Hopper and Leguizamo is perhaps most surprising for Romero who usually works with unknowns in his zombie flicks Romero has directed stars before most notably in his films based on Stephen King works he directed King himself in the still fun to watch Creepshow Timothy Hutton in The Dark Half and is slated to work with Laura Dern in The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon which is currently in preproduction according to IMDB

Land Of The Verdict
Land of the Dead is watchable but the zombie formula doesnt work anymore Night of the Living Dead shocked and horrified audiences in 1968 with its horrid scenes of cannibalism and violence but that was almost forty years ago and before the world had Resident Evil Capcoms game series owes a lot to Romero by the way The Zombie Survival Guide an actual book that tells you what to do in case of a zombie attack no joke and the splatter film explosion of the early eighties Zombies just arent very scary anymore and when Romero starts messing with the formula to make them less scary youd think hed have learned from the 2004 remake of Dawn which gave use fast moving roaring zombies in an effort to make them scarier but wound up looking like less frightening versions of the infected from 28 Days Later he alienates his audience even further

There are bits of Land that are enjoyable but if I want to laugh at the shenanigans of the undead Ill rent the superbly made spoof Shaun of the Dead instead One small bit of solace for diehard fans of Romeros Dead films is that at the rate he releases them hell be in his eighties or gone to the Great Screening Room in the Sky by the time the next entry is due.