With Land of the Dead, George A. Romero proves there's still some life in the undead.
Back in 1968 with his ultra low-budget gorefest Night of the Living Dead, Romero started the zombie craze, fuelling countless imitators.
What made Night of the Living Dead so terrifying was the claustrophobic feel of a handful of people trapped in a house at the mercy of a small army of ravenous corpses.
In Land of the Dead, that army of zombies has grown immeasurably, as have the numbers of their potential victims.
To avoid the undead, the living have barricaded themselves in a city bordered on three sides by water and sealed on the fourth by electric fences.
The city is divided into two classes: The elite under the watchful, avaricious eye of former CEO Kaufman, (Dennis Hopper), live in a huge tower with all the luxuries of the past.
Those less fortunate live below in a city reminiscent of those in the Mad Max movies.
Kaufman sends a group of mercenaries out into the zombie-infested towns surrounding the city to collect supplies.
One of the mercenaries asks his boss why they always go out at night on these raids.
It's a good question and one that can only be answered in terms of atmosphere. It's scarier in the dark and Land of the Dead is all about shock and gore.
The big twist here is the zombies are beginning to think and the first thing they want is a piece of the American Dream.
You just know they're going to find a way into the complex for the bloodiest rampage in any of Romero's four zombie flicks.
The acting and character development are secondary, but Hopper, Simon Baker, John Leguizamo and Asia Argento try to flesh out some human drama.
The best performances come from Robert Joy, as the hideously scarred simpleton, and Eugene Clark as Big Daddy, the self-appointed leader of the zombies.
Land of the Dead is a banquet of nasty thrills for those who like their horror dashed with allegory and satire, as well as blood, guts and gore.
(This film is rated 18-A)
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