Land of the Dead

REVIEW
More eagerly awaited than any American horror film in recent memory (some genre fans accurately compared it to the horror devotee’s holy grail equivalent to the second cycle of Star Wars films), George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead -- the director’s return to his cycle of legendary zombie films after a two-decade absence – turned out to be the most divisive horror release of the year (with Devil’s Rejects probably arriving in second place).

Beloved and embraced by some fans who proclaimed it a glorious return to form for Romero, the film was also dismissed or outright loathed by admirers of the original trilogy (1968’s Night of the Living Dead, 1978’s Dawn of the Dead, and 1985’s Day of the Dead) who felt that this major-studio endeavor fell considerably short of the pedigree established by its predecessors. The truth, as is usually the case in these scenarios, probably lies somewhere in between these polarized receptions. Indeed, Land doesn’t really deserve to take its place alongside the original trilogy of zombie classics – unlike the fully developed alternate realities of the previous trio of films, Land, despite its obvious budgetary advantages, never fully succeeds in establishing the environment that its characters inhabit, and one senses that the film’s brisk running time and emphasis on action over characterization is likely a concession on Romero’s part to the current marketplace. Yet the zombie action is satisfyingly gruesome (Romero delivered the gory goods even in the R-rated theatrical cut, but this is predictably expanded further in the unrated director’s cut available on this DVD), and it’s refreshing to see that Romero’s sense of social satire has not dimmed over the years (though it’s also a bit broad and heavy-handed here).

The storyline centers around a group of ragtag social outcasts employed by the powerful Kaufman (an oddly restrained Dennis Hopper) to retrieve necessities and luxury goods for the privileged residents of “Fiddler’s Green,” a high-rise apartment complex designed to shelter the wealthy from the zombie hordes outside. When one of the gang, Cholo (John Leguizamo), hijacks the armored truck, “Dead Reckoning,” that the group uses to venture outside of the safely protected city, the remaining scavengers (Simon Baker, Robert Joy, Asia Argento) must decide where their loyalties lie.

It’s regrettable that we never get much of a sense of life inside Fiddler’s Green, just as we also never have the zombie plague placed in any broader social context (it’s also lamentable that Romero couldn’t have based his central story around something more interesting than a guy stealing a truck), but there is still much to savor in Land, and longtime zombie fans and gorehounds (and Romero followers) should still find this new endeavor to be an entertaining – if admittedly somewhat disappointing – project. A mixed bag overall.