The late great director George A Romero will always be known for creating the Zombie movie genre, with his best trilogy of films Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead. In 2005 he decided to continue the film series with Land of the Dead, his last good Zombie epic.
Now that zombies have taken over the world, the living have built a walled-in city to keep the dead out. But all’s not well where it’s most safe, as a revolution plans to overthrow the city’s leadership, and the zombies are turning into more advanced creatures.
With a decent budget and a good cast the film wastes no time in getting to the gory action when Riley Denbo, who leads a band of survivors in a large armoured vehicle called Dead Reckoning, notices that some zombies are growing in intelligence and will now be an even bigger threat to the remaining survivors.
Meanwhile, the wealthy and privileged are tucked up safely in a protected luxury tower block / shopping centre run by Paul Kaufman, the city’s ruthless and selfish ruler. But when things start to fall apart it is survival of the fittest.
Fans of gory horror will not be disappointed, especially in the unrated version, with practical F/X really going full out and its not for the faint of heart. The cast is very good especially the lead actor Simon Baker who would later shoot to fame on TV in The Mentalist and Dennis Hopper as the main villain of the show. While not on par with the previous trilogy it is still a very enjoyable and at times, horrific ride.
The new 2 disc Blu ray released by Fabulous films has two versions of the film, theatrical and unrated cuts and both have an excellent transfer with grain intact and bold blacks and colours. Audio has a DTS 5.1 and 2.0 option both sound clear and punchy. Some great extras on this release which includes:
- Cholo’s Reckoning: An Interview with Actor John Leguizamo
- Charlie’s Story: An Interview with Actor Robert Joy
- The Pillsbury Actor: An Interview with Actor Pedro Miguel Arce
- Four of the Apocalypse: An Interview with Actors Eugene Clark, Jennifer Baxter, Boyd Banks and Jasmin Geljo
- Theatrical Trailer
- Dream of the Dead Documentary
- Dream of the Dead with Audio Commentary by Director Roy Frumkes
- Deleted Scenes from Dream of the Dead
- Feature Commentary with Director George A. Romero, Producer Peter Grunwald and Editor Michael Doherty
- Feature Commentary with Zombie Performers Matt Blazi. Glena Chao, Michael Felsher and Rob Mayr
- When Shaun Met George (Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright meet George Romero)
- Bringing the Dead to Life
- Scenes of Carnage
- Zombie Effects: From Green Screen to Finished Scene
- Scream Tests: Zombie Casting Call
- Bringing the Storyboards to Life
- Undead Again : The Making of Land of the Dead
- A Day with the Living Dead
- Reversible Sleeve
- All New Artwork by Graham Humphreys
A great feature packed release and if you’re a fan of the genre I would definitely recommend this set.
