Welcome back to Night of the Reviews. After the last installment, we have now covered the original three Romero films. There are some that have dubbed them as Romero's Holy Trinity of his Zombie saga. After Day of the Dead's success, Romero took some time and made some other horror films. During this time, we also saw a remake of Night of the Living Dead directed by Tom Savini. It was a solid film and will be covered a little later in this retrospective, so stay tuned for that. And then the zombie genre started making a resurgence with 28 Days Later, the first Resident Evil, and the Zack Snyder Dawn of the Dead.
Romero had seen that the genre was coming back. He had started brewing an idea for a fourth installment for his series. He had started the script and seeing different studios. One of the studios that was seen was Fox. Fox had wanted the film to be originally titled Night of the Living Dead. Romero questioned that as he had the name Dead Reckoning in mind. Funny thing is that Fox was looking to own the rights to the Night of the Living Dead franchise. Thankfully Universal Pictures would be the ones to get Romero and his fourth entry. Universal was quick to suggest calling it Land of the Dead instead of Dead Reckoning.
By this point, I had seen a lot of the zombie films that were being released. I had enjoyed a lot of them. Yes, even some of the lesser ones that may not have aged properly. When I had heard that Romero was coming out with Land, I had only seen the original Night of the Living Dead and the Savini Night. I had tried watching the original Dawn of the Dead but at that time it just never clicked. I was excited about it. I had tried to go see it at the theater. But I never realized just how dumb the release was for this. It was like a limited release instead of a wide release. So my local theater never received it. It was absolutely dumb. The first day it was released on dvd, I went and picked it up. I was ready for it. I had a bit of high expectations for it.
In a world where zombies form the majority of the population, the remaining humans build a feudal society away from the undead. Ruthless Paul Kaufman rules and protects this microcosm but enforces painful class distinctions. Second-in-command Cholo DeMora attempts to lead a secret rebellion against Kaufman's tyranny, but when the zombies begin to evolve, the survivors must discover a way to protect themselves from a zombie hoard that can learn and adapt.
This is a very basic approximation of the film story. There's also Riley, who wishes to find a way to get out of the city. He wants to be on his own and be his own person. Riley's only friend is Charlie. Charlie may seem a bit off. However, he is awesome as he can hold his own and has Riley's back. It's a very great pairing and feels like a callback to Of Mice and Men with George and Lennie. But Riley has to stop Cholo to gain his freedom. Riley enlists the help of Slack to aid him and Charlie in this mission.
In this rewatch of Land, it's interesting how there's three different sides to the story. It feels very much like the world in Day of the Dead. That's very evident as our three characters feel like natural evolution and callbacks to our characters in Day of the Dead. Riley feels like Sarah, Cholo feels like the mad scientist, and then Kaufman is very much mad like Rhodes. When I had originally watched the film, I loved it. It was nice seeing Romero return to the genre he helped create. It honestly still does.
The film definitely feels bigger than Day of the Dead. It's also interesting seeing how Romero was able to finally utilize the ideas he had for the original Day of the Dead script in this. So for this, it feels like Day and Land are the two sides of that original script. There is a fair bit of action in the film. However for me, the biggest thing was seeing Romero getting to show more of the evolution of the zombies. This is the film that began to open things up even more. I mean our main zombie, Big Daddy was a gas station worker originally. He is able to find a way to communicate with the other zombies. It's a bit simple but effective. He also is the first zombie that is able to use a gun. He ends up using an AR-15 (if I remember right) to put a zombie head out of its misery. It is interesting seeing how they overcome their love of fireworks to stay on track.
Honestly, Land of the Dead doesn't feel like a cash grab in. It feels like a natural fourth installment. It does have some elements that may feel a little familiar. The opening feels like a callback to Day's opening. The ending is definitely fashioned very much after Dawn of the Dead's with the onslaught of zombies getting what they wanted. The cast in this film is great. Robert Joy is one of the biggest standouts for me. His performance as Charlie is fantastic. He knows that he can chew the scenery a bit. But he steals a lot of his scenes. I wanted to see more of Charlie. Simon Baker is solid as Riley. He doesn't feel like a ruff and tuff man. He feels like a real person. Plus the interactions between Riley and Charlie is just so good. It's a great friendship. Asia Argento was someone I hadn't seen much of before this. I hadn't realized that she was the daughter of Dario. She does a good job in her performance as Slack. It honestly feels a bit like Catwoman from Batman, especially with the interactions between Slack and Riley. John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper are also fantastic. They chew the scenery so much as Cholo and Kaufman. There was a time or two where I honestly began rolling my eyes. Eugene Clark also steals the show with his performance as Big Daddy. He is so expressive and emotive. It's a beautiful evolution of Bub from Day. And then we have one of our largest ties to the previous three films with Tom Savini appearing as a Zombie Biker. This is a really cool continuity moment as it is literally the same character from Dawn of the Dead. It would have been cool to see more of these type of moments. But it's a nice callback for fans.
There is definitely gore in this film. It doesn't disappoint. The only version I had seen of this film was the Unrated Directors Cut. I did look up to see what was added to it. After knowing that there were moments with Big Daddy and the zombies missing from the theatrical cut, I can't imagine what that would be like. This is very much their film as the humans.
Overall, Land of the Dead is a fantastic entry in the Romero saga. It holds up pretty well for me. Yeah, sometimes the action may feel a little generic. Same goes for the gore. But for me, it's the smaller beats with the zombies and interactions between Riley and Charlie that make the film for me. It's honestly one of my favorite installments. I definitely recommend it.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Previous Installments of Night of the Reviews
Part 1: Night of the Living Dead
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