With all these young pretenders staking a claim to the zombie crown, the original master returned to show hes not dead (or un-dead) yet. The fourth in George A.Romero's zombie saga, "Land of the Dead" is unfortunately a step down from the previous 3 films. Thats not to say that it's a bad film. More action-orientated than his earlier films, Land of the dead sees zombies outweighing humans, and the remaining humans walled up inside an artificial city, ruled over by Dennis Hopper.
This is definitely the goriest of Romero's zombie films, and probably one of the goriest films I've ever seen. The make-up and special effects team come up with some gruesome and inventive moments. A zombie ripping a womans belly button piercing out with his teeth will have people squirming in their seats.There are also fun cameos from Tom Savini, Simon Pegg and Edger Wright. The zombies, too, are smarter than we've ever seen them.Led by Eugene Clark's Big Daddy, these zombies are quicker, more efficient and, scarily, have the ability to work as a team. The zombies are also different in look. There are zombies in various forms of dismemberment, including one with its head hanging on by a flap of neck skin. Its not all blood and guts though. One thing that made Romero's films stand above the abundance of zombie related horror films were their subtext. Comparisons can be drawn between Land of the dead and the current political state in America.
Romero's return to the genre he helped invent is, i'm happy to say, a successful one. He shows he still has a fresh voice and can hang with the youngsters.