For the disambiguation page on anything else on this topic, come here to Land of the Dead (disambiguation).

Land of the Dead (also known as George A. Romero's Land of the Dead) is a 2005 horror film written and directed by George A. Romero; the fourth of Romero's six Living Dead movies, it is preceded by Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, and succeeded by Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead. It was released in 2005 and became a success, grossing over $40 million, and had a budget of $15 million, the highest in the series.^[1][2]

The story of Land of the Dead deals with a zombie assault on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where a feudal-like government exists. The survivors in the film have fled to the city. The city is protected on two sides by rivers and on the other by an electric barricade.

Released in North America on June 24, 2005, Land of the Dead received mostly positive reviews from film critics.

Plot[link]

Three years ago an unknown global phenomenon occurs which causes any recently deceased person with an intact brain to reanimate into a zombie to feed on the living, effectively causing the zombie apocalypse. Today, survivors have set up outposts across the United States, one of these outposts is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where a feudal-like government has taken hold. Bordered on three sides by rivers and on the fourth by an electric fence, the city has become a sanctuary. Fiddler's Green is where the rich and powerful live in luxury, while the rest of the population subsists in pathetic squalor. Paul Kaufman (Dennis Hopper) rules the city with overwhelming firepower.

Kaufman financed the construction of Dead Reckoning, a heavily armored vehicle that can travel through the zombie-infested areas with ease. Armed with remote-controlled heavy machine guns and video cameras, Dead Reckoning primarily functions as a moving fireworks launch base: zombies are fascinated by fireworks and will stare at them, ignoring anything happening around them. Riley Denbo (Simon Baker), designer and commander of Dead Reckoning, has recently retired. Unlike Kaufman, Riley is respected for his work in protecting the city from danger, as well as bringing critical food and medical supplies which the citizens can no longer acquire safely themselves. Riley discovers Chihuahua (Phil Fondacaro) entertaining his bar's patrons by trying to feed a woman, Slack (Asia Argento), to some zombies. Riley and Charlie (Robert Joy) save Slack but kill Chihuahua in the process. The three are arrested; in jail, Slack reveals she was being executed on Kaufman's orders, because she works for Mulligan (Bruce McFee). Mulligan, a former co-worker of Riley's, is trying to instigate rebellion among the poor residents of Fiddler's Green.

Meanwhile, Cholo DeMora (John Leguizamo), second in command of the Dead Reckoning, is denied an apartment in Fiddler's Green, despite the fact that he has some dirt on Kaufman. Cholo is actually an assassin who executes anyone who opposes Kaufman, and he is now owed a considerable sum of money for his evil work. Enough that he wants to live in Fiddler's Green. Upon being rebuffed, Cholo threatens to destroy Fiddler's Green with the Dead Reckoning, which he hijacks along with Pretty Boy (Joanne Boland), Mouse (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos), Anchor (Tony Munch), and Foxy (Tony Nappo). Zombies attack as they are leaving, but Cholo orders his crew not to intervene. Kaufman turns to Riley to stop Cholo. Riley is assigned three other officers: Manolete (Sasha Roiz), Motown (Krista Bridges), and Pillsbury (Pedro Miguel Arce). Manolete is bitten and executed by Slack. Shortly afterwards, it is revealed that Riley has a tracking device to help locate Dead Reckoning. Against his orders, Charlie, Slack, and Pillsbury follow him but leaves Motown after Pillsbury knocks her out. Her loyalty was still to Kaufman, making her a danger to the rest of the group. When Riley finally catches Cholo, Riley is almost killed. The crew is caught in the crossfire, including Slack, who goes to help Riley. Motown arrives but is destroyed by a zombie. With that distraction, Riley manages to shut down Dead Reckoning's weapons systems. Riley then convinces Cholo to allow him to take Dead Reckoning and just drive north. Cholo takes the Woody, an old station wagon with no roof, and goes west. A short time later Cholo is bitten by a zombie. He decides to go back to the city to finish off Kaufman.

Meanwhile, zombies seem to mimic their past lives: "Big Daddy" (Eugene Clark) is an undead gas station attendant who comes out to the pumps every time a zombie causes the bell to ring. Unusually aware and intelligent, Big Daddy directs his fellow zombies to use firearms and overcome the human defenses. The zombies learn, adapt, and even communicate with primitive moans and grunts. When Big Daddy realizes the river is no obstacle, since the zombies can simply walk along the riverbed without drowning, he leads the zombies in an assault on the human city. The electric fence that once kept the zombies out now keeps the humans trapped inside. Nor does it help that those who are supposed to be controlling the fence's power flee their posts instead. Big Daddy follows the fleeing Kaufman to an underground garage. Big Daddy sees Kaufman's car next to a gas pump and pumps gas through the car's broken windshield. When Big Daddy walks out of the garage, Cholo, now reanimated, confronts Kaufman and bites him. Outside, Big Daddy rolls a burning metal can towards Kaufman's gasoline-soaked vehicle. It explodes, incinerating both Kaufman and Cholo.

Meanwhile, Riley uses Dead Reckoning to free the inhabitants of the city. At the electric fence, the crew discovers the impoverished and elite alike are now walking dead. The crew then learns that some of the city's inhabitants survived by following Mulligan, who led them to shelter elsewhere. Pretty Boy gets a clear shot at Big Daddy as the zombies, having destroyed Kaufmann's class system, leave the city, leaving a majority of the population alive, but Riley orders her to stop and tells her "they're just looking for a place to go." Riley and his friends leave the city with the Dead Reckoning, striking out for the north. As they leave, they celebrate by firing off all of Dead Reckoning's fireworks, which they no longer need since they no longer have their captivating effect on the dead.

Cast[link]

• Simon Baker as Riley
• John Leguizamo as Cholo
• Dennis Hopper as Kaufman
• Asia Argento as Slack
• Robert Joy as Charlie
• Eugene Clark as Big Daddy
• Joanne Boland as Pretty Boy
• Tony Nappo as Foxy
• Jennifer Baxter as Number 9
• Boyd Banks as Butcher
• Jasmin Geljo as Tambourine man
• Maxwell McCabe-Lokos as Mouse
• Tony Munch as Anchor
• Shawn Roberts as Mike
• Pedro Miguel Arce as Pillsbury
• Sasha Roiz as Manolete
• Krista Bridges as Motown
• Bruce McFee as Mulligan
• Phil Fondacaro as Chihuahua
• Alan van Sprang as Brubaker
• Earl Pastko as Roach
• Peter Outerbridge as Styles
• Gene Mack as Knipp
• Devon Bostick as Brian
• Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright as Photo Booth Zombies
• Tom Savini as Machete Zombie
• Gregory Nicotero as Bridgekeeper Zombie

Production[link]

Earlier script titles included Twilight of the Dead, Dead City, and Dead Reckoning (the same as the military vehicle used in the film). Romero said in an interview [1] that one of the first potential film studios (20th Century Fox) wanted the film to be titled Night of the Living Dead. He refused, wanting to use the title Dead Reckoning, and the studio then wanted to title it Night of the Living Dead: Dead Reckoning. It turned out that Fox sought to own the rights to Night of the Living Dead, and Romero decided not to do business with them.

The film draws on some elements from the original script for Day of the Dead.

Filming took place in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.^[3]

Ratings[link]

Land of the Dead is the first film in the series to receive an MPAA rating for its theatrical release. Romero had said for years that he would film two versions; an R rated cut for theatrical release and first DVD, and an unrated cut for the second DVD release. Both DVDs were released in the U.S. on October 18, 2005. Rumors suggested that Romero shot alternate, less explicit, gore scenes for the theatrical release, but this is not entirely accurate. The more extreme instances of gore (e.g. a woman having her navel piercing graphically torn out by a zombie) were obscured by foreground elements filmed on bluescreen, so that these overlayed elements could be easily removed for the unrated DVD. Other ways to obscure blood in order to get an R-rating were achieved by simply trimming the grislier shots by a few seconds, by digitally repainting blood so that it is more black than red, or by digitally painting the blood out altogether.

The Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario gave both the theatrical version and DVD version a rating of 18A, though it was only given a 13+ rating in Quebec.

In the UK, the BBFC gave it a 15 certificate for both the theatrical version and the unrated version (The UK "Director's Cut" DVD was rated 18 due to extras being rated higher than the feature itself).

In Germany, both the theatrical and unrated versions were rated 18 anyway. As such, only the unrated version was widely available in Germany.

The film was banned in Ukraine.^[4]

Release[link]

The film was met with positive reviews upon release. It was released one year after the remake of Dawn of the Dead was released internationally. The film grossed over $40 million dollars and is second behind Dawn of the Dead with the highest-grossing revenue in the Living Dead series, the two lowest being Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Diary of the Dead (2008).^[2] The film opened the MTV Saturday Horror block on February 27, 2010.^[5]

Reception[link]

Critical response[link]

Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four for what he considered its skillful and creative allusions, something that he argued was pervasive among Romero's previous three installments that contained numerous satirical metaphors to the reality of American life. In this installment, Ebert noted the similarities between the fireworks mesmerizing the zombies and the shock and awe tactics applied during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and the film's distinction between the rich and poor, those that live in Fiddler's Green and those that live in the slums, something he considered to be Romero's take on the rising gap between rich and poor in America.^[6] Michael Wilmington of Chicago Tribune awarded the film four stars, writing, "It's another hard-edged, funny, playfully perverse and violent exercise in movie fear and loathing, with an increasingly dark take on a world spinning out of control. By now, Romero has become a classicist who uses character and dialogue as much as stomach-turning special effects to achieve his shivers."^[7] The New York Sun declared it "the American movie of the year."^[8]

Several filmmakers including Eli Roth and Guillermo del Toro paid tribute to Romero in a Land of the Dead special. Guillermo del Toro said: "Finally someone was smart enough to realize that it was about time, and gave George the tools. It should be a cause of celebration amongst all of us that Michelangelo has started another ceiling. It's really a momentous occasion ..."^[9]

Overall critical reaction was mostly positive; the film received very favorable reviews from The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Premiere, Variety, Slate and Los Angeles Times. The film earned a 74% "Certified Fresh" positive rating at the Rotten Tomatoes movie-review compilation website (though the "Cream of the Crop" critics' reactions were slightly more mixed, giving the film a 68% rating overall), with the site's consensus saying "George A. Romero's latest entry in his much-vaunted Dead series is not as fresh as his genre-inventing original, Night of the Living Dead. But Land of the Dead does deliver on the gore and zombies-feasting-on-flesh action."^[10]

In other media[link]

The video game Fallout 3, set in a post-apocalyptic world, features Tenpenny Tower, a tower in which the rich and wealthy survivors have taken residence. The tower is impenetrable from the outside and under a constant pressure from ghouls, which are immortal humans rotting alive, thus sharing the typical zombie cliché. In a twist of plot, though, the ghouls of Fallout 3 are wealthy themselves and want to enter the tower as residents rather than attackers. (Though an option to flood the tower with other, mindless and cannibalistic, ghouls exists as well.)

Video game[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Land of the Dead

• Official website (US)
• Land of the Dead at the Internet Movie Database
• Land of the Dead at AllRovi
• Land of the Dead at Box Office Mojo
• Land of the Dead at Rotten Tomatoes
• Land of the Dead review at Internal Bleeding