Movie Review

George A. Romero's Land of the Dead

I confess: I have never seen any of the other "Dead" movies by George Romero. Frankly, zombies don't interest me that much; I don't think they're scary and they make for bland horror movie villains. I like and respect Romero for The Dark Half (B) and Creepshow (B+), and I was eager to see what he could do here with an expanded budget and 21st-century film technology. While not a home run, Land of the Dead is a solid entry into the modern exploitation genre. It's not masterful work, but it's clear that George has an easy command of this kind of material that possibly no other director would.

The story centers on a ragtag yet worldly zombie hunter (Simon Baker) and his small crew of helpers. They hunt zombies to protect the citizens of rundown Pittsburgh. There is a place called Fiddler's Green, a luxury resort/condo in the middle of the wrecked and burned-out city, which is run by Dennis Hopper (who is full of nose-picking goodness in this one). Hopper controls these zombie hunters through economic means until a disgruntled corpse-killer (John Leguizamo) steals a vehicular super-weapon and threatens to blow Hopper's pleasure palace sky-high. That's the gist of the plot apart from all the scenes of zombie mayhem.

These are the scenes that the audience came to see, and they are the movie's strong suit. Blood and gore are most definitely not skimped on, and there are some disgusting (read: entertaining) sights all around. Severed body parts, crushed heads, gaping wounds, and even intestine eating are on display here; there really is some terrific stuff. The level of camp and cheese is appropriate, and actors like Hopper and Leguizamo fit the style well. But that silly side is also a weakness in this kind of fare; the main focus should be on shocking and creeping out the audience, not on making them giggle with droopy one-liners. I want a horror movie to terrify the pants off me, not simply give me a somewhat fun theater experience that's easily forgotten.

That comes back around to the concept of zombies: they really are just not frightening at all. Hunting them in the post-apocalyptic world seems pretty fun, rather than being a draining life-or-death challenge. They are easy to kill individually or en masse, so I can't even figure out why humans would have much of a problem with them at all. In fact, there's several identical instances in which someone is confronted with a zombie, freaks out, and then Simon Baker just calmly walks up and puts a bullet in the freak's head with no expression on his face or anything whatsoever. This almost felt like a running joke. But at least this movie makes an attempt to be amusing, rather than being too dry or going for stupid humor every minute.

I definitely had a good time with Land of the Dead, even if the experience was tempered with lackluster elements. It's on the same keel as two other horror flicks that have been released this year, Amityville Horror (B-) and House of Wax (B-). I enjoyed all three films, while at the same time I realize that none of them is a masterpiece in any sense of the word (or even a "well-crafted" movie). George Romero definitely knows what he's doing: it's not visionary and it's not groundbreaking, but it's a decent gorefest with a solid indie ethic.

Scott's Grade: B-

A	15.1%
B	59.2%
C	24.5%
D	1.2%
F	0.0%