Land of the Dead

In George A. Romero’s LAND OF THE DEAD, the zombies of his previous films have conquered most of the Earth, save for a few outposts, colonized by rich men who’ve converted old shopping malls and apartment towers into societies. The vision is fantastic: bars run by midgets pit zombie against zombie in a caged set, and teenagers get their pictures taken with the zombies on neck-chains in the background. A few border patrol men with the mentalities of the ones we have today jaunt into zombie-infested areas to kill them off, using fireworks to distract them as they plow them down with machine guns. The honcho of the apartment building, Kaufman (Dennis Hopper), deceives and betrays his men, but one of them, Cholo, revolts against him, stealing a militarized truck and threatening to blow Kaufman sky high unless he pays a ransom. Desperate, Kaufman enlists the help of a soldier who just wants to get away named Riley, and Riley commandeers a few friends and a hooker played by Asia Argento in order to stop Cholo. But at the same time of this goings on, the zombies have begun to gain the capacity to think, like apes they discover tools, then strategy, then even satire. They are led by an old zombified black convenience store man. He’s been frozen in the routine of adhering to his old habits: taking out the gas pump and inserting in into cars for eternity. But then he discovers tools, and is driven mad by Kaufman’s patrol raids. Romero’s satire here is simplistic, but the film’s a lot of fun, and the satire’s exemplified by that, and the dramatic stakes that are established.

★★★★/5