Land of the Dead

Alternate titles : "Twilight of the Dead", "Dead Reckoning".

Tagline : "The dead shall inherit the Earth."

This long awaited fourth instalment of George Romero's "Living Dead" series takes place in an unspecified American city, where the last remnants of humanity have holed up against the living dead.

The city serves as the last outpost of civilisation, having its own power source, heavily walled off against zombie attack and surrounded on 3 sides by a river. Unfortunately, there's a huge poverty gap between the people on the streets and the wealthy ruling classes that live in a luxury apartment block named 'Fiddlers Green'.

With the dead outside beginning to evolve into a more intelligent species, Kaufman (Dennis Hopper) the city's ruler, is alarmed by the threat of civil war breaking out, after a group of mercenaries, lead by a renegade named Cholo (John Leguizamo) steals the militaries main battle tank 'Dead Reckoning' and threatens to use it on the Fiddlers Green complex if their demands aren't met.

Hiring a fellow mercenary named Riley (Simon Baker) to stop him, his mission becomes a race against time as the living dead manage to break into the city and run amok with the population, whilst he attempts to retrieve the battle tank in the hopes of pacifying the situation before the dead take over.

Also starring Asia Argento (Dario's Daughter), Romero fans will undoubtedly love this, although whilst I thoroughly enjoyed it, I felt it didn't quite have the same epic feel the other movies did. Look out for Tom Savini in a guest role as a zombie biker.

Overall Marks : 7/10.

Terrifying Trivia

• Alternate tag line "The Legendary Filmmaker Brings You His Ultimate Zombie Masterpiece".
• The film was loosely based on the original, longer, script for "Day of the Dead".
• Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, who wrote and starred in "Shaun of the Dead", were given cameo appearances in the film as Romero had been impressed by their film. They appear as zombies, which people are posing for photos alongside, in the carnival scene just before Asia Argento's character is introduced
• The film was originally titled "Dead Reckoning", but this was changed as there was a Humphrey Bogart film of the same name.
• The US release had to be trimmed in order to secure an R rating, toning down some of the blood and gore. These cuts were re-instated for the unrated directors cut DVD, along with some additional lines of dialogue.
• The part where Charlie licks his thumb and uses it to wet his rifle site, was taken from the 1941 war film "Sgt York" by Howard Hawks.
• Asia Argento, who plays Slack, is of course the daughter of Italian director Dario Argento.
• The scene where the zombies rise out of the river was inspired by the 1962 film "Carnival of Souls" where the dead rise out of the lake during the dance scene.
• The Singapore release had 2 scenes removed to get an M18 rating, including a zombie stomping on the head of another and another zombie being decapitated. The uncut version was later released with an R21 rating.
• Tom Savini has a guest role as the machete wielding zombie during the end battle. He was dressed to look like the character he played in "Dawn of the Dead".
• The name "Fiddler's Green" is taken from a 19th century folk song about a place where the dead go to rest who haven't gone to hell.

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