This week saw the release of Scream Factory’s 4K UHD release of Land of the Dead, the film that had George Romero capitalizing on the first wave of the zombie renaissance in the early aughts to fund his biggest budgeted and most ambitious entry in his “of the Dead” series at 19 million. The film had the director who often used the zombie sub-genre to tackle social issues this time tackling the haves and the have nots with a metaphor that is about as subtle as a sledgehammer. I had followed the project as it languished in development hell for nearly two decades, as the director struggled to get projects funded, one of them being a live action Resident Evil adaptation. Oddly enough we have Zack Snyder and James Gunn to thank for this film, it was thanks to the success of Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake, written by Gunn, that helped bring the walking dead back into vogue and got Hollywood on the phone now calling Romero.
I grew up watching Romero’s dead trilogy on VHS and was ecstatic that Romero would be not only making a new entry, but Land, but it would be a continuation of the series I grew up on, which was previously titled Dead Reckoning in pre production. First Fox courted the director, only to lose him to Universal who met the director on his terms, allowing him to not only go hard with the gore, but not lose any of his edge. I still remember how surreal it felt watching not only a new George Romero zombie film at the time, but at my local AMC opening night no less. This after wondering for most of my life, if George would ever get to make the rumored script yet and if I would even get to see it on the big screen, given how much horror was direct to DVD at the time. Blockbuster shelves were at the time, where direct to video horror premiered and profited the most.
For those that have never seen Land, it takes place in 2005 in George Romero’s zombie waste land. Transpiring in the director’s home of Pittsburgh, PA where a post apocalyptic society has cleaned up the city of zombies, creating a small respite in the city surrounded on two sides by water .The wealthy live in a highrise called Fiddler’s Green that mimics life pre-apocalypse for those than can afford it, if you can’t life is much different. We follow a group of scavengers who are charged to go into the wasteland in a giant armored RV called ”Dead Reckoning” and bring back supplies to the city. Things go sideways when one of Reckoning’s crew who’s been doing the dirty work for the city’s dictator/leader played by Dennis Hopper is turned away from taking residence in Green and in turn hijacks the armor plated mobile fortress for revenge.
Now where Romero works is counterculture magic, in the opening we have a group of zombies who appear to be smarter, mimicking their former lives in the small town where Reckoning’s crew gather supplies. This is also a bizarre divisive thematic thread that begins to run through the rest of the series. When a few zombies are killed when the scavengers leave town, these smarter shambling dead decide to follow the truck, slowly making their way to Fiddler’s Green. This echoes a statement by a character saying if we rally together we can really do something, and surprisingly enough here it’s not the people who descend on the ivory tower, but it’s the ultimate have nots, the zombies who were thought to be too stupid and have been reduced to an almost non threat to his society’s inner walls. But they rally together and march on the skyscraper to overthrow it, literally eating the rich.
Given current events Land hasn’t lost any of its bite with Hopper, who was primarily staring into direct to video fare here as a thug in a business suit at the top of his golden tower, keeping those beneath him in their place with an iron fist. (Sounds oddly familiar?) It’s cool to see both of the counterculture heavies in the same film both in front and in back of the camera, which gives us one of the best lines of the trailer when Hopper delivers his best 60s stoner inspired delivery for “Zombies, man. They creep me out.” The fact that it’s the zombies that ultimately rise up to overthrow his reign, is both hilarious, and basically how it would probably play out. Everyone under him is more concerned about their own well being and status to do anything. It’s the undead, who literally have nothing left to lose, who decide to take what they can back.
The rest of the cast is great here from John Leguizamo, who is just chewing the scenery around him as the heavy Cholo, Kaufman’s problem solver and member of teh Recknoning crew, an up and coming in the US Asia Argento and the lead here Riley (Simon Baker) who’s damn good here a the reluctant hero, but he didn’t do much else afterwards. I remember one of the really big deals here, was both Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright show up as zombies in the film thanks to their love letter to Romero that started their Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, Shaun of the Dead, which came out only a year earlier. All this sort of coalesces into what was Romero’s last great zombie epic. He would churn out a few more films over the years all in the same universe, but they all failed to reach these heights ambitiously and metaphorically.
The special features on the UHD/Blu-ray contain:
Bonus Features for UHD/Blu-ray
DISC ONE (4K UHD, UNRATED VERSION):
- NEW 2024 4K Restoration From The Original Camera Negative
- Presented In Dolby Vision And Dolby Atmos
- Audio: English DTS-HD 5.1 Surround & 2.0 Stereo
- Audio Commentary With Writer/Director George A. Romero, Producer Peter Grunwald, And Editor Michael Doherty
- Audio Commentary With Zombie Performers Matt Blazi, Glena Chao, Michael Felsher, And Rob Mayr
DISC TWO (BLU-RAY, UNRATED VERSION):
- NEW 2024 4K Restoration From The Original Camera Negative
- Audio: English DTS-HD 5.1 Surround & 2.0 Stereo
- Audio Commentary With Writer/Director George A. Romero, Producer Peter Grunwald, And Editor Michael Doherty
- Audio Commentary With Zombie Performers Matt Blazi, Glena Chao, Michael Felsher, And Rob Mayr
- Undead Again: The Making Of Land Of The Dead
- Bringing The Dead To Life
- Scenes Of Carnage
- Zombie Effects: From Green Screen To Finished Scene
- Scream Test – CGI Test
- Bringing The Storyboards To Life
- A Day With The Living Dead Hosted By John Leguizamo
- When Shaun Met George – Simon Pegg And Edgar Wright Visit The Set
DISC THREE (BLU-RAY, THEATRICAL VERSION):
- NEW 2024 4K Restoration From The Original Camera Negative
- Audio: English DTS-HD 5.1 Surround & 2.0 Stereo
- Cholo’s Reckoning – An Interview With Actor John Leguizamo
- Charlie’s Story – An Interview With Actor Robert Joy
- The Pillsbury Factor – An Interview With Actor Pedro Miguel Arce
- Four Of The Apocalypse – An Interview With Actors Eugene Clark, Jennifer Baxter, Boyd Banks, And Jasmin Geljo
- Dream Of The Dead: The Director’s Cut With Optional Commentary By Director Roy Frumkes
- Deleted Footage From Dream Of The Dead
- Deleted Scenes
- Photo Gallery
- Theatrical Trailer
While the extras here are all pulled from previous editions, and from a time where bonus features were one of key selling points of physical media, fans like myself who’ve picked this up a few times before only care about the new transfer. Is this now the definitive edition of this film? I can tell you indeed it is. While the film’s color palette is definitely a reflection of its time with lots of those blues and ambers, it definitely has that filmic look. Given the budget and the source the grain is present, but isn’t out of control.The transfer does retain that organic film look and texture and is definitely an upgrade from my DVD.
So now we just need a 4K of Day and we’re good. This is yet another comprehensive and definitive edition from Scream Factory that’s got both a great presentation-wise paired with all the bonus content as well. While this is something we took for granted initially, we’re finding out not everyone goes that extra mile with their bonus content. Watching Land for the review, it was also really great to see how the film still feels as relevant as ever with its take on poverty, power and revolution; sadly some things just never change. While the rest of the Zombie series didn’t quite reach the heights both metaphorically and financially as Dead, it was still great to see Romero get the big blockbuster treatment he deserved, at least this once.
