Zombie Film Review:

Land of the Dead

Director: George A. Romero

Year: 2005

Tagline: The Legendary Film Maker Brings you his Ultimate Zombie Masterpiece.

Review: Land of the Dead, although a good zombie film in its own right I feel could never live up to the expectations of the hardcore George fans. Being created by the Maestro it is really a must see zombie film but it just didn't fill me with the dread of his other three films. Maybe the Fiddlers Green setting reminded me too much of TVs Dark Angel or perhaps 'Dead Reckoning' reminded me of something from the AMTRAK War books, but it just wasn't as accesible. I think that perhaps its main fall down point was simply that none of the characters could really be empathised with and you began to feel for the zombies, an interesting twist, yes, but it lost it's horror and became a little bit too much action arientated for my tastes.

Zombie Quality: ****

Excellent, Greg Nicteros work is amazing, but some of the zombies do look a little 'cack' and like last minute zombie make up jobs. A few briliant animatronic zombies also appear.

Zombie Behaviour: **

Although the evolution of the zombie to a more intelligent level is an interesting development, perhaps if George had gone down the route of more efficient hunters, rather then Big Daddy finding leadership qualities, using guns and 'emoting' with the other undead enough to put suffering zombies out of their misery would have been a little more palettable.

Zombie Threat: *****

The death of a large portion of the remaining survivors of humanity puts the threat level of these zombies straight to 5 out of 5. Bad News for everyone...

Gore Content: ****

Good wholesome decapitations, graphic bites, exploding heads galore and plenty of claret, just what you would expect. Oh, and the finger nails bit is quite cringe worthy...

Overall Quality: ***

Good Zombie Film with big budget, great actors and cool effects, but not as scary as some of its counterparts, some of the horror of the initial films has become diluted...

Special Award:

Best Cameos from Shaun of the Dead Crew: Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright as 'Zombie Freaks...'