George A. Romero's, Land of the Dead Country : USA Year: 2005 Genre: Holy Shit it's a zombie Format: n/a Running Time: n/a Distributor: Universal George A. Romero is back ... oh shit, he's back... oh shit, he's back... the master of zombie horror... he's back. Credits Directed by George A. Romero. Written by George A. Romero. Starring Asia Argento, Simon Baker, John Leguizamo, Robert Joy. Land of the Dead – The Pit of Horror review … In Land of the Dead, George A. Romero returns to the genre that he made his own in a film that is gory enough to make Tom Savini himself flinch. No matter. You'll thrill to the action, savor the tasty dialogue and laugh like bloody hell. Romero has done more than continue the tale of Armageddon he started in Night of the Living Dead -- He re-creates the genre. Land picks up ‘some time later’ and the world is full of zombies. Survivors have barricaded themselves inside a walled city to keep out the living dead. As the wealthy hide out in skyscrapers and chaos rules the streets, the rest of the survivors must find a way to stop the evolving zombies from breaking into the city. Land ties the events of Night, Dawn, and Day together, just like The Return of the King did for The Lord of the Rings trilogy before the film even gets started. Even if you have never seen the earlier films, Romero puts it together as an excellent companion piece to the aforementioned and makes it easy for a new generation of fans to understand without seeing the other films. Romero has made one of the hottest mix tapes in the history of cinema. Like a master DJ, he samples every lowdown, B-movie genre that formed him, from zombie to action flicks, then filters it through his imagination to create something totally Romero: a blast of pure horror movie oxygen. Land dives into emotional and comedic waters merely skimmed in the brilliant exercise that was the original trilogy. Romero pops us in the nose left and right with stingy dialogue and gives the actors words they can feast on, full of sassy wit. He hasn’t missed a beat with contemporary society either. Romero has his finger on the pulse of the United States of America and doesn’t let you forget it for a moment. Check out the eerie resemblance of the head sleaze ball Kaufman (Dennis Hopper) to George Bush. Hopper puts in a convincing performance as the man who will do anything to preserve the class system in America. Rich and poor. ‘The Ring Two’s’ Simon Baker as the lead ‘Riley’ is also very reminiscent of Ken Foree’s character in Dawn. Sympathetic, smart, and a true leader. Asia Argento as ‘Slack’ brings an element to it that is purely fascinating. Possibly just because she is the daughter of the Italian equal of Romero himself, director Dario Argento and according to my wife, she has a cute hair cut… go figure. John Leguizamo as the love him/hate him/wannabe leader ‘Cholo’ puts in a brilliant performance as well. Robert Joy as the ‘nice guy’ Charlie and sidekick to ‘Riley’ is loveable and funny to boot. The rest of the cast fills out the film nicely with some excellent characters like comic relief ‘Pilsbury’ and Eugene Clark as zombie leader ‘Big Daddy’. Tom Savini also returns as his character ‘Blades’ from Dawn which marks the first time a character has been repeated in the saga. Applause erupted across the theatre when he appeared and I think I got the chills. Land keeps popping us with surprises, including some true chair jumping scenes and some of the best gore I have seen on screen since ‘Kill Bill’. Hats off to Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger. Watch out for the headless priest… HOLY MACKREL what a scene! Romero uses very little CGI, but when it is used, it hardly noticeable. The majority of the F/X are live and very well done. Ladies will cringe at the belly button ring scene and everyone will shudder at a scene involving fingernails. I’d say the best scene in the film is when the zombies make it across the river and slowly emerge from the water as the near the city… that is hands down one of the creepiest scenes I have seen on film in a long time. Truly, excellent filmmaking. Keep your fingers crossed this film does as well if not better than the inferior remake of ‘Dawn of the Dead’ so Romero can bring us full circle with a new trilogy of terror for the new millennium. With Land of the Dead, Romero wants to take us on a wild ride into the dirty fun of zombie movies and does it so artfully that we want to return to the film to shake out its secrets. It's a bold swing, and Romero knocks it out of the park. OFFICIAL SITE Review by John Gray The PIT has Land of the Dead t-shirts, posters and hats to giveaway! Do you want one? Are you a member on our forums? If so simply click here and send us an email with -only- your name and postal address. We will choose the winners and send either a shirt, hat or poster (at our own discretion).