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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - June 24th

"LAND OF THE DEAD" released in 2005

It had been 20-years since horror maestro George A. Romero completed his original Trilogy of the Dead (Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead in 1985). Already his first film had been remade twice and the remake of his second film was just about to be released in 2004. Time was just right for Romero to return to the genre that made him famous with an all new trilogy, beginning with Land of the Dead!

Watch the Land of the Dead trailer!

Years after the zombie apocalypse, survivors now live in heavily defended outposts. The former city of Pittsburgh is now run by a ruthless tyrant Paul Kaufman (Dennis Hopper), where, under his rule, the rich and powerful live in a luxurious high rise called Fiddler's Green, while the remaining inhabitants of the city live in poverty. Kaufman's hold on power is the control of the city's black market, with goods scavenged from the surrounding area by a ragtag team of raiders, led by Cholo DeMora (John Leguizamo), commanding a heavily armed personnel carrier christened "Dead Reckoning". Betrayed by Kaufman, Cholo and his crew steal Dead Reckoning and threaten to destroy Fiddler's Green. Kaufman forces Dead Reckoning's former commander (and designer), Riley Denbo (Simon Baker) to retrieve his vehicle. Aided by his trusted side-kick Charlie (Robert Joy) and a former hooker named Slack (Asia Argento) - whom Riley and Charlie had saved from a zombie cage fight - Riley ventures outside the city and discovers something more threatening; a swarming horde of zombies heading towards Pittsburgh. Riley must now face his former comrade Cholo and return Dead Reckoning in time to save the city!

Partly based on the original, much longer script for Day of the Dead, Romero's intention was for Land of the Dead to be his own critique of the Bush Administration (just as Night of the Living Dead was his response to the politics of the 60's). With this in mind, Dennis Hopper based his performance as ruthless dictator Kaufman on Donald Rumsfeld. The film would have four titles before Land of the Dead was chosen: Dead City, Dead Reckoning, Twilight of the Dead, and Night of the Living Dead: Dead Reckoning. Anticipation was high for Romero's return to the zombie genre, with director Guillermo del Toro stating, "Finally someone was smart enough to realize that it was about time, and gave George the tools. It should be a cause of celebration amongst all of us that Michelangelo has started another ceiling. It's really a momentous occasion ..."

Romero originally intended to make the film in his home town Pittsburgh - the story is set there and it's where he made his other zombie films; however, the producers insisted on filming Toronto in order to take advantage of Canadian tax incentives, where filming began on October, 2004. During filming, Romero invited Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright to the set as Romero was a huge fan of their own zombie movie Shaun of the Dead. Later, Pegg and Wright would cameo as a pair of photo-booth zombies. Susan Wloszczyna, a reporter for USA Today, also spent nearly two-hours in the make-up chair to appear as a zombie after she had finished interviewing Romero on set. It was also the first zombie film made by Romero to feature computer effects.

Land of the Dead premiered at Pittsburgh's Byham Theatre in 2005, the same theatre that Night of the Living Dead opened at 37-years before, to largely positive reviews. The consensus being, "George A. Romero's latest entry in his much-vaunted Dead series is not as fresh as his genre-inventing original, Night of the Living Dead. But Land of the Dead does deliver on the gore and zombies-feasting-on-flesh action."

Romero would continue with his new trilogy, following up Land of the Dead with Diary of the Dead (2007) - presented in a mockumentary format, another first for Romero - and Survival of the Dead (2009). More recently Romero's son, G. Cameron Romero, has written the next installment of the series with the working title Origins; a prequel set during the Cold War with scientist's experiments leading to release of the zombie pandemic. However, the last news on the project was from January 2015, when Cameron Romero had raised $30,000 from online crowdfunding campaign for pre-production costs; still no word if we'll have another Dead movie to watch any time soon.

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   74%