LAND OF THE DEAD

George A. Romero’s undead sequel gets a Blu-ray resurrection.

FILM EXTRAS 2005 OUT NOW BD, DVD EXTRAS Alternate cuts, Commentaries, Documentary, Deleted scenes, Featurettes

Following a gap of 20 years, George A. Romero returned to the genre he helped create with this 2005 follow-up to his seminal Dead trilogy. Once again, he left horror fans plenty to chew on beyond spilled intestines. In previous Dead films, Black protagonists had always been on the side of the living. This time around, the central AfricanAmerican character is Eugene Clark’s intelligent ghoul ‘Big Daddy’.

Building on the evolution of the zombies seen in the previous films, he’s finally had enough of the abuse the living heap on his people and leads them on a million-zombie march.

There’s trouble brewing among the living as well, as tensions boil over in the ‘civilised’ enclave of Fiddler’s Green, where the ‘haves’ live in a luxury high-rise while the ‘have-nots’ struggle to survive in the slums that surround it. Typically, Romero’s socio-political commentary isn’t especially subtle, but

it’s effective – and in the mix of George W. Bush and Donald Trump embodied by Dennis Hopper’s plutocratic ruler, unexpectedly prescient.

Add in major studio backing and a professional cast (not always a strong point of the earlier films) and time has been very kind to Land Of The Dead. With this two-disc re-release (featuring new artwork by Graham Humphreys), the film finally has a Blu-ray that can stand proudly alongside its featurepacked forebears. Anton van Beek

“Excuse me, do you have time to listen to the word of our lord and saviour, George?”