The End Is Not Always The End: Land of The Dead (2005)

It had been 20 years since Day of The Dead was released, one wonders what took Romero so long to release another zombie movie :'( This film could run parallel with Day of or Dawn of as it follows a separate group of survivors. This takes the mall to your self concept and multiplies that by a whole city....

Yes that's right... The survivors have built a wall across the city on one side and the other three sides are protected by the river, that is unless zombies learn to swim... but then can the dead drown?

The city is known as Fiddlers Green and is run by Kaufman (Dennis Hopper) He lives high in the tower and makes people work for their right to live in the city.

He thinks money will one day be worth something again...

Dead Reckoning

Taking trips outside the confines of fiddlers green safely tucked inside of "Dead Reckoning" a rolling fortress designed and built by Riley Denbo (Simon Baker) Denbo has been working for Kaufman for a few years & with also building the truck has pretty much bought him self a retirement in fiddlers green. An eager replacement is hot on his heals for the job "Cholo DeMora" (John Leguizamo) The thing is Kaufman has no real plans to let Denbo retire and allow Cholo to take over because Denbo gets the job done & Cholo is still to immature to be in charge of an operation that keeps food and other crucial supplies flowing into the city. Infact its not long before Cholo gets a rookie killed on his first night out, and then lacks any remorse or accepts any responsibility for it.

That level of maturity can't be trusted to co-ordinate raids on towns and keep the raiders alive...

Let alone feed a city of people.

Zombies Captivated by the Sky Flowers

They raid small town's at night using fireworks to distract the walkers. Zombies seam besotted by the bright coluorful patterns they make against the black night sky, this gives the raiding party plenty of time & cover to enter buildings and take what they want. This sort of job is what keeps fiddlers green going & is an unstable job that takes skill and a lot of thought, something cholo lacks.

Fiddlers Green

They use the old train tracks under the river to enter the island, using the tunnel system as a bottleneck to control it if zombies get in & gives them the ability to blow the tunnel as a last resort.

makes the city pretty secure. Problem is this isn't a productive city, nothing is produced here. People with money get to live a normal life & people with no money have to travel out to support the rich.

Denbo & The Rookie

Denbos last night out takes them to a new town for supplies, but there's something different about this town... The zombies seam to be pretty much acting like people... the towns band are in the bandstand at the local park, the petrol station attendant comes out to gas up a car, a security guard is even hiding behind the counter in a local 7/11.

They picked the wrong town to rob & the wrong town to shoot up, one of the zombies wants revenge, and this zombie is smarter than your usual walking sack of puss. Infact this zombies possibly smarter than "Bub" from "Day of The Dead" one thing's clear, someone is going to pay for invading his town & killing the towns folk.

Leaning towards a concept in the "I Am Legend" book and "The Omega Man" movie, we get another glimpse into the fact The Undead now consciously see the living as a threat & have an additional reason to destroy us, besides the fact we are food. Their coming to the city and with conscious thought, what can stop them?

Cholo really thought the likes of him could get a place within the city for him self, but Kaufman sets high standards at the green and theirs no place for cholo. With that in stone cholo steals Dead Reckoning and demands his money be delivered to a designated location.

Meanwhile.. Zombies are approaching the city intent on killing everyone inside

Kaufman plans to use Denbo to recover
Dead Reckoning and kill cholo, but Denbo just has plans to get Dead Reckoning and head for Canada, with or without cholo, because just like cholo, Denbo knows he to has no place at the green.

Denbo wants to live were theirs NO People...

Zombies break through the outer perimeter and just need to cross the water to reach the island were they can feast in the city, like they haven't been able to feast in years...

And with the only vehicle that can stop them missing, its down to Denbo to choose whether to fight or flee...

Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright from "Shaun of The Dead" both appear briefly in Chihuahua's club. They are the two zombies on leashes having their photos taken with survivors. You can also find them on the poster and the DVD cover. Wright is on the left, next to Big Daddy (Eugene Clark); Pegg is off to the right.

This was thought to be the final chapter in Romero's Living Dead Saga, yet this film was later followed up with Diary of the Dead in 2007, and then again with Survival of The Dead in 2009,

Some Screen Shots:

DVD Menu Examples:

DVD Main Menu IS Animated

Chapter Selection Menu Example

Bonus Material Screen 01

Bonus Material Screen 02

NOTE: 1

There is a "Land of the Dead" PC & xBox Game
people have also made modifications for it, such as "Dawn of the Dead" mission's & some map mods for playing in New Locations..

Here are some walk through clips from a guy playing the PC game.
The videos are hosted on YouTube
(01) ; (02) ; (03) ; (04) ; (05) ; (06) ; (07) ; (08) ; (Review)

You'll notice the game is a "First Person Shooter"
To be honest the games not very PC intensive, so it will work on a lot of computers (compared to a lot of modern games that wont)

Its also a lot of fun going round shooting them in the head...

NOTE: 2

Still From "When Shaun Met George"

One of the extra features on the DVD Is 2 of the creators of "Shaun of the Dead" on set with George A, Romero

Its a pretty detailed in-depth little clip behind the scenes & after the shoot.

Also features the make up department work.

Desk Top Wallpapers: