George A. Romero's Land of the Dead (UMD, 2005)

In 2005 George A. Romero was given his first opportunity to produce one of his zombie films with a larger than normal budget of $15 Million. Becoming the 4th in the Of The Dead series the film was originally planned to be called Dead Reckoning. To avoid confusion with previous films that shared a similar name Romero and his team decided on the name “Land of the Dead” at the last minute. Other names they considered had been Dead City, Twilight of the Dead, and even Night of the Living Dead: Dead Reckoning. To the surprise of many the plot and story of Land of the Dead was based partly on the original longer version of the 1985 Day Of The Dead script.

The movie starts out with an amazing scene of little zombie band and they are playing “The Gonk” from the mall music of Dawn Of The Dead. The survivors are out in a far away town gathering supplies and training new recruits. Armed with bikes, guns and a armored tank vehicle called ironically “Dead Reckoning” the zombies are no match for them.

Picking up from Day of the Dead and the zombie “Bub” we soon begin to see that the zombies are gaining some intelligence. This is were it starts to go bad for the survivors in way we have never seen before. In all the previous films in the series the survivors had sub-come to social situations that lead to their deaths. In Land of the Dead, the zombies take on an original role of being the primary cause of survivor deaths. The “blue collar monster“ as Romero calls them have evolved and now become even more terrifying than ever before in this film. When the zombies get lead by a zombie called “Big Daddy” played by Eugene Clark they begin to organize and march forward, following the survivors back to their walled off city. An epic battle then emerges on the door steps of “Fiddler’s Green” that is controlled by Dennis Hooper's character ”Kaufman”, who is the would be ruler/dictator of the survivor’s city.

Land of the Dead is the first film that Romero ever used digital effects and many critics were skeptical about it. Some of the more die hard fans of Romero films were disappointed in Land of the Dead after it was released. Though there are some different moments in the film that a few Romero fans continue to question, many will agree that the basic theme and style of a Romero film is persistent throughout the film. As time passes we are starting to see more fans with a greater deal of appreciation for Land of the Dead. Even some of the most harshest critics are having a change of heart toward the film.

Years after the film was released we have seen cast members such as, Actress Jennifer Baxter, who plays the zombie called “Number 9” begin to gain a cult following for her performance in the film. Boyd Banks who plays “The Butcher” zombie has also gained a good size fan base. “The Butcher” has even had a 7’ inch action figure mass produced along side the star zombie “Big Daddy” and Tom Savini’s always present Motorcycle Zombie that was released in 2006 by SOTA Toy Company. Now considered a treasured collectors item to both zombie and the average horror fans alike. We have also seen an increase in purchases of posters, cast autographs and other memorabilia from the film. Prices have slightly risen on almost everything and we recently seen an original Land of the Dead United Kingdom Quad Poster go for as much as $150.00 on eBay.

Taken From The Zombie Memorabilia Website: ARCHIVES OF THE DEAD .COM