Land of the Dead (2005)
★★★★ — Land of the Dead (2005)
George A. Romero returned to his zombie franchise with Land of the Dead after a twenty-year gap since Day of the Dead (1985), making it the fourth entry in the series he essentially invented with Night of the Living Dead back in 1968. The $15 million budget was a significant step up from his earlier, famously shoestring productions, backed here by Universal alongside Canadian and French co-financing, with principal photography taking place largely in Toronto standing in for a ruined American city. Released in summer 2005, the film arrived during a post-9/11 period when zombie cinema had already been revitalised by 28 Days Later (2002) and Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake (2004), giving Romero's return both a ready audience and a pointed political context to work within.
George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead is the zombie flick that proves even a master’s “lesser” work still kicks 90% of the genre in the teeth. Sure, it doesn’t claw its way into the pantheon quite like Night, Dawn, or Day, but it’s got more brains, bite, and balls than most undead flicks could dream of. Plus, John Leguizamo delivers a performance so gloriously unhinged it makes you wonder why he doesn’t play every single character in every single movie ever made. Set in a post-apocalyptic Pittsburgh where the rich hole up in a glittering skyscraper called Fiddler’s Green (because subtlety died with the first zombie), the film is a snot-nosed satire of class warfare. The elites sip champagne while the poor scavenge for scraps until the zombies, led by the tragically poetic Big Daddy, start evolving. Suddenly, the rotting underclass isn’t just hungry… they’re pissed off . Romero, ever the sharp-eyed sociopolitical surgeon, cuts deep into elitism, exploitation, and the delusion that walls can keep chaos out. Spoiler: They can’t. Leguizamo’s Cholo steals the show as a sleazy, opportunistic weasel who thinks he’s a king until the zombies remind him he’s just lunch. His arc is pure Shakespearean trash-fire, and you’ll cackle as his hubris unravels. The gore’s gloriously squelchy, the set-pieces (especially the tank rampage) are pure chaotic joy, and the ending is a gut-punch of poetic justice that’ll leave you cheering as the world burns. Not perfect. The CGI zombies look a little cheap, and the pacing drags when it’s not busy blowing things up. But as a send-up of capitalism’s corpse (and a love letter to the undead) it’s a triumph.
Rating: ★★★★ | Year: 2005 | Watched: 2025-06-25
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from George A. Romero: Creepshow (1982) · Jacaranda Joe (2022) · BIOHAZARD 2 TV-CM (1997) · Survival of the Dead (2009)
More from Canada: History of the World in Three Minutes Flat (1980) · Resident Evil: Retribution (2012) · Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016) · Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Viy (1967) · Nightmare City (1980) · Angst (1983)
More science fiction: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Fantastic Planet (1973) · Nightmare City (1980) · The Long Walk (2025)
