LAND OF THE DEAD (2005) (Scream Factory 4K UHD/BD Collector’s Edition Review) 

LAND OF THE DEAD (2005)

3-Disc 4K UHD/BD Collector’s Edition

Label: Scream Factory

Region Code: Region-Free (UHD), A (BD) 
Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 95 Minutes 57 Seconds (Unrated) 

Audo: English Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo, DTS HD-MA 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: Dolby Vision HDR10 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1) 

Director: George A. Romero 

Cast: Simon Baker, Dennis Hopper, Asia Argento, Robert Joy, John Leguizamo

After decades away from the undead sub-genre he helped modernized with Night of the Living Dead George Romero’s (Dawn of the Dead) returned with his fourth entry in his iconic zombie franchise, Land of the Dead (2005), arriving a full 20 years after Day of the Dead (1985). I remember in the lead up to catching a sneak peak screening of this how excited I was for Romero to be returning to his ...of the Dead franchise. It seemed that after years of dormancy, the undead sub-genre was re-animated once more after the box office  success of Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later (2002) and Zach Snyder's remake of Romero's Dawn of the Dead remake, though AMC's adaptation of the zombie comic The Walking Dead was still five years away zombies were back in pop culture and Romero finally was able to finance a new undead flick through Universal, working with his largest budget yet at 19 million dollars. 

It's been a few rough years since the initial outbreak of undead, America is a wasteland dotted by small outcroppings of protected areas, and once such place is Fiddler's Green, a luxury high-rise apartment located on a small plot of land in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a peninsula bordered on two sides by a river which offers a naturally protected area, where a guy named Kaufman (Dennis Hopper, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2) has established a community, where the wealthy can pay a premium to love in a luxury apartment, while the poor who are left to scavenge for themselves within the protracted area outside the high-rise, it's not a lot different from some Mad Mad type apocalypse scenarios. 

Kaufman has a small army of hired mercenaries comprised of lower class folks that venture into the wasteland to procure supplies, using a heavily-armored personnel vehicle dubbed 'Dead Reckoning' to lay waste to the undead hordes the living call "stenches" outside the protective barriers.  The ragtag group of soldiers is lead by Riley (Simon Baker, Red Planet), but we get from the start of the film that he's about to retire his position commanding Dead Reckoning, and move on, having saved up enough money to buy a working vehicle to leave Fiddler's Green and look for some desolate place in the wasteland up north in Canada to live out his days alone, sort of, he also plans on taking his somewhat slow witted pal Charlie (Robert Joy, The Dark Half), whose face is badly burned, and while he ain't much to look at he is a hell of crack shot with a gun, which comes in handy. When Riley moves on the plan is to hand over the reigns of Dead Reckoning to Cholo (John Leguizamo, Spawn).

Things don't quite go as planned, Riley's vehicle comes up missing, and Cholo turns against Kaufman when he is denied a place at the luxury apartments, having been deemed too unsavory and low-class for the high-life, he ends up stealing Dead Reckoning and threatens to blow-up Fiddler's Green unless he gets a sizable ransom. Kaufman, refusing to deal with a terrorist, recruits Riley to lead a team comprised of his trusty sidekick Charlie and a prostitute named Slack (Asia Argento, The Stendhal Syndrome), whom he saved from a zombie cage-match earlier, as well as three hired mercs in Kaufman's employ, Manolete (Sasha Roiz, The Day After Tomorrow), Motown (Krista Bridges, Heroes Reborn), and Pillsbury (Pedro Miguel Arce, Step Brothers), to recover Dead Reckoning in exchange for a new set of wheels. 

All parties however are unaware of a larger looming threat moving into the area, a horde of undead are massing and headed towards Fiddler's Green, lead by 'Big Daddy' (Eugene Clark, Knight Rider 2000), a zombie who along with other undead in his horde, have started to show signs of emerging intelligence, the sort of stuff hinted at by 'Bub' in Day of the Dead, now capable of handling bladed weapons and firing machine guns, and staging a somewhat thought out  

When I saw this at the theater during a sneak preview I was bowled over by it, I was primed for it, I had re-watched the original trilogy and went in hot, and I loved it, I still quite enjoy it, and I re-watch it every couple of years. It's not quite held up to the standard set by the previous three films, but that's a tall order, even for Romero himself. When I think about what it is that puts me off it somewhat it really boils down to the reliance on digital CGI gore and effects, and the lack of character development. We don't spend enough time with the main characters to get to know them, we get archetypes, and that sort of cinematic shorthand works well enough to establish the bullet points of the characters, but not enough to get under their skin and in their minds, it's very shallow in that way. Also, while there's a lot of practical effects on display it lacks the visceral gut-ripping intensity of Dawn or Day, and the CGI stuff sticks out like a sore thumb. I grew up seeing Romero's undead hordes tear people apart, using old school practical effects, and the digital grue just doesn't satisfy the way old school rubber and latex with tubes spurting blood, it just doesn't. 

That's not to say I don't enjoy it, I do, seeing Romero do his thing back in 2005 got this horror-fans blood pumping, and like I said, I re-watch every couple of years, its plenty entertaining, it has lot of that patented Romero cynicism and social commentary, it's just a bit shallower and not as grisly, but it's still a solid undead flick from Romero. 

Audio/Video: George A. Romero's Land of the Dead (2005) gets the 4K UHD treatment from Scream Factory, offering a 3-disc release that presents the uncut version on 4K UHD, with separate discs for both the theatrical cut and uncut version on Blu-ray. Both versions are framed in 2.39:1 widescreen, with the Uncut version presented in 2160p Ultra HD with the added benefit of the Dolby Vision HDR10 color space with a brand new 2024 4K restoration from the original camera negative, while the Blu-rays also sport a new 4K scan down sampled to 1080p minus the WCG color-grade. The image looks terrific, grain is fine and well-managed, the source is immaculate, and the 4K resolution offers a pleasing uptick in delineation of fine detail textures, and zombie make-ups. The color-grade is mostly restrained, but primaries to occasionally appear deeper and more saturated. This is a very dark movie, most of it taking place in darkness, so the biggest benefit to my eyes is the deeper more nuanced black levels with superior shadow detail. All in all a solid 4K upgrade of Romero's fourth Dead flick. 

On the audio front we get English Dolby Atmos (TrueHD 7.1), and DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo and 5.1 surround on the 4K UHD, and only the DTS 2.0 and 5.1 on the Blu-rays, all with optional English subtitles. The Atmos track is terrific, the sounds of the undead hordes moaning, snaps of gunfire, explosions, the boom of "sky flowers", the sounds of humans screaming, and the industrial sound of the Dead Reckoning vehicle rolling along are delivered with some nice depth, and with plenty of active surround activity. It's got a nice sound design to it and the Atmos enhances that. The DTS tracks are also clean and robust. 

This 3-disc release is well-stocked with extras, though they all seem to be carry-overs from the 2017 Collector's Edition also from Scream Factory as listed below, all of the non-commentary extras appear on the Blu-rays discs. 

The 3-disc UHD/BD set arrives in a standard 4K keepcase with a flipper tray housing the discs, with a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the theatrical poster artwork, housed inside a slipcover with the same artwork. 

Special Features: 
Disc One (4K UHD, Unrated Version)
- NEW 2024 4K Restoration from The Original Camera Negative
- Presented In Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos
- Audio Commentary with Writer/Director George A. Romero, Producer Peter Grunwald, And Editor Michael Doherty
- Audio Commentary with Zombie Performers Matt Blazi, Glena Chao, Michael Felsher, And Rob Mayr
Disc Two (Blu-ray, Unrated Version)
- NEW 2024 4K Restoration from The Original Camera Negative
- Audio Commentary with Writer/Director George A. Romero, Producer Peter Grunwald, and Editor Michael Doherty
- Audio Commentary with Zombie Performers Matt Blazi, Glena Chao, Michael Felsher, and Rob Mayr
- Undead Again: The Making of Land of The Dead (12:56) 
- Bringing The Dead to Life (9:31) 
- Scenes Of Carnage (1:42) 
- Zombie Effects: From Green Screen to Finished Scene (3:18) 
- Scream Test – CGI Test (1:05) 
- Bringing The Storyboards to Life (7:54) 
- A Day with The Living Dead Hosted by John Leguizamo (7:34) 
- When Shaun Met George – Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright Visit the Set (12:50)  
Disc Three (Blu-ray, Theatrical Version)
- NEW 2024 4K Restoration from The Original Camera Negative
- Cholo’s Reckoning - An Interview with Actor John Leguizamo (15:37) 
- Charlie’s Story – An Interview with Actor Robert Joy (15:09)
- The Pillsbury Factor – An Interview with Actor Pedro Miguel Arce (17:30) 
- Four Of the Apocalypse – An Interview with Actors Eugene Clark, Jennifer Baxter, Boyd Banks, And Jasmin Geljo (18:49) 
- Dream Of the Dead: The Director’s Cut with Optional Commentary by Director Roy Frumkes (24:40) 
- Deleted Footage from Dream of The Dead (18:40)  
- Deleted Scenes (2:56) 
- Photo Gallery (9:12) 
- Theatrical Trailer (1:45) 

Land of the Dead comes in dead-last when put up against the other three films in Romero's Dead Quadrilogy, but last place among those classics isn't all that bad. It's an entertaining Romero flick, it's better than what came after with the found-footage Diary of the Dead and the Hatfield & McCoy's feuding of Survival of the Dead, in my opinion, your opinion might differ, and that's fine. Regardless of your opinion on the film I think this release from Scream Factory is pretty dang definitive, offering gorgeous new scans of the both versions of the film, plus a wealth of archival extras.

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