A brief synopsis of George Romero's latest zombie flick: bang, bang, bang, boom, crash, blood, entrails, exploding heads and so on and so forth.
Horror films have been around for almost as long as the movie camera itself. The genre is conducive to snuggling in dark places, so it isn't going anywhere. Most horror films are not good. George Romero's "Land of the Dead" manages to stand out from the crowd, however, because he always injects racially charged elements into his films - sometimes funny, sometimes horribly depressing.
Take, for example, his classic "Night of the Living Dead." The protagonist, an African American man, manages to survive a full-scale home invasion of the undead, never once losing his cool, only to get gunned down the next morning by a hysterical mob of white people with guns.
Point: Be afraid of zombies but be more afraid of how white people with guns will react to said zombies.
This kind of subtle whitey prodding is more pervasive in "Land of the Dead." And it is funny - very funny.
The main conflict of the film revolves around Cholo, played by John Leguizamo, who has become upset with his warlord/real estate mogul boss Kaufman, played by Dennis Hopper. It seems that Kaufman refuses to let Cholo move into the upscale condos that stand fortified against the undead masses. Yes, in the bleak near-future there are yuppies living in posh skyscrapers - that's why it's so bleak.
Cholo eventually hijacks a high-tech anti-zombie RV and demands money. A terrorist joke ensues.
There is obviously some kind of foul white supremacist conspiracy afoot in this new civilization. Even the white members of the mob that subsist outside of the pearly gates of the high-rise all have Irish accents and suspiciously ethnic-sounding last names.
The zombies grow tired of being shot, blown up and generally mistreated by the mob - which is only mean to the zombies because Kaufman is mean to them - and they rise up in bloody revolt.
The subtle racial undertones in this film add a layer of complexity, which sets it apart from standard popcorn flicks. The addition of mildly self-aware, machine gun-wielding zombies, who rise up against the human oppressors was also a refreshing change of pace. One can only tolerate so much flesh eating and mumbling. It's nice to see a zombie lay into a human with an assault rifle for once, instead of vice versa.
Technical prowess and political agendas aside, these undead still move kind of slowly, a far cry from the hyper-kinetic track star zombies of last year's "Dawn of the Dead" and "28 Days Later." Really, they're dead. Why can they move so fast?
Not that zombies with gats make a whole lot of sense either. But that is and always shall be the zombie flick's greatest asset: It doesn't have to make sense. Just have gore and everything will be fine. And this film delivers on the gore. Fans of violence will not be disappointed.
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"Land of the Dead" is a blood bath of a film that contains enough sarcastic humor to keep the cynics happy and quiet. No need to worry about commentary from some voice in the back of the theater. It also has the virtue of an R rating. That will keep the hordes of screaming children - arguably more terrifying than anything a zombie has to offer - out of the theater, lest they become desensitized.
Or it will expose serious shortcomings in many people's parenting skills.
