> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# ‘Land of the Dead’ seems ripe for a burial
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/land-of-the-dead-seems-ripe-for-a-burial/
- Published: 2005-06-24T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T07:17:35.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import

With all due respect to George A. Romero, zombie flicks are dead and long overdue for a burial. In the past three years alone, there have been somewhere in the neighborhood of a dozen releases that pit the living against the undead, all of which follow an almost identical blueprint. Romero created the genre with his 1968 horror classic, “Night of the Living Dead,” followed up by the equally chilling “Dawn of the Dead” (1978) and “Day of the Dead” (1985). In the 20 years since, the director has sat idly by while a new breed of filmmakers with bigger budgets and smaller imaginations have cashed-in on the public’s fascination with flesh-eating corpses. Too bad Romero waited so long to get back in the game, because “Land of the Dead” might have paid off had we not seen it all before (and will be seeing again next week, incidentally, when Lions Gate’s “Undead” stumbles into theaters).

To his credit, at the outset Romero attempts to inject some novelty to “Land of the Dead” by giving his zombies a consciousness their predecessors lacked. Sure, they still hunger for flesh, but they’ve also reacquired a taste for the humanity they once knew — sorta like Madonna. Led by the aptly named Big Daddy (Eugene Clark), the zombies set out to infiltrate Fiddler’s Green, a fortified human compound ruled by the imperious Kaufman (Dennis Hopper, delightful as ever). To keep the zombies out and the impoverished humans who dwell in the streets beneath his ivory tower in check, Kaufman employs a group of mercenaries that includes a dashing hero, Riley (Simon Baker), the mischievous Cholo (John Leguizamo) and requisite sexpot Slack (Asia Argento). Given the ambitious setup, you might expect Big Daddy and his crew to bond with their human counterparts — “See, bro, we’re just like you, only clammier” — depose of the dictatorial Kaufman, and divvy up his booty commune-style. Ah, but zombies will be zombies and their quest to be more “in” mortality is abandoned faster than one can say, “Um, um, them ass cheeks look tasty.” That’s when Romero’s film goes flat and joins the ranks of all the others, and that’s just a shame.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 24, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/062405.pdf?ref=smdp.com)