I have chosen to review ‘Land of the Dead’ which was made in 2005 by George A Romero and it is a gory action horror. This is a sequel to day of the dead, the plot of the film is that zombies have taken over the planet and that the humans have built a walled in city to protect themselves. The rich live a life of luxury whilst the poor live in slums on the outskirts of the town. A group of poorer citizens go out to get supplies from outside of Fiddlers Green ( the town). One of the group decides to revolt against the rich for money, the zombies meanwhile are breaking into the town and are learning from what they are doing. After a big battle the group decide to head north to Canada to ‘Freedom’.
The scenes that impressed me the most in this film where the scene where the governor of the rich tried to escape in his car and is killed. I like this scene because of the prolonged suspense of which of the two zombies are going to kill him. The shot of the burning money was particularly good because of the symbolism of the fragility of money and its power. The slow montage builds tension alongside parallel music which draws out the suspense. I also like the creepy location of the multi-storey car park as these are something that I feel give most people an uneasy feeling and therefore would effect them when they were watching. I also liked the scene of the Zombie rampage where most of the gore is. I love all of the expressionist angles that are used to make the body horror more horrific and I think that the close up on the arm being ripped in half was particularly successful because it places the violence right in front of the audience so they have to watch. This whole scene was a very quick montage that raised the heart rate and fear of the audience and was extremely effective.
Through reviewing this film I understand the importance of generic features within horror films, in this horror film body horror is a main feature of the film in scenes such as the zombie rampage and the scalping of the man through the gore there is also the element of sadism when the bikers are enjoying to kill the zombies in the first scene. This film also uses creepy locations very well in the deserted towns and slums that are outside of fiddlers green. The use of low key lighting and contrapuntal music within the scene of the governors death causes tension in the audience. The use of montage within this film is well used especially the slow editing in the governors death to draw out the suspense and a quick montage within the zombie attack on the town which raises the heart rate and heightens the terror. This film used point of view shots extremely well in placing the audience in the action, a point of view shot that I particularly liked the shot where Charlie shoots Chihuahua. Land of the dead uses close ups in extremely interesting ways the close up’s that I feel where the most interesting where the ones on the main zombie as this showed that he had human emotion and this would shock and interest the audience. Land of the Dead used typical character stereotypes such as the male hero Reilly who is rugged and good looking, the final girl is also typical being a brunette who is tough and intelligent as well as being world safe. The film obviously uses stupid slow moving monsters as the antagonists within the narrative but also the upper class citizens of fiddlers green. Generic horror themes such as isolation, having the people trapped inside the walled in town. And misogyny having Slack put into a cage with the zombies to be eaten. Land of the dead ends in an open ending that asks the question of whether the characters make it to Canada or not, this leaves the audience with a big ’what if ’ which makes them uncomfortable.
An aspect of this film that I would be interested in including in my trailer would be the low key lighting that is used through the whole film as it forms a type of restricted narration making the violence much worse in the audiences mind that it actually is on screen. It also made me feel like there was something lurking in the shadows which created lots of creepy locations, I would use this as I feel that it creates more interesting and dynamic film. I also likes the fact that more than one female survived, this is one of the most interesting elements to me about horror film in the way that they are very forward thinking as one of the more feminist genres. I think that this makes the film more relatable too for female audiences.
The aspect of the film that I would avoid using as much of in my trailer is the gore that is so heavily used in this film as although I feel that it was extremely successful in this film and that it aided the narrative and effect of the genre. I would not be as tempted to use it as much in my trailer because it is something that I feel can be over used and would detract from the trailer by making it unrealistic or silly. I am willing to put subtle body horror in however.
The aspect that I most enjoyed about this film was the use of fireworks or ‘sky flowers’ to stun the zombies, I really like how something so beautiful and un- horror related could be used so effectively. I feel that this has a similar effect to contrapuntal music and could be quite risky to do however I really like the idea of something really beautiful and something really horrific happening simultaneously. This is something that I feel I could translate across to my trailer to create a truly unsettling feeling to it.
This film shows the influence of its auteur George A Romero through the way that he has flipped the character stereotypes by having a disabled hero and tough female characters, although he keeps the typical male hero he creates sympathetic zombies which is very progressive. He shows his anti-racist views by having a black main zombie who is powerful but also kind to the other zombies like when he tries to protect them when the bikers are shooting them down. This makes the audience feel sympathetic towards them. He also uses political Satire, in this film he is attacking capitalism and the growing division between rich and poor within society. A scene where Romero’s political satire is particularly prominent is in the scene where the governor dies and the expensive ‘power car’ and money are burning this is commenting of the materialistic nature of money and greed and how fake and how precarious its power is. A scene which shows the way that Romero flips character stereotypes when the final girl is locked in with the Zombies she is putting up a fight and actually doing quite well in beating the zombies showing that she is tough and a fighter in life. Romero shows his anti racist views through many different elements of the film but the most influential of these elements is the black zombie who is sympathetic and kind to the other zombies which makes him more ‘human’ in the audiences eyes this means that the audience then supports and kind of backs this zombie through the film.
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