Leguizamo, Baker and Joy

There’s only one movie that you’ve been waiting for if you’re in the know: George Romero’s 4th in his zombie trilogy, Land of the Dead. It was rushed out to a summer deadline when Doom fell behind schedule, but now the director’s cut is out on R1 DVD, a few minutes longer than the cinema release. There’s only one significant added scene, and the rest of the changes consist mainly of added gore effects.

The whole movie is still too short and too glossy (particularly in comparison to the previous entries in the series), while not quite upbeat enough to appeal to those who liked the Dawn of the Dead remake for example, but for fans of smart and serious horror movies, this is your ideal Christmas present. The DVD extras are great but too short (‘home movies’ by stars John Leguizamo and Simon Pegg/Edgar Wright are very funny) and there’s a commentary by George which still leaves room for another special edition once all the fuss has settled down.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Although George Romero wasn’t involved, he appears in the special features on Effects, made by most of his associates in Pittsburgh in 1980 and missing since then (I’ve been looking for it since reading a glowing review in Cinefantastique about 20 years ago).

Joe Pilato from Day of the Dead stars as a cameraman recruited for a low-budget movie which turns out to be a snuff movie. The mad director is nicely underplayed by John Harrison, formerly Romero’s composer and editor but now more famous as the director of TV’s Dune, and other Romero regulars like Tom Savini fill out the cast and crew. It’s clear that the budget didn’t really match the ambition of the exercise, but it’s a neat and undervalued movie as far as these things go.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

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Romero completists will also have noticed the R1 release of Season of the Witch, made in the aftermath of Night of the Living Dead.

It’s one of those movies that I’ve tried to like for years, but it’s horribly dated, telling the story of a neglected wife who turns to witchcraft as an alternative to her boring marriage. It has a sort of Bergman attitude mixed with a swinging sixties vibe, and if you think that sounds hideous, you’re right. The editing’s great, but that’s the least you expect from the man. To round off the Romero collection, the disk also contains There’s Always Vanilla, previously though to have been lost, and made at about the same time. George appears on the disk in a documentary about both movies, and he’s appropriately critical about both.

For completists and aging hippies only.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

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