Parents' Guide to

Land of the Dead

By Cynthia Fuchs, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Vintage Romero – bloody, grisly, and not for kids.

Movie R 2005 93 minutes
Land of the Dead Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 14+

Based on 4 parent reviews

gerbowski
gerbowski Parent of 2-year-old
October 1, 2012
age 18+

Surprisingly good, but still not for kids

This predictably gory zombie movie is actually pretty good considering the premise. Although definitely not for children, adults who appreciate the genre will probably like this take on a classic.
yellowdiamond15
yellowdiamond15 Adult
May 1, 2010
age 11+
Good, and actually kind of funny! It teaches people how to ward of zombies! LOL!!!
See all 4 parent reviews

What's the Story?

In George A. Romero's living-dead franchise, humans turn ruthless and hurt each other when facing dreadful fates. In LAND OF THE DEAD, the zombies have overrun the earth, such that humans' space is limited. The first humans to appear in the movie are the most numerous and least fortunate of the survivors. Others, like the wealthy corporate chief Kaufman (Dennis Hopper), live apart in a luxury fortress city called Fiddler's Green. This upscale-ish community is serviced by scrappy scavengers, including Riley (Simon Baker), Cholo (John Leguizamo), and Charlie (Robert Joy), who venture into areas now populated by zombies to bring back food, liquor, gas, medicine, and other supplies. Some humans use the zombies for entertainment: they chain them up just short enough so they can't bite, and pose for pictures, they shoot them for sport, they set them on humans in cages in order to watch the victims scream and fight until they must be eaten. A crisis arises just as the zombies are coming to a rudimentary consciousness. They're using tools and weapons, working as a team, targeting the mall's inhabitants (approximating revenge), and following a leader, a gas station attendant zombie with an apt name patch on his coveralls: Big Daddy (Eugene Clark).

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (4 ):
Kids say (7 ):

The long-awaited fourth film in Romero's zombie series is predictably gory, darkly comic, and grimly class conscious. For all its carnage and brutality then, this movie continues the living-dead legacy, in mounting a political critique of human mass and corporate culture by likening the zombies to us.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about this movie's class analysis. Aside from the obvious social and moral problem posed by the greedy rich man in a tower, the film also presents zombies as a class exploited by humans. How do the zombies become analogous to slaves? Why might the underclass humans (locked outside the fortress city and mall) identify with the zombies? How do the heroes triumph by banding together and trusting each other, rather than fighting each other?

Movie Details

  • In theaters: June 24, 2005
  • On DVD or streaming: October 18, 2005
  • Cast: Asia Argento , John Leguizamo , Simon Baker
  • Director: George A. Romero
  • Inclusion Information: Female actors, Latino actors
  • Studio: Universal Pictures
  • Genre: Horror
  • Run time: 93 minutes
  • MPAA rating: R
  • MPAA explanation: pervasive strong violence and gore, language, brief sexuality and some drug use
  • Last updated: September 16, 2023

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