Fabulous Films, out 15 February

The living dead have taken over the world and the last humans live in a walled city to protect themselves as they come to grips with the situation.

Twenty years after Day of the Dead, its writer/director George A Romero returned with the fourth of his six ‘Dead’ movies, now getting a UK release. Essentially a clone of Scream Factory’s region-locked US special edition, the new 2K scans are crisp and you can enjoy either the regular theatrical cut or four minutes longer unrated version.

Humanity has adapted to defend itself against the living dead, creating a community surrounded by electrified wire and armaments. It’s still a pretty rough and tumble existence within these walls, with a super-secure apartment block in the middle – Fiddler’s Green – where the wealthy tower above the have-nots. Top of the pile is Dennis Hopper’s Kaufman, a Trump-a-like dictator solely looking after his own interests and sending out parties to scavenge for supplies in an armoured transporter.

As anticipated, this fragile eco-system starts going wrong and the dead find their way to take over. In addition to Hopper, there’s strong support from Simon Baker (The Mentalist), John Leguizamo (Super Mario Bros) and Asia Argento (The Stendhal Syndrome). Greg Nicotero’s gruesome make-up effects are highly effective and visceral, with former make-up guru Tom Savini returning as the same zombie from Dawn of the Dead. Shaun of the Dead’s Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg also make fun cameos as photo booth zombies.

The first disc features the theatrical cut and includes interviews with actors John Leguizamo, Robert Joy, Pedro Miguel Arce and others. There’s the movie trailer and a 25 minute documentary on Savini’s return (Dream of the Dead). The second disc includes the unrated version of the movie, an audio commentary with Romero, producer Peter Grunwald and editor Michael Doherty, another with some of the zombie performers, a feature on Wright and Pegg’s cameo and a whole bunch of archival content.

Verdict: While in the bottom half of the rankings for the ‘Dead’ movies, there’s still much to enjoy here from Hopper’s scenery-chewing, the zombies’ flesh-chewing and a decent budget. The extras are also superb. 8/10

Nick Joy

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