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[JohnIan101]

Past Tense - So Hungry Part I


[An earlier version of this PT was originally posted on October 4th, 2012 on JoBlo's "DVD, Blu-Ray & Home Theater Discussion" forum.]

It's the Halloween season once again. Welcome to week one of Limited Edition Horror 2016! We kick it off with the dead who walk with a three part entry - George A. Romero's "Land Of The Dead"...



The motion picture opened on June 24th, 2005. It was made with a budget of $15,000,000 (estimated) and grossed over 20 million during its U.S. theatrical run. When including foreign receipts, it made more than two times the domestic gross. The film opened number fifth at the box office, the following week it dropped to number ten.

The feature opened against "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith", "Batman Begins", "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" and "Herbie: Fully Loaded".

This release originally came with an embossed cardboard foil slipcover which mirrored the case's wraparound. It also came with a single insert, an advertisement. Side one was for Look For These Thrilling Movies!; "White Noise: Widescreen", "Van Helsing", "Dawn Of The Dead: Unrated Director's Cut", "Seed Of Chucky: Unrated And Fully Extended", "Shaun Of The Dead" and "The Bone Collector: Widescreen". The other side was for Universal monster, The Legacy Collection - first pressing; "Frankenstein", "The Wolfman", "Dracula", "Creature From The Black Lagoon", "The Mummy" and "The Invisible Man". Each include all the films in that particular franchise with special features. Quite sway.

I own the better 2014 re-releases; the originals (2004) were double side discs in a digipak. The re-releases have more extras including the bonuses from the three later "Anniversary Edition" in 2006 as well as corresponding "Abbott & Costello" features. These are presented as single sided with more discs in a standard case and textured slipcovers.

A side note, "Land Of The Dead" came in two editions, R which was full screen only. And the "Unrated Director's Cut" which I own and will be talking about.

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The first exclusive was from Circuit City, a twenty-six page mini comic which was packed on the back the slipcase. This streeted on October 18th, 2005 and sold for $17.99.

It retold the opening, up to the downtown zombie cage fight. It was part one of five, a bigger official comic book adaptation. Released by IDW Publishing; written by Chris Ryall with art by Gabriel Rodriguez.

My comic is under the slipcase.

The other was from Wal-Mart and I use the word 'exclusive' loosely.



They had a two disc set - not like that. They had another title side packed with "Land", "Boogeymen: The Killer Compilation". It sucked. Out of curiosity, picked that up separately, a year later during one of their $3.99 DVD sales - a waste.

"Killer Compilation" is exactly its name. A collection of clips from horror movies, just clips. Not a documentary, just scenes from a bunch different movies; best-of-moments. What the hell was the point???

The WM price? Sorry. [shrugs] I didn't bother buying that arrangement and have no data in my archive.

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Footnotes.

On Wednesday, April 27th, 2005, the teaser for the long awaited sequel to "Day Of The Dead" (1985) appeared online. Two days later it was altered. I was fortunate enough to download it the day it became available.

Official reason for the change is to prevent confusion over the images...

In 2004 Universal Studios released the Zack Snyder remake of "Dawn Of The Dead", a previous Past Tense (Part I and Part II). "Dawn" being the second film (1978) in the then George A. Romero Dead trilogy. Universal released "Land Of The Dead" for 2005. Not a sequel to their remake. Which could've been confusing to non-Romero fans, that's what they claimed.

But...

The first version showed footage from Romero's original "Dawn" and "Day". The later teaser purged those visuals in favor for ALL clips from the original "Night Of The Living Dead" (1968). Let's backtrack, sort out the confusion.

1968 saw the release of the film that changed the horror genre, "Night Of The Living Dead". Ten years later the first sequel was released, "Dawn Of The Dead". In '85 the next installment came out, "Day Of The Dead". "Night" was remade in 1990 by Tom Savini, a reboot. 2004 brought the remake of "Dawn", a stand alone film, not connected to the previous movies. The third sequel, "Land Of The Dead" came out in 2005. '05 also brought a stand alone remake of "Day", a low-budget feature, also not connected to the previous films. Understand?

It is believed (myself included) changes were made over copyright; Universal didn't have the rights to show those clips and inserted footage from "Night" since it's in public domain.

Original Teaser:

They're coming to get you Barbra...

Footage from "Night" as a horde of ghouls slowly approach the farm house. Text - "In The Beginning One Man Made Us Fear The Night".

The unburied dead are coming back to life, seeking human victims.

A clip of the now dead Karen Cooper (Kyra Schon) coming after her mother. Clip of Barbra (Judith O'Dea) running out of the farm house into the headlights of Ben's truck. Text - "Then Night Became Dawn". Footage from "Dawn", Francine (Gaylen Ross), Stephen (David Emge) and Roger (Scott H. Reiniger) on the roof of the Monroeville Mall looking down. Clip of the zombies moving about the parking lot.

The people it kills, get up and kill...

Third clip, ghouls moving inside the mall. A quick snippet of the famous zombie elevator rush scene. Forth clip with one of the biker raiders with tommy gun surrounded by ghouls. Text - "And Dawn Became Day". Footage from "Day", the platform descending into the underground facility.

They have overrun us you know, we're in the minority now. This is a war...

Two clips of the zombies in Florida, ghouls walking around. Final clip, Sarah's nightmare - dead hands coming at her through the wall. The end of opening.

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Revised Teaser:

They're coming to get you Barbra...

Footage from "Night" as a horde of ghouls slowly approach the farm house. Text - "In The Beginning One Man Made Us Fear The Night".

The unburied dead are coming back to life, seeking human victims.

A clip of Ben (Duane Jones) looking at the ghouls right before entering the farm house. Snippet of zombies rushing forward. Clip of Barbra running out of the farm house into the headlights of Ben's truck. Text - "Then Night Became Dawn". A clip of the now dead Karen Cooper coming after her mother.

We don't know how many of them there are. Do you think we will be able to defeat these things? We don't really know...

Clip of the now dead Johnny (Russell Streiner) grabbing Barbra though the boarded door. Clip of the ghouls entering the farm house. Text - "And Dawn Became Day". Clip of the ghouls attacking Ben. The end of revised opening.



When I say end of opening, I mean the teaser then went into footage from "Land". The revised teaser lost most of the energy that the original had, not to mention the huge sense of continuity. Too bad they had to change it.

Before you ask - no; neither teasers or trailer is included on disc. *sigh*

By the way, the teaser - first version was attached to "XxX 2: State Of The Union" (opened at theaters on April 29th, 2005).

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Rant.

Land of the Dead is set in a devastated world. There's no electricity except for places inside the city where people are trying to live normal lives. That is their error... it goes back to the idea of ignoring terrorism and other societal problems outside your own door. They think, 'If we ignore it, we’ll be okay.' They’re forming small civilizations on their own, turning their backs, really, on the problems outside. That’s at the core of what the movie is about. The protagonists are the ones that have to go out into the dark side of the world to bring back food, supplies.

- George A. Romero, director/screenwriter

Lets address the use of CGI in the film - computer generated blood.

As mentioned earlier, Romero had a budget of $15,000,000 (sadly this is the most money he has ever been given to make a movie). For the remake of "Dawn", Snyder had $28,000,000 to play with.



Above, George directing with actor John Leguizamo in the background.

If Romero wanted big moments he needed to trim some effects. Such as using squibs; the fake blood shots for bullets, they take time to set up and if they go wrong, you need to redress the actor(s) and do over. Money wasted as well as time. This is the new reality - fake blood gun shots. I accept it. Man, so many people were upset over digital squibs.