As an aside to what others have already pointed out about “braaaiiiiinss” originating in Return of the Living Dead, the zombies in that film also aren’t mindless. They can still think and feel, and they crave brains because it (somehow) eases the pain they feel from their bodies decaying.
It’s an element of zombie lore that I really wish was used more often because it makes becoming a zombie even more frightening. They’re also totally immortal beyond cremation, so no aiming for the head to put them out of their misery.
The first and third Return of the Living Dead movies are my favourite zombie films ever. The second is… fine. It’s basically a remake of the first focused more on comedy like Evil Dead 2, but it didn’t really work for me. The two latest movies throw out all of the unique elements of the series to become generic zombie movies and aren’t worth watching.
The sliced up dog returning to life was a messed up scene and also pushed the movie in the magic realm. This version of Zombies can never die, even after total bodily annihilation.
Not OP, but I get your comparison since Land of the dead goes into something similar with zombies remembering stuff. That being said (in case you didn’t knew) Land of the Dead is not a standalone movie, and is in fact from the original non-voodoo zombie movie universe. A lot of the criticism I see towards Land of the Dead comes from people who watched the movie in isolation and complain about it never explaining zombies and why they can do things, but that’s almost like watching Matrix 3 and complaining they never explained the Matrix.
If you like that concept it’s gradually built in the series, so other movies feature it in one way or another. The original Night of the Living Dead introduced the concept of zombies; The sequel Dawn of the Dead already painted a picture where zombies brains remember something, since it’s pointed out they go to the shopping mall and drag carts around because that’s what they did when living; Day of the Dead is entirely focused on a research project on zombie behaviour, with a scientist doing experiments to see how much zombies still remember; then finally you get to Land of the Dead.
Sorry I went out on a rant about it, but I love those movies, they’re not only great horror movies that defined an entire genre but also are very strong criticism to society and humans in general which I think a lot of other zombie movies miss entirely.
Yeah, it wasn’t made very obvious that it was a sequel to Night of the Living Dead unless you knew the behind-the-scenes stuff. Even for those who were aware, like myself, the first “… of the Dead” movie I saw was the remake of “Dawn” and that is too different from the original series to be comparable. I went into Land of the Dead expecting something similar to the remake but it was really jarring and hurt my first impression of the film. I was expecting gritty realism but instead got Romero’s classic social commentary and subtle goofiness. I’ve since come to appreciate both.
It was good but not my one of my favourites. The zombies are developing a form of intelligence and are empathetic to each other, but that’s used to contrast with the cruelty of the humans living in Fiddler’s Green. It makes the zombies sympathetic, but they aren’t in perpetual suffering like RotLD’s zombies. There’s just something really creepy to me about a mostly decayed corpse saying it can feel itself rot.
I think Land of the Dead is very similar to I Am Legend where the “monsters” form their own society, which is fitting because Romero based his zombies off of the creatures in The Last Man on Earth which was in turn based on I Am Legend.
As an aside to what others have already pointed out about “braaaiiiiinss” originating in Return of the Living Dead, the zombies in that film also aren’t mindless. They can still think and feel, and they crave brains because it (somehow) eases the pain they feel from their bodies decaying.
It’s an element of zombie lore that I really wish was used more often because it makes becoming a zombie even more frightening. They’re also totally immortal beyond cremation, so no aiming for the head to put them out of their misery.
The first and third Return of the Living Dead movies are my favourite zombie films ever. The second is… fine. It’s basically a remake of the first focused more on comedy like Evil Dead 2, but it didn’t really work for me. The two latest movies throw out all of the unique elements of the series to become generic zombie movies and aren’t worth watching.
The sliced up dog returning to life was a messed up scene and also pushed the movie in the magic realm. This version of Zombies can never die, even after total bodily annihilation.
What did you think about Land of the Dead?
Not OP, but I get your comparison since Land of the dead goes into something similar with zombies remembering stuff. That being said (in case you didn’t knew) Land of the Dead is not a standalone movie, and is in fact from the original non-voodoo zombie movie universe. A lot of the criticism I see towards Land of the Dead comes from people who watched the movie in isolation and complain about it never explaining zombies and why they can do things, but that’s almost like watching Matrix 3 and complaining they never explained the Matrix.
If you like that concept it’s gradually built in the series, so other movies feature it in one way or another. The original Night of the Living Dead introduced the concept of zombies; The sequel Dawn of the Dead already painted a picture where zombies brains remember something, since it’s pointed out they go to the shopping mall and drag carts around because that’s what they did when living; Day of the Dead is entirely focused on a research project on zombie behaviour, with a scientist doing experiments to see how much zombies still remember; then finally you get to Land of the Dead.
Sorry I went out on a rant about it, but I love those movies, they’re not only great horror movies that defined an entire genre but also are very strong criticism to society and humans in general which I think a lot of other zombie movies miss entirely.
Yeah, it wasn’t made very obvious that it was a sequel to Night of the Living Dead unless you knew the behind-the-scenes stuff. Even for those who were aware, like myself, the first “… of the Dead” movie I saw was the remake of “Dawn” and that is too different from the original series to be comparable. I went into Land of the Dead expecting something similar to the remake but it was really jarring and hurt my first impression of the film. I was expecting gritty realism but instead got Romero’s classic social commentary and subtle goofiness. I’ve since come to appreciate both.
It was good but not my one of my favourites. The zombies are developing a form of intelligence and are empathetic to each other, but that’s used to contrast with the cruelty of the humans living in Fiddler’s Green. It makes the zombies sympathetic, but they aren’t in perpetual suffering like RotLD’s zombies. There’s just something really creepy to me about a mostly decayed corpse saying it can feel itself rot.
I think Land of the Dead is very similar to I Am Legend where the “monsters” form their own society, which is fitting because Romero based his zombies off of the creatures in The Last Man on Earth which was in turn based on I Am Legend.