Other Titles • Land of the Dead (2005) • George Romero's Land of the Dead • Dead Reckoning • George A. Romero's Land of the Dead • Twilight of the Dead • La Terre des morts
Nicotero claims to have seen every zombie film ever made. His familiarity with (and passion for) the genre motivated him to once again redefine the zombies’ appearance. While obviously needing to pay homage to the walkers that have come before, Nicotero also wanted to make these zombies particular to Land of the Dead.
One of his innovations was to change the zombies’ eyes. “Each zombie actor is wearing contact lenses so that the life is taken out of their eyes.” Their lifeless gaze, in combination with their unsteady gate and varying states of decomposition, enhance the feeling that they are indeed coming back from the dead. Also, attention was lavished not only on the facial and body makeup, but on the hair of the walkers as well—realizing that the dead have been “living” outside in all kinds of weather, the hair and wigs were styled to be matted, stringy and, as Greg supplies, “just gross.”
The makeups for such leading zombies as Big Daddy, Number 9 and Tambourine Man were patterned on the actual faces of the actors cast to portray them—to make them as realistic as possible and their looks more diverse. “We tailor-made each of the hero zombies to look like exaggerations of their characters.”
Other design concepts were used to conform to Romero’s mode of filmmaking. “George didn’t want to go heavy on digital effects in terms of the zombies. We really want to have the makeup effects feel live,” comments Nicotero.
On the largest filming days, Nicotero and his team were responsible for as many as 100 individualized zombies. Application of intricate latex prosthetics for the leading zombies took two hours to apply. For the larger hordes, actors were outfitted with an array of generic cheeks, vacuform dentures, chins and other facial parts which were then painted by a crew of makeup artists. Masks and wigs were also utilized to vary the looks. The resulting horde of walkers created under the supervision of Nicotero realize a horrific vision of a world gone wrong.
And how did Romero direct his stalking hordes? “You can’t tell zombies how to move. If I did that, then I’d get 100 people moving and groaning in the same way. I basically say, ‘Okay, you’re dead, you’re stiff.’ And I ask them to use their imaginations. Then I end up with some amazing interpretations. Some are a little over the top, but the variety is great for the camera.”
The setting of Land of the Dead is a post-plague world of the near future, when a few enterprising businessmen have created a city in their own image—where the rich live in denial and the rest live in hell. The world outside the city, as much as anyone can guess, is a vast wasteland, studded by a few other “outposts” and populated by the walkers.
“What’s great about George’s stories,” observes producer Goldmann, “is that, like the best science fiction writers, he’s created an intricate and believable mythology that underlines his films. Because of his work, for instance, it’s accepted that the only way to kill a zombie is by destroying the brain. It’s believable because it’s rooted in the real world.”
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