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All who follow George A. Romero owe their success to the godfather of
zombie horror, who has returned from whatever park he’s been sleeping in for
the past 20 years to release “Land of the Dead.” It’s packed with the same
over-the-top gore and social satire that made his earlier films cult classics,
and the fright master still teaches his disciples some new tricks.

Romero is the Brian Wilson of horror, and those who followed his story
realize the mere release of this film is a triumph of human spirit. The
director invented the genre with his ultra-low-budget 1968 black-and-white
film “Night of the Living Dead” and then perfected it with the original “Dawn
of the Dead” in 1978. But his third movie in the series, “Day of the Dead,”
was a bust. After a couple more non-zombie horror films failed between 1988
and 1993, the director couldn’t find a major studio to let him in the door,
and his quest to create a fourth “Dead” film suffered setback after setback –

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with the disappointments playing out on Internet fan sites to the point of
embarrassment.

It was only after the box office success of “28 Days Later,” “Shaun of
the Dead” and the “Dawn” remake — all zombie films made by Romero fans —
that Universal decided to give the 65-year-old a $17 million budget, and this
week Romero releases his first new zombie movie since 1985.

“Land of the Dead” is worth the wait, and dispels any fanboy concerns
that the director was gone because he lost his mojo. Romero appears to have
spent the past two decades doing nothing but thinking up crazy stuff for the
fourth film in the series. The problems with the movie are limited to budget
constraints and the incredible amounts of gratuitous carnage — which will
turn off 70 percent of the filmgoing public no matter how clever the writing.
(Before you see this film, take the following test: Imagine the guy sitting
next to you on BART snacking loudly on the severed leg of the old lady sitting
across the aisle. Still want to go?)

“Land of the Dead” begins a decade or two after the events of the last
two movies, with almost every human on the planet bitten by a zombie and
turned into a lumbering homicidal corpse. “When there’s no more room in Hell,”
the “Dawn of the Dead” poster explains, “the dead will walk the Earth … .”

Romero is fascinated with the alternate reality he created, and thinks up
logical answers to questions about his zombie world. What would the zombies do
after most of the humans are killed? They would return to their old lives,
staggering back to the filling stations where they worked and even getting the
band back together. Which city would survive, and how would the humans forage
for food and medicine? Pittsburgh, of course (the downtown is bordered by
rivers), and the humans figure out that shooting fireworks in the air
distracts the zombies enough for the living to walk around unnoticed.

After “Land” takes its time establishing Romero’s brave new world, the
conflict is set up, with the slowly evolving zombies remembering how to use
tools and the slum-dwelling leaders of the supply-collection team (Simon Baker
and John Leguizamo as humans) clashing with the nattily dressed inhabitants of
the city’s biggest skyscraper.

Yes, among all the flying body parts and rotting bad guys feasting on
steaming intestines, there’s a message here: While Romero used the shopping
mall in “Dawn” to satire materialism in the 1980s, Romero lets the walking
dead illustrate post-Sept. 11 paranoia, and the expanding gap between the
working class and the rich. The third act begins in the unfinished worksite
of an upper-class housing development.

The visuals don’t disappoint — “The Evil Dead II” makeup pro Greg
Nicotero provides the decomposing flesh. Romero’s dialogue is as sharp as ever.
The best lines are saved for the post-apocalyptic Donald Trump figure played
by Dennis Hopper, who hasn’t had this much fun since he was rigging commuter
buses with explosives in “Speed.”

Leguizamo is also funny, but it’s hard not to notice that the most
memorable actors in the movie are zombies (expect big things in the future
from Ross Sferrazza, who plays “Dead Trombone Player”). And although it’s
clear early in the film that “Land of the Dead” doesn’t have quite enough
extras to fuel the director’s vision of a world overrun by the dead, the final
20 minutes fall apart, mostly consisting of one big buildup without a worthy
payoff.

But don’t let the fact that this movie cost about one-tenth of “Batman
Begins” affect your judgments. The master is back, and there’s no shortage of
exploding brain matter — or fun — to be had in the theaters this weekend.

– Advisory: This film contains massive amounts of violence, nearly
unprecedented amounts of gore and a little profanity and nudity thrown in just
for the heck of it. Seriously, if you’re squeamish, don’t see it.

E-mail Peter Hartlaub at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com.