He runs the shopping mall complex Fiddler's Green housing the surviving humans Mad Max-style from a penthouse high above the city.

Below him the rabble eke out a tough life and making the occasional foray in Dead Reckoning - a custom-built transporter - half lorry, half tank - to grab supplies.

Outside the barbed wire and tank-traps, the undead wander the countryside remorselessly seeking out the living for a spot of lunch.

Romero's first zombie outing - 1968's no-budget Night of the Living Dead - was a massive cult hit, spawning the sequels Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead.

Since then the zombie theme has been taken up with non-Romero sequels and remakes of his original...but none managed the clever combination of wry social comment and all-out gore.

This retreads ground covered already, delivering a broadside at the capitalist, consumer system but no longer seems quite so revolutionary.

However, there's some nice, wry dialogue and the up-to-the-minute special effects ensure the shock factor - zombies feasting on steaming piles of intestines - is just as effective.

Fans of the genre won't be disappointed - it's worth the admission price alone for the sight of undead hordes emerging from the river that once formed a barrier to them.

Tim Evans