Dead Alive (Braindead)

Film: Dead-Alive (aka BrainDead)
Genre: Horror/Comedy
Director: Peter Jackson
Year: 1992
Starring: Timothy Balme & Diana Peñalver






This movie has it all: gore, a stop-motion Sumerian rat-monkey, gore, a Nazi taxidermist, a kung-fu fighting priest, and did I mention gore? This is one of Peter Jackson's earlier films, before he became known worldwide for his adaptation of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Oh, boy is it ever so much fun.

The story is about a young Wellington man named Lionel Cosgrove, who is under the thumb of his over-being mother, who makes sure he only looks after her, and doesn't have a life of his own. While spying on her son on a date at the zoo, his mother is bitten by a Sumerian rat monkey, leading to her zombie like transformation.
Eventually the infection spreads to others, instead of disposing of the zombies Lionel instead does his best to recondition them for normal society by injecting them with tranquilizers to keep them calm, and having them sit around a dinner table eating custard. But this ends up being futile, and eventually Lionel's uncle comes and throws a party at the house, which leads to one of the goriest fight scenes in the history of film.

The film is full of incredible visual effects, which remind one of horror films of the eighties (Evil Dead 2, Poltergeist) where what you saw on screen was a practical effect, as opposed to CGI. If you don't have a strong stomach for blood and guts, then this isn't the movie for you. Throughout the movie (primarily the third act) you are treated to a smorgasbord of blood and internal organs. The zombie effects and make-up is in a simmlar vein to Sam Rami's Evil Dead trilogy, and harkens back to Romero's earlier Living Dead films. If you are like me, then you are unhappy with today's over use of CGI, as it all looks far to clean, and beacuse of that it just seems too fake. So, this movie will feed your hunger for buckets of Kayo syrup, and red food coloring.

Memorable moments:
• When Lionel's mother is killing the Sumerian rat-monkey after being bitten, a man has a quick look of disgust, then snaps a photo.

• At one point Lionel has to deal with a baby zombie; instead of keeping it locked away in the house, he takes it to the park and watches the mothers caring for their children, in an attempt to try and nurture the child himself. But, to no avail, and he eventually has to start fighting with the undead child in the park, punching it in the face, and slamming it against a swing set. While this is happening fellow Wellingtonians just watch with slight concern.


• This:



Overall this a fun gross-out movie that doesn't pull any punches. It doesn't take itself seriously at all, giving it far more credit than the majority of horror films made today. If you can take the silly violence, I highly recommend it.