User Reviews

Who would have imagined that in 1992 a film director of mainly cult movies would grow to the immense stature that he has today? I certainly didn't, but this is exactly the case with Peter Jackson, who then brought this extremely bizarre comedy-horror splatter-fest called BRAINDEAD, also known as DEAD-ALIVE, and between 1999 and 2003 cemented his status with the ubiquitous, monumental LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY.

A simple premise that had by then done numerous times -- flesh-eating zombies wreck havoc among the living -- is taken not only to the ultimate extreme: here it just makes going over the top seem like a weak cliché. It completely jumps straight over a cliff and never bothers to return to any sense of normalcy. That this story of zombies gone amok has been dressed with an interesting Freudian spin -- over possessive mother tries to control her son's every move even after (un)dead, quite like PSYCHO -- only makes the hero's evolution from Mama's boy to unlikely survivor ever the stronger and gives the completely lurid tale some grounding even after it explodes left and right, literally, in pieces of flesh and still moving body parts.

DEAD ALIVE has a lot to owe to EVIL DEAD 2: DEAD BY DAWN with its gleeful amounts of gore and truly slapstick scenes of crazy body parts, but it out-does it by the sheer volume of gore and blood that comes forth once the real madness begins. The fact that the aforementioned body parts have a will of their own makes for one rip-roaring sight gag after another in frenetic shots -- for example, one character's body snaps in two; his lower torso continues to amble about, his inner organs come ripped apart from his body and even take a peek at a mirror to see how they look, while the owner's upper torso gets partially flushed down a toilet. As a matter of fact, that same character's intestines take up quite a lot of screen time towards the climax as they chase the apparently hapless Timothy Balme around the house as his girlfriend, battling zombies in the kitchen, uses a blender to grind a hand that simultaneously tries to pull her in and all the while a baby zombie is becomes something of a tennis ball, bouncing about while creating yes, even more havoc. That is, until Balme goes berserk with a lawnmower and makes puree out of the entire lot of them. All this shows to what extremes the notion of the exaggeration of horror could be taken: the more blood and outrageousness, the less horrifying it becomes, and here, once it starts, it never lets up until its side-splitting finale.

Definitely not for all tastes but for people who like their horror with a nice dose of Tex Avery lunacy, comedy as black as night and tanks of the red stuff -- this is horror comedy par excellence.

A classic. At least in the splatter / slapstick community.

First of all, I'd like to point out that, for me, most of the silly scenes didn't age that well. Like most horror-comedies from that era, the humor seems outdated and often dumb or even cringe-worthy (e.g. the mumbling grandma in the dinner scene, or the "zombie baby - playground scene").

BUT, that's not what I've watched the movie for. Primarily, I wanted to experience a gore fest and that is exactly what I got.

I think, no one did it better than Peter Jackson when it comes to gore FXs and makeup. This movie is just so over the top and hard to overtrump that it definitely is a must see if you are looking for a blood feast.

So, even though I didn't quite like most of the non-gory scenes, the last third of the movie totally made it up for me.

Peter Jackson's huge cult success has gone down in history as the "goriest film ever made". With five gallons of blood being pumped a second for the splatterific climax, this film does what SHAUN OF THE DEAD did years and years later: it made zombies funny. Shot on a low budget, probably about a millionth of what he had available to him when he made LORD OF THE RINGS, Peter Jackson's BRAINDEAD is a huge cult success that stands repeat viewing just thanks to the sheer humour and originality of the production. Intricate attention to detail has always been one of the director's best aspects and it's just as present here as it was when he became a multi-million pound director all those years later. But in many ways, BRAINDEAD's quirkiness makes it stand out as still one of the best of the director's career, coming just after his Middle Earth trilogy for me.

The first hour of the film is an inventive, low budget laugh riot. It mixes together a sweet boy-meets-girl romance with zombies, and the result is clearly uneven but even so it works. The Kiwi angle breathes fresh life into the genre and Jackson explores the zombie mythos in many original ways; forget mundane flesh-munching, these zombies have feelings, have sex, have much more fun than a typical brain-dead gut-muncher you'll find in an Italian gore flick. The acting is over the top throughout, adding to the film's deranged turn. Timothy Balme deserves huge kudos for his character's convincing transformation from lovable geek to macho hero, and Diana Penalver is equally good as his feisty Spanish girlfriend. Yet the cast is also fleshed out with other great turns from the Australian and Kiwi supporting cast. Elizabeth Moody's domineering mother is the obvious stand-out, but for my money the flesh-creeping Ian Watkin is just as good as the slimy Uncle Les. Yet the best turn for me is the guy playing the mod-turned-zombie, who really gives the performance his all. Even though he's stuck with half a body for much of his screen time, he's a real hoot in what is a physically exhausting turn.

Anyhow, the first hour is pretty good, full of gross-out comedy – the custard-eating scene is the notable bit – and bizarre cameos from a range of odd characters. It's also full of gore and prosthetic effects, from the embalming-machine-gone-wrong set-piece – try holding down your lunch when you watch that one – to the rapidly rotting mother and the stand-out fight scene in the graveyard between a kung fu priest and a horde of the undead. So far, so good, but nothing I would ever have watched again. The zombies never number more than half a dozen and the limitations of the budget are obvious; for instance, much is made of a silly zombie baby including a padded-out interlude in a children's park in which Jackson seems to be going too far to make the audience cringe with his bad taste and violence. At around the hour mark, a house party takes place which is soon besieged by the undead – and then things start getting REALLY gory!

The party scene lasts until the movie's climax, which also throws in a giant monster a la KING KONG for some fun and games. It's around forty minutes of classic film-making, as our partygoers attempt to defend themselves against a growing army of the undead. It's here that Jackson's inventiveness really comes to the fore, with a series of outlandish deaths and zombie hijinks, each one crazier than the last! Lightbulbs go through heads, hands exit from mouths and internal organs are soon popping all over the place as the screen becomes awash with blood. Here's where all the money went, and it really shows; in fact, the half-an-hour full-scale zombie attack is one of my favourite moments of cinema and enough to guarantee this whole film a five-star rating. The special effects, all prosthetic, are wonderfully good and Jackson never skimps on his imagination for a second. We get flying severed heads, evil intestines and more splatter than you've ever seen in your life. Then comes the one definitive moment that put this film in the history books for good – the infamous lawnmower climax. This sees Lionel finally deciding to fight back, employing a petrol lawnmower in his fight against the ravenous zombies – with extraordinary, eye-poppingly gory results. It's all done humorously, with just the right overdone music and bulging-eyed acting, and thankfully it seems to go on forever; no blink-and-you'll-miss-it stuff going on here, it's all focused lovingly up on screen. A superb ending which makes the film and the first hour worth sitting through, I can't praise it enough. See for yourself!