Dead-Alive

source: Dead-Alive

Braindead

I think it's called the sweet spot, that place when everything comes together at the right moment: the build up has been great, the levels on all the gauges are optimised, you have all the ingredients, the recipe for success has been perfected and then you unleash the beast, and what a butcher of a beast you unleash! If you dig too deep for the secrets or contrast it with today you'll end up burying yourself however, do be mindful and in awe of the immense crafts these artisans had developed in the early 90s and, above all, revel in the way those talents were recombined to produce a true work of ground breaking genius that will keep those fascinated by such majesty capitated, bowled and limbed for as long as is inhumanly possible.

Lionel Cosgrove is a good guy having a tough time with things. Ever since his father died saving him during a swimming accident Lionel has been taking care of his mother. But unfortunately his mother must have come from the same parenting class as Norman Bates' mother since she is as manipulative and smothering. But things seem to be on the up and up for him when he starts a romance with a local shop owner's daughter. But a date to the zoo takes a turn for the worse when Lionel's overprotective mum follows him and manages to get bitten by a "rat monkey", a particularly nasty creature whose bite is killer…literally. The bite turns his mum into a zombie and each one she bites turns as well. Pretty soon poor Lionel is living in the house of the dead and fighting off a lecherous uncle scheming to grab the estate. Peter Jackson (of Lord of the Rings fame) once again proves he is more than able to give us the gory goods and make us laugh the entire time. This insanely entertaining flick has buckets and buckets of blood and gore, probably one of the (if not THE) bloodiest around. For a film with a miniscule budget (approximately $3 million) he makes every penny count and turns out a very nice looking film. The comedy is pure slapstick and at times dark as pitch. The actors attack their various roles with a solid energy that gives the film a maniac pace. "Brain Dead" (aka "Dead Alive") is the best splatter comedy money can buy.

Back in the very first couple of years of IMDb's existence, there were some God-awful films that made their way into the Top 250 List. This is one of the more extreme examples. The DVD cover for the movie states that it's 'the goriest fright film of all time'. Since I'm not a fan of this stuff, that statement could very well be true as I haven't seen much to judge it by. The only thing I know is that if the film makers had a goal of making the most disgusting film possible ever, they probably achieved their life's ambition here. The gross-out factor of the picture is way off the Richter scale, and gets my vote for the worst movie in history that should never have been made. Now I know there's an audience for stuff like this and to their credit, director Peter Jackson and writer Stephen Sinclair did a commendable job in creating an over the top gore-fest that looks like it was meant to be more of a horror spoof than anything else. I mean really, you've got a goofy looking Sumatran rat monkey, a kung fu priest, a werewolf/zombie effect that transforms it's victims into the walking dead, and a lawnmower scene that's not to be believed. For some reason there were repeated scenes of the film's hero (hero?) administering the old 'hypo up the nose trick' with some kind of serum developed by a Nazi doctor. When the love interest Paquita (Diana Peñalver) had her fill of all the nonsense going on, she just joined right in to deliver more buckets of blood with the rest of them. If you've got a queasy stomach there are any number of scenes that will send you to the porcelain goddess, and you better be quick about it. I was actually surprised to learn that Peter Jackson helmed this picture, but when the opening scene described the setting of Skull Island off the coast of Sumatra, it all made sense. Jackson would return to Skull Island in 2005 to take a crack at the rat monkey's cousin. Safe to say, "King Kong" wasn't nearly as bloody.

I heard a lot about Dead Alive or "Braindead" from IMDb and one of my friends at work. So I rented it without delay, not to mention I mean Peter Jackson?! With his directing skills this movie was aimed and ready for entertainment on my list. My mom grabbed the movie first and watched and she asked me "Where did you hear about this movie? The mental institution?" I laughed and was thinking maybe she didn't get it. She didn't get Evil Dead, how can she get another cult classic? Now my problem was, comedy and horror, two genres that can work very well together, but can make a disaster of a film unless used correctly. What was Peter making? I didn't know if it was a comedy or a horror flick, was I supposed to be scared or laughing my head off? The make up and acting were horrible even for a horror movie. I cannot believe that Peter made the great Lord of the Ring trilogy after this, because this movie was just trash. 3/10

Braindead was the first really gory splattermovie I saw, and I have seen plenty since then, but Braindead is still the best zombie/comedy-movie I`ve ever seen. All the actors are terrible but that is precisely what makes this movie so cool. It is the king of the cult-movie. What really makes this movie a must is all the zombies and the extremely ultraviolent way they are slaughtered. As you may understand by now, you need to have a sick sense of humour to watch this film. Peter Jackson rules! 10/10

This is by far the best horror film I have ever seen in my life. This movie has everything - a horrifying rat monkey, a baby zombie, zombies having sex, gratuitous violence, extreme gore, a super fighting ninja priest, an evil annoying mom that turns into a zombie, a womanizing relative that is a pathetic loser, an old psychic that predicts the future, and lastly someone who takes care of them all. Oh, I can't forget to mention an inspirational scene with a lawnmower too. Overall I give this cinematic masterpiece the highest review, me throwing up in the bathroom afterwards from absolute disgust.

This amazingly bloody and hilariously funny gore comedy from Peter Jackson("Bad Taste","Lord of the Rings:Trilogy")is one of the most amazing films I have ever seen.There's a great bit with Timothy Balme walking a hyperactive zombie baby in the park,a kung fu priest,a grotesque finale involving gallons of blood and gore,death by lawnmower,and pus in the pudding at dinner.The gore effects are really funny and gross,but not disturbing(for disturbing gore check out for example "Maniac"(1980)or "Nightmare"(1981)).If you think that "Braindead" is the goriest film ever made you're wrong.There are some movies that easily top it like Heiko Fipper's "Koma Brutale"(1998),Leif Jonker's "Darkness"(1993)and Olaf Ittenbach's "Premutos-The Fallen Angel"(1997).OK,enough said-this splatter classic is not to be missed.

And that's probably one of the least offensive lines. Braindead is a spoof of zombie/slasher thrillers, with a bit of Hitchcock thrown in. The fact that most of these movies were tongue-in-cheek in the first place means that the film's makers were probably out more for derision of their source material, rather than affectionate homage. Yet the only real agenda Braindead has is to shock and repulse with bad-taste humour. This is fine in itself, bad taste can be very amusing, and the high rating this movie gets means a lot of people did find it very funny. So maybe it's just me. I must admit, I'm not a fan of Antipodean "humour", an oxymoron if ever there was one. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was a good effort, but other movies, such as the OTT Strictly Ballroom, or sitcoms, such as the abysmal Let The Blood Run Free, leave me cold. They always seem to miss their targets in a volley of ham acting and overstated camp. Braindead continues this great tradition; any level of wit eked out of it by going too far. How far is too far? Well, certainly, a film going right to the limits of what is considered good taste can be a lucrative endeavour - as the recent run of gross-out movies from Hollywood have proven. So if your idea of a good joke is seeing a mutant baby held in place via a nail through it's umbilical cord, or a character who exclaims "some of my best friends are paedophiles" then you'll have what is known in the dumbo trade as a "laugh riot". Timothy Balme is quite effective as the lead, Lionel Cosgrove, and Diana Peñalver does well as his love interest. Ian Watkin is excruciatingly unfunny as Uncle Les, and the only genuinely funny actor is Tony Hiles as the all-too-brief monkey blood-dripping zookeeper. A karate-kicking vicar ("I kick ass for the Lord!") perfectly illustrates how gratingly misjudged and unsophisticated the humour is. Surprisingly, given the pace and subject matter, the film is also quite tedious. On the positive side (and there's little!) the production and design is well done, the only inspired scene - yes, the lawnmower - being particularly well put-together. Though this scene is perhaps unfairly cited as the goriest of the movie, whereas all the scenes involving the eating of custard are more likely to make you queasy. However, fans of Lord of the Rings may panic when it's revealed that the man behind all this is also the scheduled writer/director for that particular trilogy. Please don't be fooled with arguments that this horror film "subverts the basic laws of the genre" or that it's a "Freudian critique". Arguments like that crop up all the time to justify bad movies. If this is your idea of humour, then good luck to you. Personally I found it absolutely abysmal.