Dead Alive (1992)

'Braindead' as the name suggests, is a zombie film. But wait! This doesn't make it like any other zombie film. In fact this is the powerhouse of a splatter! As a gatekeeper of the cinema hall, I request all the haters of gore go home and welcome all those who love the twisted tale of splatter and walking innards that set history in the world of splatter. People had seen gore before 'Braindead' was released, but what sets this one apart from the other gore films is that 'Braindead' falls into the 'comedy horror' genre. Since it's no disturbing stuff, the lovers of splatter may revel this twisted tale for years together.

The film begins with the scene of Skull Island, where we come across a New Zealand zoo-officer (Bill Ralston) who has dared catch a Sumatran Monkey with the help of local guides and poachers. The spear-wielding tribal inhabitants show unwelcoming attitude towards the intruders and follow them. Fortunately they happen to take the monkey along, but the zoo-officer gets bitten. The poachers lose no time in decapitating and beheading the helpless zoo-officer for his sole good, for they fear that the monkey's bite would transform him into something bizarre! The monkey reaches Wellington and is kept in a zoo.

Cut to Wellington, we meet a young man Lionel Cosgrove (Timothy Balme), who lives with his over-possessive, domineering, and snobbish mother Vera (Elizabeth Moody). Vera loves making Lionel work for hours together and keeps him engaged in several odd jobs. It so happens that Lionel begins his first affair with a dashing Spanish belle Paquita (Diana Peñalver) and the two decide to visit a local zoo. Vera is suspicious about Lionel's objectives and follows them. Unfortunately, Vera gets bitten by the same Sumatran Monkey and Lionel somehow brings her home.

Vera objects to this relationship calling Lionel irresponsible and unapologetic. The next day the bite begins showing its effect and Vera dies. Moments later we see Vera's corpse animating back to life, but this time she has become more like a rotting corpse or more precisely a zombie. Lionel somehow believes that his mother could be cured and does everything to keep her alive. The townspeople believe that Vera has died and gather at her funeral. That night Lionel visits her grave and exhumes Vera's corpse. He is hampered by a pack of hooligans who think he is a body snatcher and beat him mercilessly. Vera's corpse comes out of the grave and infects the hooligans and a priest Father McGruder (Stuart Devenie). In order to hide his mother's tale, Lionel has to make arrangements for all the zombies at the basement of his palatial house, he has inherited from his family. But his uncle Les (Ian Watkin) has his own plans about this inheritance. How Paquita and Lionel try to reunite against all the odds and fight away a pack of several hundred zombies forms the crux of the story.

'Braindead' is a perfect splatter entertainer in all sense. The film captures some of the more bizarre and disgorging images that may leave the viewers in discomfort. I think they spent most of the budget on fake blood because gore and splatter are the ingredients that set the viewers' mood. Also, it has some of the wittiest dialogs I've ever enjoyed listening to. I remember I liked Tom Holland's 'Fright Night' for its witty dialogs and its credibility as a next door tale. 'Braindead' too is close to any other credible next door tale, except that Lionel's house is

Fmovies: Quite possibly the best horror movie of all time, Dead Alive (the unrated version)is bar none the epitome for zombie violence. Peter Jackson is the man when it comes to making any type of movie, low budget-high budget, whatever. There are so many spectacularly creative deaths in this movie, and scenes of pure blood splatter, that no other horror movie will inflict a severe gross out effect on you again. I'm serious too, I saw this movie in '94, and I've still yet to see anything this awesome. I've heard there are some pretty cool Japanese movies like "Lai Wong", and "Versus" was really good, though not as gross as "DA". Of course, if you really need to see something off the charts, watch "Urotsukidoji". It doesn't matter which one, I'm sure they're all nuts. Back to Dead Alive, at first the movie is really iffy, though the gore is still present, but then it just starts to roll. Greating acting by Timothy Balme as well! Just watch it, and love it! Just make sure you're a horror fan.

Peter Jackson's gore-fest "Dead Alive" - AKA Braindead- is a very funny, very bloody film. The story is pretty simple, but includes some ingenious plot elements - such as a budding romance between two very likable characters (Balme and Penalver), a psychologically distressing relationship between Balme and his mother and well scripted dialog.

Balme plays Lionel - a troubled, more or less housebound young man who has been forced to spend most of his time taking care of a domineering and psychologically damaging elderly mother. Penalver plays Paquita - his romantic destiny. Paquita is a charming young woman for whom English is (perhaps) a second language. Soon after they meet, Paquita notices some odd quirks in Lionel's behavior, and slowly begins to realize that there is something besides the usual male fear of commitment. Perhaps Lionel's cannibalistic zombie mother is to blame? Soon enough Balme is babysitting a whole family of living dead who he has to constantly inject with animal tranquilizers, and trying to fend off a despicable uncle who is trying to muscle in on his inheritance. Then the fun really starts. It's the Dead Alive Series with extra gore, infused with brilliant slapstick and just a pinch of Monty Python.

Balme is amazing! - an excellent physical actor with great slapstick pacing and manic anxiety. And Penalver is delightfully pretty and sincere yet gives a nice campy performance. Dead Alive is one of the films in which Jackson began to blend detailed ecstatic and fantastic elements into his plots and cinematography - later culminating in the disturbing Heavenly Creatures and the spectacular LOTR trilogy. In Dead Alive, he finds his formula and makes it work without a tremendous budget. The film is well shot and grotesque, but remarkably amusing.

Dead Alive fmovies. 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

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 killerÂ…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.

DEAD ALIVE (1993) ***1/2 New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson made his mark in horror cinema (and for himself as a talent to be reckoned with) in this incredibly gory, funny and altogether sickfest zombie flick about a young man's shrew mother getting bit by a Sumatran Rat Monkey rabid with a truly nasty disease that turns her (and all that she infects with a bite) into a crazed/ravenous thing that can't be stopped in its rapacious wake of terror. The scattershot breakneck pace makes fellow monster maven Sam Raimi look like Busby Berkeley! Classic cult film that will have you laughing at the putridness of it all. Look for Jackson's homage to "King Kong" with Skull Island reference at film's precredit sequence.