If there’s a film genre that has its own little following, it’s the zombie movies. From “Night of the Living Dead” to “Evil Dead 2”, the zombie movies are always considered a guilty pleasure for some while hardcore fans can figure what makes a zombie film good or bad. In the past decade, there hasn’t been a lot of zombie movies until recently when a small British indie film called "28 Days Later” arrived and became a sleeper hit in the U.S. box office and thus reviving the zombie movie genre. With zombies making a comeback, there was another old zombie film that stood out and it came from the most unlikely of filmmakers, the filmmaker was Peter Jackson and his film was 1992’s “Dead Alive”.

Before he gained worldwide recognition as the director for the “Lord of the Ring” trilogy, Peter Jackson was an acclaimed New Zealand director who scored a cult following with “Meet the Feebles” and “Bad Taste”. “Dead Alive” is a zombie film with everything to expect in a zombie film with cheesy storylines, not-so-spectacular special effects, and loads and loads of blood and gore. What makes “Dead Alive” stand out as an excellent zombie film is Peter Jackson’s quirky vision and his hilarious but disturbing script that he co-wrote with Stephen Sinclair and Frances Walsh. Set in 1950s New Zealand, Peter Jackson brings out a zombie film that will freak out some moviegoers while bringing some laughs to the more intelligent zombie film fan.

The film begins with two bounty hunters capturing a strange monkey rat from an island of natives in New Zealand where one of the hunters was bitten by the rat. One of the hunters and companion were forced to kill him in a very gruesome way by cutting his arms and stuff (with cheesy effects) and the rat is taken to a zoo in the country. The film then leads to a young, village lad named Lionel (Timothy Balme) who is kind of a loser in the town but he falls for a Spanish immigrant working at a shop named Paquita (Diana Penalver). He gets the courage to go out with her but his strict mother Vera (Elizabeth Moody) doesn’t approve. He ends up taking Paquita to the zoo while Vera quietly follows them to see what’s going on. Lionel and Paquita see a horde of monkeys but the rat monkey punches one of them. The rat monkey then focused on Vera who she bites but she fights back and kills the little sucker.

Unfortunately for Vera, the rat gives her a bad infection and she starts to have some sort of zombie-like stuff. This gives Lionel some trouble with Paquita and his greedy uncle Les (Ian Watkins) who wants money from Vera. Vera dies but with some zombie-like problems as she bites a nurse who becomes a zombie herself. Lionel ends up burying his mum but decides to get her body out one night but a drunken hooligan (Duncan Smith) decides to vandalize the gravesite but gets a bad dose of motherly protection from the zombie Vera. Then, the hooligan and one of his mates become zombies where they’re forced to fight a kung-fu priest named McGruder (Stuart Devenie) who belts out this great line, “I kick *rse for the lord”. He gets into a cheesy fight with the zombie but loses and ends up becoming one along with one. Poor Lionel is forced to take care of his zombie mum, the priest, nurse, and the drunken hooligan as zombies.

His uncle Les visits and poor Lionel is trying to hide things as the priest ends up having sex with the nurse where she gave birth to a baby zombie. Lionel seeks the help of Paquita and her grandmother (Davina Whitehouse) who gives Lionel a necklace to protect him from zombies. Once he learned that a baby zombie was born, he tries to take care of it but it leads to a disturbing but hilarious scene in a children’s park where he thought his troubles couldn’t get any worse. Unfortunately, his uncle Les decides to throw a party at his home since it’s part of his inheritance from his dead sister. Paquita learns that Lionel his hiding zombies in his basement and she helps bury them. Les however, decides to lock Lionel in the basement to keep him from stopping the party while Paquita fights Les but something goes wrong. Lionel, who used tranquilizers to stop the zombies accidentally gives them poison which makes them stronger and all hell breaks loose.

This leads to an all-out zombie-fest where many party goers become zombies and it’s up to Paquita and Lionel to fight the zombies as he learned the truth about his father’s death. It was time for Lionel to fight all the zombies in one of the most bloodiest, goriest scenes of the movie that is completely over the top.

What makes “Dead Alive” an excellent zombie film is Peter Jackson’s strange vision and approach towards a zombie film. While at times it’s disturbing and extremely violent, he adds black humor to the film while making it entertaining for fans of horror and zombie films. The performances of the actors in the movie are often over the top or just plain sweet as they all either become zombies or fight zombies to the death. The special effects in the film are a bit cheesy but for a low-budget New Zealand film, they’re downright hilarious.

“Dead Alive” is an excellent, hilarious zombie film that is completely over-the-top from the strange vision of Peter Jackson. Recently, “Dead Alive” made a list of cult films that didn’t make the top 50 list of greatest cult movies of all-time by Entertainment Weekly due to the fact that they had already one too many zombie films in the list. It’s still very strange that “Dead Alive” is from the guy who is probably making what some will call the greatest film trilogy ever with “The Lord of the Rings”. Fans of those movies might want to check out “Dead Alive” along with his earlier films and “Heavenly Creatures” with Kate Winslet. For a fun gore-fest with cheesy effects and over-the-top violence, “Dead Alive” is the film for you.

Related Reviews:

LOTR-The Fellowship of the Ring (2001):

http://www.epinions.com/content_107586031236

LOTR-The Two Towers (2002):

http://www.epinions.com/content_113854811780

LOTR-The Return of the King (2003):

http://www.epinions.com/content_122758205060


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age