Dead Alive AKA Braindead: Wingnut Films/ Trimark Pictures Rating: USA: Unrated/ USA: R/ UK: 18/ Australia: R
The New York Daily News’ Phantom of the Movies called Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive "the goriest fright film of all time", and I’d be inclined to agree with him. Not since Sam Raimi’ second Evil Dead film has there been a movie that so ingeniously mixes black humor and over–the-top gore. Dead Alive truly is the mother of all gore films.
Timothy Balme is Lionel, a quiet, innocent young man who lives with his widowed mother (Elizabeth Moody: Heavenly Creatures) in a small New Zealand town. He meets Paquita (Diana Penalver), a cute young girl who’s a clerk in her father’s general store, and asks her if she’d like to go to the zoo with him the next day. This doesn’t sit well with Lionel’s mother, who follows our young lovers as they go out on their first date. As she spies on them from a distance, she has the misfortune of running into one of the zoo’s more gruesome inhabitants—the dreaded Sumatran Rat Monkey (which only exists on one island in the whole world, and has allegedly evolved from the forced mating of large ship rats and the island’s native monkey population). The creature bites mom, but it doesn’t kill her—no, it turns her into a flesh eating zombie—one that Lionel doesn’t have the heart to kill.
So, instead of dismembering her, or putting a bullet through her head, Lionel decides to keep her in the basement-—he only problem is, she keeps getting out and infecting more people…which Lionel also ends up keeping in his basement. Finally, after everyone thinks his mother is dead (after being hit by a bus), Lionel’s oafish uncle Les (Ian Watkin) shows up looking for a piece of the inheritance. When he discovers the basement’s grizzly secret, he forces Lionel to sign the entire inheritance over to him—and has a large party at the house—a party that gives new meaning to the phrase "zombie holocaust".
With Dead Alive, Peter Jackson (Bad Taste, Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners) has once again created a film that’s not only disgustingly (in a good way) gory, but also undeniably hilarious. You won’t know whether to laugh or puke at most of the onscreen carnage as zombies chow down on hordes of partygoers and get their just desserts during the film’s 30+ minute climax of wall to wall gore. Jackson’s film has a wicked sense of humor and it fills every aspect of Dead Alive, from sight gags, situational humor, all the way through to the funny dialogue, this film is guaranteed to make you laugh and grimace…often at the same time.
As usual, Jackson’s chosen to populate his film with a wide range of weird and quirky characters. There’s the kung-fu priest (who in the film’s most famous line tells several zombies "I kick ass for the Lord!"), the weird Nazi doctor who sells Lionel the tranquilizers, and the zombies themselves.
Unlike your standard zombie flick, Jackson’s film gives the zombies distinct personalities—which makes the proceedings even more humorous. They’re a gruesome bunch, with pus-filled blisters and weird eyes, but they’re actually pretty tame while Lionel keeps them tranquilized. Two even go as far as mating—producing a baby zombie in the process.
While Dead Alive works, for the most part, there are a few problems—most dealing with the character’s illogical actions and the lack of a definitive set of rules in relation to the zombies. Lionel takes the zombie baby out for a stroll in one outrageously funny sequence, but why? Why would he take this flesh-craving monster out of the basement? Why do some zombies die when they’re dismembered, but others have body parts that keep coming back to life? Of course, it doesn’t really matter…you don’t watch this movie for its realistic action nor do you watch it expecting it to be perfectly logical. I only point these things out because they seem like things that were unnecessary and that could have easily been presented in a way that fit in with the rest of the film.
As already mentioned, Dead Alive is a gory film—quite possibly the goriest film ever made. But, before you let that put you off seeing it, keep in mind that Jackson presents the blood and guts in an almost comic book style. There’s so much blood, so many body parts, flying around in this film (especially at the climax, where Lionel straps on a lawn mower and cuts down hordes of the undead) that it’s impossible to take it too seriously. Dead Alive isn’t a horror film, it’s a gore comedy.
Richard Taylor provided the film’s creature and gore FX, and they’re spectacular. From the amusingly gruesome zombies all the way through to the hideous mother monster at the film’s climax, Dead Alive is a primer on the art of old fashioned gruesome FX work. There are loads of laytex, claymation, puppets, and good old fake blood in this film, and none of that fake looking CGI that Hollywood filmmakers have come to rely on so heavily. If gore’s your bag, this film has it all—decapitations, an intestine monster, severed limbs by the hundreds, suppurating bite wounds, impalements, and more.
Dead Alive has been released in two version in the US—a butchered 84 minute R rated cut that skimps on most of the major gore and makes no sense as a result, as well as a 97 minute unrated cut available on video and DVD. By all means, find the unrated version. But, before you get too smug thinking you’ve seen it all, keep in mind that the film was originally released under the title Braindead (a much better title, too), and has a running time of 101 minutes…so, even though the US version is unrated, it’s not uncut.
If you’re a fan of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films or any of the movies that have combined horror and comedy over the last few years, then Dead Alive is a title that you should seek out immediately. While it’s not quite as funny as Evil Dead 2 (it’s hard to outdo Bruce Campbell), it’s an outrageous, extremely gross little film--one that earns high marks from me.
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