Zombies and monkeys and gore...oh my!
Peter Jackson will always be remembered as the
Oscar-winning director of "Lord of the Rings."
Whether the masses will ever know of his career
before those films is uncertain, but if they do,
he will certainly be looked on in a different
light.
With that said, "Dead Alive" (for that is the
American version while "Braindead" is the New
Zealand version, and I will refer to it as such
for the rest of this critique), is the most
disgusting, most twisted, sickest, and overall
strangest film I have ever seen. It has zombies,
decapitations, slap stick comedy, kung-fu
fighting priests ("I kick ass for the Lord!"),
scheming relatives, stop-motion animated
monkeys, intestines with a life of their own,
romance, superstition, great music, and so much
more. It crosses the line at the end (and I mean
the very end), but up to that point, it's
gruesome fun.
The story centers around Lionel (Timothy Balme),
a nice guy who strikes me as a cross between
Norman Bates and Ash from "Evil Dead." He live
with his controlling and vicious mother, who
forces him to do her bidding and won't let him
pursue a blossoming romance with Paquita, a nice
girl who works at the grocery. One day, on a
trip to the zoo, Lionel's mother is bitten by
the mysterious Spider Monkey from Skull Island
(a nice little King Kong reference there). At
first she is then sick, then her wound starts to
squirt pink goo, then she tries to eat everyone.
Yep, she has turned into a zombie. The film then
follows Lionel as he desperately tries to keep
her under control...and what happens when more
and more people are infected.
The reason "Dead Alive" isn't morbidly bad is
quite simply because of the tone. If this had
been made as a serious film, this would be an
"F" review. But since the film is so cartoonish,
so over the top, it's impossible to take it
seriously.
BEGIN MAJOR SPOILERS (Scroll down to skip)
After all, how can one take a man strapping a
lawnmower to his chest and running into a crowd
of zombies seriously?
Yep a lawnmower. It's a famous about scene, and
it's truly bizarre, but strangely funny. No one,
though, talks about the final zombie showdown of
the film, where Lionel fights his mother. This
scene steps over the line. It's a disgusting
scene in every imaginable aspect, and even with
the spoiler warning, I won't talk about it
because I want to forget that scene as soon as
possible.
END MAJOR SPOILERS
"Dead Alive" is a worthy watch for horror fans,
as well as dark comedy fans. If you can stomach
it, then go for it. If you have something
against gore for the sake of comedy, skip it.
If you plan to see this based solely off of
"Lord of the Rings," you're in for a shock.
©
Written by Jacob Hall
TC Candler's Comment
n/a
Richard
Propes' Comment
Is it just
a little odd that this is one of my favorite
Peter Jackson films? Ah, remember the days
before he got CGI obsessed and bogged down with
all that extra cash he could spend on a film.
This is real, old-fashioned horror filmmaking.
It's horrifying, gory and fun. It's everything
Peter Jackson no longer is.
