Braindead (1992)

The Film: Dead AliveYear Made: 1993Overview: A man keeps watch over his dominating mother who wants her son's complete attention. When Lionel (her son) meets his love of his life, mother is not happy for him. Things great really ugly after mother is bit by the Sumatran Rat Monkey! Mother begins to get ill and lose more than just her temper, dinner will never be the same again!The Package: 2 Stars. The cover is ok, but I thought it should have been a bit more gory much like the film itself. The inside has no inlay at all, the disc itself is very easy to pop out and holds itself in the holder which is great. The disc is pretty plain though with only a white look to it, no zombies or anything spooky or gory on the disc graphics. Included is the trailer for the film which is great, not much else to say for the package though, thought it could be better.Spook Meter: 2 Stars. Dead alive is not very spooky at all. There are a few parts that will make you jump a little, but overall it's not super spooky. Ok, now it's time to highlight why this film is still a 5 star film. Gory, funny, violent, cheesy acting that is beyond words is what makes this extremely unique and oh so fun to watch. Dead alive will not keep you awake for the night in fear, it's not that kind of film. It will however give you a huge smile and think to yourself at the end of it `this was one of the best moments in horror for a film of its kind that I just seen' I loved the pace of how everything built up. I won't give much away; I never like to do that in my reviews. It starts out kind of tame and builds to a knock your socks off horror event that must be seen to be believed. Another extreme strong point is the sounds of the zombies. In some films the demons or zombies just don't sound that great. Here we get some really excellent sounds. When one zombie's head gets chopped nearly off, the gargle ling sounds that it makes is so gory and gross and so funny at the same time it's worth it just to hear that sound! The other standout and one of my favorite things of the whole film is the zombie baby! I won't give out details of it, just watch for a baby zombie and I thought that is so cool I can't even put it into words! Oh and the lawn mower scene, ok, enough, you have to see this film for yourself, it's indescribable and something that you needs to be seen for yourself.Gore/Violence Meter: 5 Stars. This is where Dead Alive truly makes it's own special mark in horror history. The gore IS truly the most bloody horror film that I have personally ever had the chance to see as of this writing. In fact, I really don't think there is or will be another that could top this as far as gore. Before I bought this, I read other reviews and admit I thought, nah these reviews are probably not really true and it won't be all that gory. I didn't want to get my hopes up and be let down after all. I admit, it really was that gory, my guess is a good part of the films budget just went for fake blood alone! As for the violence, it's extremely violent. Before someone reads this and thinks, no way will they watch Dead Alive because of the gore/violence, I must point out that it's not the same type of extreme violence that can be found in films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. This is not a torture real feeling type violence that makes you cringe as you watch it. It does have a different feel to it, with that said though; no doubt it's 5 stars on the gore/violence meter and then some. If spewing ooooze offends you or makes you sick, DO NOT watch Dead Alive.Profanity Meter: 3 Strikes. There is a fair amount of bad language throughout Dead Alive, it is closed captioned though so you can filter out the bad language if you have a DVD language filter like I do.Sexual Meter: 2 Strikes. The sexual meter was a bit more difficult to determine for this particular film, but I'll describe here what you can expect as a potential viewer so you can decide for yourself if you wish to view this. Ok, there is nearly nothing sexual as far as normal people are concerned in Dead Alive. There are a few kissing scenes and that is it. What is shown are a couple of zombies and ones wants to get a bit "fresh" with the other one. Nothing is really shown however lots of sounds can be herd as two people stand outside of a door and can hear zombies having sex. One other scene is of the another female zombie and her breasts are shown, however what you see is, well, rotted zombie decaying flesh for breasts so it's not exactly anything to be offended by as a viewer. That is it on the sexual meter; I'll let you decide as a viewer what you feel.Final Thoughts: Dead Alive is truly a one of a kind film. It gets a few ideas from something like The Evil Dead, yet it has it's own charm that makes it unique and fresh enough that make it a well deserved 5 star film by itself. If you LOVE GORE, (my hand goes way up, I LOVE gore) you will watch this in absolute sheer delight and have a grin from ear to ear all the way through just as I did. No other film is as gory as this, it's a must have to your horror collection.

Director Peter Jackson, virtually unknown at the time, completed this cult classic and thus set the bar for the horror comedy genre. Not since has Dead Alive's cleverness, intelligence and outright over the top zombie violence and gore been matched. Only Shaun of the Dead would be a worthy contender. But it's better to think of Shaun of the Dead as Dead Alive's comedic companion. 28 Days Later may perhaps be the more frightening contender, though it's not a film about the undead. Shaun definitely owes alot to Dead Alive. Dead Alive owes a great deal to the Evil Dead and the cult classic Return of the Living Dead. Peter Jackson realizes this and therefore Dead Alive is jammed with references to these films as well as several other, from Raiders of the Lost Ark to Psycho. The tongue in cheek reflexivity combined with an intelligent script, genuinely comedic characters, and some incredibly outragious set pieces, make for one hell of a great movie. You shouldn't be too frightened by the line, the goriest movie of all time. Indeed there is a surplus of gore in this movie. It gleefully exploits it's gory premise and completely goes over the top with it. In the end, the gore is more laughable than it is nauseating. But yeah, gore is used in ways you never thought possible, and for some reason, it's strangely charming that way.It should be mentioned that the acting here, while working in a B-Movie context, is really quite fantastic. Timothy Balme plays Lionel. Soon after meeting him and his mother the connection between him and Norman Bates becomes immediately clear. Elizabeth Moody does a truly amazing job playing Lionel's domineering control freak mother who's bitten by a Sumatran Rat Monkey and slowing and agonizingly turns into a zombie. Lionel feels he must try to care for his rotting yet conscious and quite flesh hungry mother. However, the zombie population inevitably increases until the bloody end when Lionel must try to dispatch a whole houseful of Zombies.