It is a horror film that epitomizes the story of a bite of monkeys that appeared at a time when a killer turned New Zealand youth into a meat-eating zombie. It seems that everything will be very disastrous when they start to eat victims such as dogs, nurses, friends, neighbors and others.
Ordinarily I don't care for this kind of thing at all, but something must be said for Jackson's endless reserves of giddy energy, which are clearly meant to be silly.
Horror films used to be primordial spook shows, tapping midnight-dark fears. Now they tap bodily goo: rivers of blood, dripping limbs, eyeballs that go pop in the night.
The finale, in which Lionel reduces a horde of flesh-eaters to a mulch of blood, flesh and offal with the aid of a flymo, is probably the goriest scene ever.
Because all of this looks blatantly unreal, and because the timing of the shock effects is so haphazard, Dead Alive isn't especially scary or repulsive. Nor is it very funny.
Originally released as Braindead, this gory, maccabre satire of 1950s New Zealand society is yet another proof that Peter Jackson is one of the sharpest, most skillful directors working in the genre; a good companion piece to Meet the Feebles.
This horrendously funny gross-out shocker from Lord of the Rings and King Kong director Peter Jackson is a brilliant black comedy and the ultimate gore movie.