Braindead (1992) (aka Dead Alive)

Plot Outline: Lionel, a shy young man, is left wondering what to do when his overbearing mother is bitten by a rare Sumatran "rat monkey" whilst snooping on her son during a date at the zoo. She promptly dies and turns into zombie. But Lionel can't do the decent thing and tell anyone about his mother. He tries to keep her locked up in the house but as time goes on, she starts to kill other people. The zombie count is growing and when Lionel's blackmailing uncle throws a house party, all hell breaks loose.

The Review: This is nowhere near as good as I remembered it. Granted it does have killer zombies, loads of gore, priests who do kung-fu and a crappy-looking Sumatran Rat Monkey but there is just something missing from this which Jackson's previous splatter flick, Bad Taste, had in abundance. By the the time the gore-soaked finale came, I was bored and tired of seeing so much gratuitous gore and splatter. Sometimes less is more. As with Bad Taste, this is played mostly for gross-out laughs of the blood variety. The infamous lawnmower massacre finale lasts for ages and is a steaming mass of severed limbs, crushed skulls and fake blood. It's not actually that good and the zombies tend to walk into the lawnmower rather clumsily, rather than surrounding Lionel and overpowering him or making any efforts to get him. But then we wouldn't have a massacre scene would we? The scene with the priest kicking crap out of the zombies with some kung-fu is hilarious as is the entire scene at the children's playground (with a baby zombie running amok) and the formal dinner scene in which Lionel's mom starts to fall to pieces (literally). Timothy Balme is excellent as Lionel but the rest of the cast are forgettable. Peter Jackson makes a brief cameo as a dozy mortician's assistant whose carelessness leads to another gross but hilarious moment.

Final Verdict: You have been warned though. This film is NOT for the faint-hearted or easily offended. It is probably the goriest, most violent, sick, disturbing and funniest horror movie ever made. However, I'll probably get lynched by horror fans around the world for saying this, but Braindead isn't as good as commonly thought. At least Bad Taste had an likable amateurish charm about it. This doesn't and tends to drag because there is too much splatter (for a change!)

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