Dead Alive
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Movie Reviews of Dead Alive
Movie Review: "What ....no pudding?"
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie can not be descibed by any words other than just truly outragious. This has got to be the most thoroughly violent and gruesome movie ever made. This movie from the get go starts off ferocious and doesnt even try to pretend to be a serious film. This is horror/comedy at its finest, think about a one and a hlaf hour long invincible black knight scene from monty pythons holy grail, and you can pretty much imagine the ridiculous levels of gratuitous violence poored out liberally throughout this film. from a priest that dismembers (black knight style) zombies with expert martial art skills, "i kick A** for the Lord!!!!" to one of the most truly disgusting lunch scenes....no two of the most disgusting lunch scenes ever put on film, this film pulls no punches. and with a climactic battle at the end which leaves about 100 people getting gruesomely killed in under ten minutes, a lawn mover being used as a way to clear a path through a swarm of zombies, body parts being used as stepping stones, and a 20 ft tall zombie monster that swallows a character whole only to have the said character rip his way out of the creatures belly blood guts and all, no true gore fan will be left unsatisfied. don't expect high art, just expect a truely unique twist to the zombie genre and a lot of crazy and memorable lines as "your mother ate my dog!!!!". If you are a fan of horror comedy this is what you are looking for. if you want your horror with more of a serious tone, or you just plain have a weak stomach, stay away....far away.
WARNING: movie might seriously effect viewers appitite for anything colored red for the rest of their lives...enjoy!!!!
this review is for the unrated version which is about 13 minutes longer than the R rated version. I have not seen the R rated version so I cannot comment on it or tell you what is missing/different but i can guess at least half the ending is missing. there is also a rumor that their is another version called "Brain Dead" which is the original title to this film that is even longer than this unrated version, but i have not been able to find it or validate the truth to that statement.
Movie Review: Look who is laughing now!
Summary: 5 Stars
A long time ago when we were all saying that this was a horror gem and that the director would go on to do bigger things but there where people who would laugh at us. Now those same people are sitting jaw-smacked in front of the big screen as Gollum walks and talks like a real living thing.Peter Jackson has made the ultimate comedy gore movie. The concept for this genre was based on Jackson wanting nothing more than to see Pinhead from "Hellraiser" fall on his face, so he went off and made his own brand of comedy gore. The end result is nothing short of sheer madness and you just wish that more indie film-makers would be granted the capital and funds to realize what is on their mind onto the screen.
This film is sick and twisted but remarkably tongue and cheek and very funny. Here there is every gag in the book from "babies in a blender" to "granny abuse". This is as a black as humour gets but also completely outrageously funny in a Buster Keaton/Three Stooges sort of way. The scenes with the Kung-Fu priest stand out as one of the funniest horror events ever filmed. The baby abuse in the park is just plain whacked in the head and a funeral turns out in the worst possible way imaginable.
The premise is simple. Lionel's mum is a cruel woman who dominates him. When she is bitten by a "Rat-Monkey" (my god you have to hear the story behind that thing) she turns into the living dead. Lionel keeps her locked up in the cellar but all hell breaks loose during a house party that turns into one of the bloodiest and goriest scenes ever committed to colloid. The final piece with a strap-on lawnmower will blow your mind.
This looks like it got a major budget to boot too and the special effects are nothing short of what you would except from makers of Lord of the Rings. This is a very squeamish and sick movie that is not for everybody. If you can stomach the gore then you will love it. Those who prefer to keep away from severed limbs flying everywhere would do best to maybe have a few drinks before watching it. It is sicko stuff but done so brilliantly!
Movie Review: The definitive horror comedy zombie bloodbath.
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Movie Review: Zombies + 10,000 KFC buckets of fake blood + Peter Jackson = GREAT!
Summary: 5 Stars
"Dead Alive" is one of the most well-known comedy-horror crossover movies and was directed by Peter Jackson, the same guy that directed the "Lord of the Rings" Trilogy. Wow. WOW! Hard to believe a director can go from grinding up zombies with a lawnmower to six-foot elves trampling along the massive valleys near Amon Amarth (the mountain in LOTR, not the band, although the band is awesome, too!)
But indeed, Peter Jackson DID direct this movie. Although it's not really horror by any means, considering all the one-liners, the slapstick humor and the gross-out gags, it's really a comedy. However, it's a comedy that probably only horror lovers would watch! The first hour or essentially plays off as a comedy without all that much gore. There are some funny moments, such as the wealthy people eating their pudding as their ears and such fall off into it! ("Rich and creamy! Just how I like it!"). We ALSO get a crazy monkey and Lionel beating the death out of a zombie baby in the middle of a park!
So the first hour or so is entertaining enough, BUT make sure you have the patience to make it to the last 30 minutes, because it WILL be worth the wait! I mean, I've seen gore before, but by the time I saw the last half-hour of "Dead Alive", including the famous lawnmower massacre scene and a room full of zombies later ending up a room full of zombie blood...this movie is definitely one of the goriest movies in history. And it's funny at the same time! Peter Jackson is able to make scenes that you THINK would be gross, actually very amusing!
While this movie isn't THE UTMOST goriest movie ever made, that award possibly going to Japanese action film "The Machine Girl", this movie is at the very least one of the Top 5 Goriest Movies Ever Made. If you ever wondered what slapstick humor, one-liners, 10,000 Extra Large KFC Buckets full of fake blood and a sweet romance between two young people would result in...check out "Dead Alive" for some entertainment! Thanks for the time, and peace.
Movie Review: Sick, perverted, and outrageously entertaining gore-fest!
Summary: 5 Stars
Officially the goriest movie of all time, Peter "Lord of the Rings" Jackson's brilliant Brain Dead (weakly re-titled "Dead Alive" in the USA) provides the most OTT and blackly humorous splatterfest imaginable. It is bound to appeal to those who enjoyed the likes of The Evil Dead, Society, House/House2, American Werewolf in London and, more recently, Shaun of the Dead.
Apart from the obvious influence of the Romero trilogy, Brain Dead also contains many cheeky hat-tips to other movies and playing spot-the-reference (I'll start you off with King Kong, The Thing, Child's Play, Wizard of Oz , Carrie, Indiana Jones, Dracula, Psycho and semi-reprising a scene from Jackson's earlier Bad Taste) adds immensely to the fun!
Most of the characters are cleverly observed clichés - from the passionate latina Paquita herself, her Tarot-reading gypsy grandmother, the leather-clad rockers, the rugby-playing bore and snobbish townswomen, to Lionel's hideously domineering mother and lecherously repellent uncle.
Some great one-liners, such as "Your mother ate my DOG!" and "I kick arse for the LORD!" provide genuine laugh-out-loud moments, but it is the sheer outrageousness of the visual gags (glueing mother's face back with gloy paste and the animated intestines are my favourites!) each more gross than the last, that makes Brain Dead such a masterpiece of the schlock-horror splatterfest genre.
The DVD presentation (UK region 2 version) is pretty basic. The picture quality is no better than adequate, looking like a straight port over from VHS and becomes glitchy and pixellated briefly in a couple of scenes. Audio is just plain mono. No extras either. This movie is just screaming out to be re-mastered in 5.1 and with a "making-of" documentary (let's face it, Jackson and team must have had a hoot making this one!), but, for now, this is the best you gore-fans are going to get.
At this price, Brain Dead is an essential purchase.