Directed by: Peter Jackson
Starring: Timothy Balme, Diana Penalver, Ian Watkin
Browsing Netflix instant watching options one lazy afternoon, I stumbled onto a zombie category. Being a fan of zombie films, I quickly started looking through. I had never seen Dead Alive (Known as "BrainDead" to overseas audiences) before, thinking it was going to be awful. It had relatively good reviews on Neflix, and it claimed to be the "The goriest fright film of all time", so I figured "Why the heck not?". While it might not be very frightening, it sure keeps its promise of being "the goriest".
Clam down, its only a flesh wound.
Dead Alive is less of a scary movie, and more of a dark comedy; with a very, very, very sick sense of humor. Its a story about Lionel (Balme), a socially awkward mama's boy, who is constantly being controlled by his evil overbearing mother. His mother is soon infected after being bitten by a strange creature at a zoo, and begins slowly turning into a zombie. Lionel tries desperately to hide what is happening to his mum, as a few more zombies are created in the process. Eventually, he has to fight through an entire horde of the living dead in order to save the girl of his dreams. Also, lots and lots of blood.
Dead Alive isn't very scary at all, but it is a shock film. The gore is so insanely over the top, its not realistic in the slightest. However, that doesn't mean it isn't stomach turning. I found myself grossed out several times over the course of the film, and that is saying something. Some of the ideas for killing humans and zombies are as brilliant as they are disgusting. The effects are well done, on par with films like The Thing. The folks behind this picture have some very active imaginations... And maybe a bit of mental illness as well. Zombies are torn to shreds, impaled, disemboweled, ground up, pummeled to death, and hacked to pieces. To hammer the point home, have a look at this tidbit taken from the IMDB trivia page:
"During the lawnmower scene, movie blood was pumped at five gallons per second."
You now want to watch this movie.
One of the most surprising things about this film is the director: Peter Jackson. Yes, the same guy who directed the Lord of the Rings films and the upcoming Hobbit films made a film that features two zombies having sex, and a reanimated pile of guts complete with farting anus.
Bottom Line: 7/10: Its not for everyone, but I enjoyed it. There's not much to the story, but that isn't what this film is about. You're here to watch a man get his entire ribcage torn from his chest and to see a disembodied head mashed into a running blender, not for a deep and interesting plot. There's enough wit and tongue and cheek gore here to keep any horror or zombie fan entertained. Just make sure you don't have a weak stomach. I'll leave you with one last tidbit from the IMDB trivia page:
"The rental in Sweden (and probably other countries as well) came with supplemental vomit bags."
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