Peter Jackson's Braindead Review

One of the Best in Zombie Horror Films Starring Timothy Balme

Oct 30, 2008

Released as The Dead Alive in N. America, Braindead is hailed by many as the goriest film ever made.

The year is 1957 and Lionel Cosgrove (Timothy Balme) is the timid son of a domineering mother (Elizabeth Moody). At his local grocery store he meets the exotic Paquita Maria Sanchez (Diana Peñalver), whose grandmother has foretold Paquita’s romance with a stranger. Recognizing Lionel as that man, Paquita soon insists he takes her to the zoo.

There they see a strange new exhibit – a vicious Sumatran rat-monkey said to be the hybrid of tree monkeys that were raped by rats. Lionel’s mother, while at the zoo spying on her son, is bitten by the animal.

By the next morning, Lionel’s mother is well on her way to becoming a zombie, leaving him the task of keeping her from attacking the locals. But the problem is soon growing out of control and Lionel’s basement begins to fill up with the spreading evil.

When Lionel’s despicable uncle Les (Ian Watkin) arranges a house party, things take another turn for the worse and they are soon overrun by hordes of the undead.

Braindead Director Peter Jackson

Most film fans will remember the outcry when Peter Jackson’s name was mentioned for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, with naysayers citing the likes of Braindead and Bad Taste as reasons why Jackson should not have been allowed to helm such a loved story. It just goes to show how a director’s expertise can be overlooked based solely on content, because with Braindead Peter Jackson more than displays his ability in the medium (and on a miniscule budget of $3 million compared to the gazillions that went into LotR).

The film is brilliantly directed using exaggerated close-ups and all manner of technical tricks, while Jackson also uses lighting and sets with the same fanaticism that saw Sam Raimi approach the Evil Dead films.

Add to that Peter Dasent’s marvellous music score and the early stages of the film feels like watching something from the 30’s or 40’s, moving rapidly along with overabundant enthusiasm. Everything here is done on the same tongue-in-cheek wavelength that practically defines every aspect of the film and helps make it so enjoyable.

Braindead (a.k.a The Dead Alive) Cast

Assisted by a perfectly rendered script, everyone brings a strong dose of B-movie hyper-acting to the film, clearly aware of what Jackson wanted from them.

Timothy Balme is just hilarious as Lionel, the downtrodden son-turn-zombie killer. In the film’s standout ‘lawn-mower’ scene, he even rivals the legendary Bruce Campbell for sheer immersion into his role – i.e: fake blood and gore.

The supporting cast of Elizabeth Moody, Diana Peñalver and Ian Watkin are also valuable additions, with the latter two in particular obviously enjoying their characters. Likewise, Stuart Devenie as Father “I kick arse for the Lord!” McGruder, provides another of the film’s standout scenes as the martial-arts expert/holy man.

Braindead (a.k.a The Dead Alive) Summary

Braindead is often cited as the goriest film ever made and, according to Wikipedia, used more fake blood than any other movie in history.

There’s a lot more to this film, however, than it’s gore – after all, it’s not the amount of gore that matters, but how it’s used (and no, that’s not a euphemism). The film builds to it’s bloody crescendo, starting with a large quantity of gross-out humour that in many cases is truly cringe-worthy. Past the flying puss and ear-chewing nastiness is a terrific bonanza of black-comedy and limb-ripping fun.

Then comes the gore – and plenty of it – but again it’s the innovation that marks Braindead as a fan favourite. Yes, people are attacked and eaten in a grisly smorgasbord of cannibalism and many of the resulting zombies are dutifully hacked into little pieces, but throughout are the series of singular treatments that make zombie films as fun to watch as they are.

Whether it’s a bifurcated zombie using his own legs as crutches while his innards continue to pursue Lionel; or a decapitated zombie with a garden gnome plunged into the open neck (whose head is later thrown into a blender); or a zombie whose head is lit up like a light-bulb by the electrical fixtures – it’s this variety of bloody mayhem, and much more besides, that makes Braindead such a riot.

It’s all fantastically capped by what may be the best zombie-scene of all time, in which Lionel confronts the hordes with his trusty lawn-mower, prior to facing his super-charged undead mother.

The comedy value of this film cannot be understated, making it the best film of it’s kind since the inimitable Evil Dead 2. As horrific as many of the sequences are (simply because the film’s effects are outstanding), this is nonetheless comedy-horror and is not at all as twisted as the previously reviewed Guinea Pig film.

Whether that’s too fine a line for sensitive viewers to distinguish is difficult to tell, but any kind of horror fan cannot miss this utterly madcap and surreal gorefest.

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