The Greatest Films #5: Dead Alive (Braindead)

Background:

In high school my brother and I were known as the guys who watched strange movies. That was never entirely fair because most of the movies we watched were pretty mainstream. But if you wanted something odd, were the guys to go to. Dead Alive was one of the great gems we found long before it hit the mainstream following PJ’s success as director of Lord of the Rings. Famously, Dead Alive is the movie Eli Roth claimed actually had enough blood for him.

Something people should know: Peter Jackson is a sicko. This might come as a news flash to some, because he is, possibly, the greatest director of the past two decades, contributing the best trilogy of films ever made. However, his two films Dead Alive and Bad Taste contain some of the weirdest gore scenes ever put in a film.

What it is about:

Dead Alive is a weird take on the zombie film. I think what happened is Walsh and Jackson saw the typical zombie movie as “keep zombies out” type deal. They wanted to approach the film as “keep zombies in”.

The film follows Lionel, whose mother is overbearing on him and when she becomes a zombie Lionel goes through great lengths to hide this from the rest of the world.

Why? I don’t know. The zombie numbers continue to grow and Lionel attempts to hide their existence in their house.

Why it is a great film:

Where to start? It contains some of the better set pieces ever made. Naming just a few would be an insult to the others, but the lawn mower scene remains the goriest scene ever produced. Also amazing, when a zombie baby flies out of a window and hits a dude in the balls. A zombie priest fingers another zombie under a dining room table…the list could go on.

-Collin