Braindead (1993)

ridiculous rating

Disturbing yet enthralling

What begins as a feel-good-human-interest story turns into a mystery, then a tragedy, and ultimately an outrage.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I love this film. Love. I watched a while back on the Independent Film Channel, and i love how funny and extremely gory it is, a very clever film with an adorable Timothy Balme in the lead. A lot of little in jokes, like the rat being on Skull Island, home of Kong, etc. Very, very gory, the priest is hysterical kicking ass for the Lord. Love, love, love it.

Greatest low budget gory film that has ever been made.

Five years after Peter Jackson's blood splattering hit 'Bad Taste' churned the stomachs of cinema goers, the young director went even further down the gore route and came up with 'Braindead' ( known in North America as 'Dead Alive' ), set in 1950's New Zealand.It was disgusting to say the least. Not one moment goes by without gross, blood and gut letting violence going by. It was all about the life of a young mummy's boy whose life is turned upside down when his mother is transformed into a flesh hungry zombie. Lionel Cosgrove is a well mannered, well intentioned though dim witted and spineless young man who has not yet managed to break himself free from the apron strings of his malicious, conniving mother Vera.Eventually, Lionel strikes up a relationship with beautiful Spanish shopkeeper Paquita and one day takes her on a day out to the zoo where a hideously deformed creature known as a rat monkey is known to reside. Lionel soon discovers his mother is spying on him and Paquita when she stumbles against the cage containing the deadly animal which bites her.The venom from the bite causes Vera to mutate into a zombie. Eventually, Vera's appetite for human flesh spirals out of control and before long all of the city has become overrun by the undead.'Braindead' is certainly not one of the best comedy films around, it's not even great but it is fun, if sick and vile. The acting is nothing too special ( apart from Elizabeth Moody, who played Lionel's nasty mother ) but for a film like this that is probably to be expected. Timothy Balme, who played Lionel, more recently has appeared in the dreadful New Zealand drama 'The Almighty Johnsons'. Diana Peñalver, who played Paquita, I suspect was hired for her looks alone and not her acting ability.The funniest moments in the film included a slowly zombifying Vera trying to host a dinner party which ends in gory disaster, a zombie priest and zombie nurse having sex and giving birth to a baby zombie, a female zombie having her head impaled on an active light bulb thus alighting her head like a Halloween lantern and the zoo keeper announcing to Lionel and Paquita that the rat monkey creature came into existence after a plague of rats raped all the tree monkeys of Skull Island. Only the scene at the end where Lionel massacres the zombies with a lawn mower doesn't work. I personally found it horribly overdone.Whilst the special effects used for their time would have been pretty impressive, I suspect now they probably wouldn't stand the test of time. As I said previously, 'Braindead' may not be great, but it is still fun.

This movie is so crappy it's delightful. It's so bad that it's funny. Although it is an interesting concept, the movie is ridiculous. This was supposed to be a horror movie, and gory! NOT! This should be in the comedy genre. Just remember to lower your expectations with this movie and maybe you'll enjoy it. I mean I know it's a 1992 movie, but really?? They could have put some more effort into this one. So much potential, wasted. Maybe if you get a little tipsy or drunk, you could really enjoy this movie. This is one you watch when you are utterly bored out of your mind. I only watched this movie because there was nothing on TV and I desperately needed something to do.