Dead Alive (1992)
AKA Braindead
Starring Timothy Balme, Diana Peñalver, Elizabeth Moody, Ian Watkin, Brenda Kendall, Stuart Devenie, Jed Brophy, Stephen Papps, Murray Keane, Glenis Levestam, Lewis Rowe
Directed by Peter Jackson
Expectations: Very high. It’s been too long since I’ve seen this.
No matter how many films I review, there will always be those that I am hesitant to write about. Dead Alive is definitely one of those movies. With something as whacked-out as this, I just don’t see the point of trying to write about it. It’s meant to be experienced. So if you haven’t seen Dead Alive, and you consider yourself in any way a fan of gore or horror films, go watch it. You don’t need a review, you just need to watch it. Meanwhile, I’ll do my best to relate some of why I think the film is so amazing.
Dead Alive‘s story is pretty unique among horror movies because it’s so much more than a simple tale of a few people trapped in a location. There is definitely some of that at certain points, but never — not even once — during any of these moments will you be thinking of another film. The on-screen thrills are so powerful, visceral and literally never-ending that you won’t have time to think of anything else. But back to the story… the heart of the film is a romantic struggle. Lionel has become romantically entangled with Paquita, but his overbearing mother doesn’t approve. This pays off in ways that I guarantee not a single audience member has EVER successfully predicted, creating the pinnacle of Peter Jackson’s early work that also still stands stall as the goriest, most outrageous, FX extravaganza ever put to film. And realistically, I don’t see anything ever coming close to topping Dead Alive in that regard.