Movie Review - Dead Alive

Dead Alive

AKA Brain Dead

Before Peter Jackson was ever known to LOTR fans, before he ever graced the cinemas with big-budget, lush-landscaped, critically-lauded films, Jackson dabbled in a few horror films that have, in recent years, reached a cult status. Dead Alive is one of them (Bad Taste being the other), a horror comedy that is in direct opposition to anything that Peter Jackson has directed lately.

Dead Alive is ultra-violent, filled to bursting with dismembered body parts and gore. Yet Jackson manages to reign in the chaos of the film each time one of his more outrageous scenes breaks out, pulling the audience back into the ridiculous but involving story. Dead Alive's script will never be mistaken as horror genius; in fact, it's bare bones at minimum, but it knows its predecessors and is able to parody the zombie genre well by taking the more serious moments of films like Night of the Living Dead and simplifying them into hokey events.

The film starts out slow, creating a love story between Lionel (Timothy Balme) and Maria (Diana Peñalver) which forces the film into a bit of a rut. For one thing, Lionel is not exactly an exciting character; a fairly bland, rubber-necked young man who is under the authoritative demands of his mother, the audience barely has anything to root for in Lionel. There's another dilemma the audience is faced with in the first half hour - we know from the start of the film that Jackson can deliver on the promise of action-packed satirical horror and are eager to get to it faster than having to slog through the beginnings of a rather tiresome love story.

But Dead Alive picks up fast. After his mother is bitten by a noticeably clay-mation rat monkey, things go downhill fast for Lionel. He's stuck babysitting his zombie mother, who he keeps in the basement, while other members of the community are slowly turned to zombies. The decision to keep his mother is a smart one on Jackson's part; it allows for the plot to advance, obviously, but it gives a depth to the film that enhances the dramatic elements (for what they're worth) as well. This is not to mention that it puts Lionel in a bunch of awkward situations that are, frankly, hilarious.

The film has a ton of memorable sequences, most of which are funnier than most of the comedies I've seen in a long while. They're tasteless jokes and slapstick segments that pair very well with the excessive violence of the genre, and instead of crossing the line, the comedy remains relevant by mimicking the parts of horror that should be more offensive than they are.

For those who take movies more seriously, though, Dead Alive is outlandish fun that is focused more on parodying horror than creating a truly scary experience. The jokes might not appeal to those with a more sophisticated sense of humor, and in that case, the plot will leave a lot to be desired. But the chaos that flows throughout Dead Alive keeps the film... well, alive, and in my opinion, a more interesting movie-watching experience than Jackson's more serious output - it's the obvious enjoyment that exudes from the film that attracts and repulses.

Dead Alive on Rotten Tomatoes