User reviews

I think it's called the sweet spot, that place when everything comes together at the right moment: the build up has been great, the levels on all the gauges are optimised, you have all the ingredients, the recipe for success has been perfected and then you unleash the beast, and what a butcher of a beast you unleash!

If you dig too deep for the secrets or contrast it with today you'll end up burying yourself however, do be mindful and in awe of the immense crafts these artisans had developed in the early 90s and, above all, revel in the way those talents were recombined to produce a true work of ground breaking genius that will keep those fascinated by such majesty capitated, bowled and limbed for as long as is inhumanly possible.

Crazy, visceral, over the top, quirky, violent, gory, silly, extreme and (in it's own way) sweet, are just a few words that can describe this visual extravaganza.

What makes it such a good movie? It's fast paced, it's witty, it's charming... and it is GROUNDBREAKING,it's an important movie of the genre.

Lionel is a loser who lives with his dominant mother. Lionel finds a way out, by hooking up with Paquita (a beautiful Diana Peñalver), but soon Lionel's mother gets bitten by a RAT MONKEY and she gradually starts to decompose (it's hilarious) and turns into a living dead... Lionel like a loving son he is, tries to hide the fact that her mother is a zombie, keeping her sedated with drugs... until, naturally, all hell breaks loose.

Timothy Balme is genius as Lionel, I mean; HE'S SO UNDERRATED, he gives a truly comedic performance that's top notch and really entertaining, so is the rest of the cast.

This is my favorite Peter Jackson film, and maybe one of the best horror comedies EVER. It's so f***ed-up, crazy and over the top it's almost poetic.

Everyone who considers himself (or Herself) a Horror Lover, a GoreHound, a rare-movie seeker or a Three Stooges fan should get their hands on this unusual flick.

I LOVE THIS FLICK!!! Probably the greatest splatter comedy ever made, because "Braindead/Dead Alive" is a fast-paced, gut-wrenching, disgusting, adrenalin-pushing and ultra-funny cult movie!!! The nightly martial arts-performance on the cemetery is as great as Lionel´s baby sitting-trip on the playground and the final zombie massacre at Uncle Les´ party beats everything you´ve seen before!! "From Dusk Till Dawn", "The Evil Dead 2"... just peanuts in comparison to the galore of blood´n guts that is featured in this film! I´m also a huge fan of Peter Jackson´s elder shots "Bad Taste" and the weird Muppet Show-parody "Meet the Feebles", but with this masterpiece the director was able to excel himself!! Not to forget the great performances of Timothy Balme as mummy´s darling Lionel, Diana Penalver as resolute Spanish chica Paquita, Ian Watkin as Lionel´s rockabilly-like Uncle Les, Elisabeth Moody, Brenda Kendall, Stuart Devenie... all great!!! "Braindead/Dead Alive" is one of the best party-movies you can imagine! Watch this together with your friends and you will laugh your heads off, I promise!!!

This is by far the best horror film I have ever seen in my life. This movie has everything - a horrifying rat monkey, a baby zombie, zombies having sex, gratuitous violence, extreme gore, a super fighting ninja priest, an evil annoying mom that turns into a zombie, a womanizing relative that is a pathetic loser, an old psychic that predicts the future, and lastly someone who takes care of them all. Oh, I can't forget to mention an inspirational scene with a lawnmower too. Overall I give this cinematic masterpiece the highest review, me throwing up in the bathroom afterwards from absolute disgust.

Wellington, New Zealand, 1957. Lionel and Paquita are at the zoo on date when Lionel's domineering, oppressive mother, Vera, appears, trying to prevent Lionel from seeing Paquita. Vera is bitten by a Sumatran rat-monkey and overnight becomes a zombie. Soon she infects others and Lionel is struggling to contain the zombie outbreak.

Written and directed by Peter Jackson who later went on to direct Heavenly Creatures, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, Braindead, his third film, is nothing like those movies. If, however, you've seen his first film Bad Taste, Braindead will be no surprise.

Bad Taste relied heavily on a silly plot and gross-out special effects but was quite funny and generally quite fun. Braindead is similar but has a more solid plot, including a set up - Bad Taste just launched straight into the humans-vs-zombies/aliens action. There is still a lot of gross-out visual effects, many of which are silly and gratuitous, but some of them are really clever and funny. Some great laugh-out-loud moments.

On that note, in Bad Taste the silliness pipped the funniness but here the laughs win out. Not by a huge margin but enough to make the movie watchable and fun.

This film is truly the finest hour of the young, aggressive, full-speed-ahead Peter Jackson. Check your squeamishness at the door and get ready for proof that splatter can be played for laughs.

Not all the laughs are splatter-based. The opening scene shows a zookeeper waving a permit to a tribe of hostile natives about to kill him, shouting out "per-mit! Per-mit!" From there, the film descends into the inspired, amused lunacy of the splatstick. Look for the cameo of a young, thin Peter Jackson as a mortician's assistant. Also look for the minor hilarious characters- the Nazi vet, the idiot football player, and most famous of all, Father MacGruder, he of the film's best one-liner.

Timothy Balme is excellent as the nebbishy mama's boy who ends up taking on the whole undead world by himself, with a couple of mechanical aids. He out-Ashes Ash! Like any good zombie film, the end features waves of zombies, but many with unique and twisted personalities of their own. The best is, of course, zombie baby. It is shocking and yet hilarious to see what zombie baby endures, and yet survives (perhaps to live on in the long awaited sequel?) Ten stars, and five out of five blood splats thrown up against the wall (during the last half hour).

"Dead Alive" (aka "Braindead") is a zombie classic, and it has been ever since I first saw it back in the early 1990s on VHS. The sheer amount of gore is more than enough to make you stop and take notice of the movie.

This is a gory zombie movie, no doubt about it, but it is also a movie that combines comedy and horror in a very good manner, and the end result is just a very hilarious and enjoyable zombie comedy.

The movie starts out in a brisk tempo and doesn't really slow down, so there isn't really a dull moment throughout the course of the movie. And the storyline is very easily followed and it is a story that you quickly take a liking to.

As for the characters in the movie, while they are very caricature and over-the-top, then it works out well for the movie, because it is not just one character that is that way, it is all of them. And they had a good ensemble of actors and actresses to perform the various roles. I think this movie is actually the only time I've seen Timothy Balme in a movie.

The special effects in the movie are quite good. Well, aside from the stop-motion-animated rat monkey, which was just atrocious. But again, it fits well into the movie and the atmosphere, so you don't really mind the fake stop-motion used. And as I mentioned earlier, there is more than enough gore to make even the most seasoned of gore fans satisfied.

"Dead Alive" is a movie that you cannot avoid if you are a fan of the zombie genre. And if you haven't already seen it, you definitely should take the time to do so.

I am rating this classic a solid seven out of ten stars. "Dead Alive" is well-worth the time and effort.

Lionel Cosgrove is a good guy having a tough time with things. Ever since his father died saving him during a swimming accident Lionel has been taking care of his mother. But unfortunately his mother must have come from the same parenting class as Norman Bates' mother since she is as manipulative and smothering. But things seem to be on the up and up for him when he starts a romance with a local shop owner's daughter. But a date to the zoo takes a turn for the worse when Lionel's overprotective mum follows him and manages to get bitten by a "rat monkey", a particularly nasty creature whose bite is killer…literally. The bite turns his mum into a zombie and each one she bites turns as well. Pretty soon poor Lionel is living in the house of the dead and fighting off a lecherous uncle scheming to grab the estate.

Peter Jackson (of Lord of the Rings fame) once again proves he is more than able to give us the gory goods and make us laugh the entire time. This insanely entertaining flick has buckets and buckets of blood and gore, probably one of the (if not THE) bloodiest around. For a film with a miniscule budget (approximately $3 million) he makes every penny count and turns out a very nice looking film. The comedy is pure slapstick and at times dark as pitch. The actors attack their various roles with a solid energy that gives the film a maniac pace. "Brain Dead" (aka "Dead Alive") is the best splatter comedy money can buy.

I knew of Peter Jackson and I was looking for horror and saw this was highly rated. And I was absolutely not expecting this.

It is so absurd and silly and really gross for like the first hour then the zombie fighting happens. Really this is one of the best zombie films I've ever seen. I am so glad I decided to watch an early Peter Jackson film.

This will paint my opinion of New Zealand forever.

Peter Jackson's gore-fest "Dead Alive" - AKA Braindead- is a very funny, very bloody film. The story is pretty simple, but includes some ingenious plot elements - such as a budding romance between two very likable characters (Balme and Penalver), a psychologically distressing relationship between Balme and his mother and well scripted dialog.

Balme plays Lionel - a troubled, more or less housebound young man who has been forced to spend most of his time taking care of a domineering and psychologically damaging elderly mother. Penalver plays Paquita - his romantic destiny. Paquita is a charming young woman for whom English is (perhaps) a second language. Soon after they meet, Paquita notices some odd quirks in Lionel's behavior, and slowly begins to realize that there is something besides the usual male fear of commitment. Perhaps Lionel's cannibalistic zombie mother is to blame? Soon enough Balme is babysitting a whole family of living dead who he has to constantly inject with animal tranquilizers, and trying to fend off a despicable uncle who is trying to muscle in on his inheritance. Then the fun really starts. It's the Dead Alive Series with extra gore, infused with brilliant slapstick and just a pinch of Monty Python.

Balme is amazing! - an excellent physical actor with great slapstick pacing and manic anxiety. And Penalver is delightfully pretty and sincere yet gives a nice campy performance. Dead Alive is one of the films in which Jackson began to blend detailed ecstatic and fantastic elements into his plots and cinematography - later culminating in the disturbing Heavenly Creatures and the spectacular LOTR trilogy. In Dead Alive, he finds his formula and makes it work without a tremendous budget. The film is well shot and grotesque, but remarkably amusing.

So over-the-top and only gets better...

This zombie film/zombie comedy (I think the movie Dead and Deader coined the term Zomedy) is so over-the-top, and only gets worse (better?) as you progress. Though there is a lot of fanfare about this title now that Peter Jackson is a recognizable name, it's not Peter's name attached that makes this a great film in it's genre. Before watching this, I thought "Oh well, if it's terrible, it's only 97 minutes of my life and I can get some work done while I watch"... After the first 20 minutes or so, I never decided break from the movie.

This is a film that employs so many zombie clichés that it's really incredible. It creates new ones that have been used by other films, and exploits zombie pre-1992 scenes for excellent comic (and general shock) effect. As you begin to think you've seen the last over-the-top effect or idea, it only gets more incredible. The turning and kill scenes really get more and more insanely campy, but in the best of ways. You can feel the ballistic gel squishing. You can hear the hand-in-the-turkey foley art... Classic! Then it has the audacity to try to create familial drama after you are already invested in the extreme campiness. Imagine Evil Dead, but GOOD! Genre fans will love it, casual movie-goers will try to take it seriously and may hate it.

Unpopular opinion time, I guess. This just didn't do anything for me. Wasn't even tired when I started this one and yet I was constantly on the verge of falling asleep. Couldn't even finish it.

Apologies for the heresy - I know a lot of people out there love this one to death. Just wasn't for me.

DEAD ALIVE (1993) ***1/2 New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson made his mark in horror cinema (and for himself as a talent to be reckoned with) in this incredibly gory, funny and altogether sickfest zombie flick about a young man's shrew mother getting bit by a Sumatran Rat Monkey rabid with a truly nasty disease that turns her (and all that she infects with a bite) into a crazed/ravenous thing that can't be stopped in its rapacious wake of terror. The scattershot breakneck pace makes fellow monster maven Sam Raimi look like Busby Berkeley! Classic cult film that will have you laughing at the putridness of it all. Look for Jackson's homage to "King Kong" with Skull Island reference at film's precredit sequence.

10/10 THE GREATEST AND MOST SAVAGE MOVIE EVER MADE. I'm a huggggggeeee splatter and gore fan and since I saw braindead as a kid, nothing has even come CLOSE to beating it. It's basically ruined gore movies for me forever because no matter what I watch now it's just not braindead

Before Peter Jackson became a "respected" director with "Heavenly Creatures," and an Oscar winner for "Lord of the Rings," he made slapstick gore flicks. He was New Zealand's answer to Sam Raimi (who also went on to better things).

"Dead Alive" is New Zealand's "Evil Dead"--all it lacks is Bruce Campbell (and there is one character, a butt-kicking priest, who bears more than a passing resemblance to the big-chinned Bruce). The plot is essentially this: A "rat monkey" bites the bitter old Mum of a milquetoast named Lionel. Mum becomes an undead ghoul who feasts on human flesh. Her bite turns other people into ghouls, etc. (I think you can fill in the rest.) Will Lionel stand up to his Mum and save his girlfriend from almost certain ghouldom? Rent the flick and find out.

This is a fairly entertaining movie if you're in a particular frame of mind--think "The Three Stooges Meet the Living Dead"--but, boy, are Jackson's influences showing. The look of the ghouls, not to mention the plot of the movie, recalls Raimi's "Evil Dead" pictures. One character, Lionel's sleazy uncle, even refers to "total bodily dismemberment" as the only way to kill ghouls (this is a direct quote from "Evil Dead"--the uncle even acknowledges that he heard this in a movie). The ghoul attacks recall George Romero's "Living Dead" flicks; even the idea of a disease that causes its victims to become homicidal maniacs is derived from Romero's "The Crazies."

Yes, Jackson's antecedents are definitely showing, but he does ratchet up the gore. In "Evil Dead II," Bruce Campbell straps a chainsaw onto the stub of his wrist to slice up ghouls; in "Dead Alive," Lionel straps a lawnmower to his chest and purees the monsters (simple dismemberment isn't quite enough). But, as derivative as it is, slapstick gore fans will probably enjoy "Dead Alive," even though Raimi's movies are funnier (and he has Bruce Campbell).

Braindead was the first really gory splattermovie I saw, and I have seen plenty since then, but Braindead is still the best zombie/comedy-movie I`ve ever seen. All the actors are terrible but that is precisely what makes this movie so cool. It is the king of the cult-movie. What really makes this movie a must is all the zombies and the extremely ultraviolent way they are slaughtered. As you may understand by now, you need to have a sick sense of humour to watch this film. Peter Jackson rules! 10/10

Quite possibly the best horror movie of all time, Dead Alive (the unrated version)is bar none the epitome for zombie violence. Peter Jackson is the man when it comes to making any type of movie, low budget-high budget, whatever. There are so many spectacularly creative deaths in this movie, and scenes of pure blood splatter, that no other horror movie will inflict a severe gross out effect on you again. I'm serious too, I saw this movie in '94, and I've still yet to see anything this awesome. I've heard there are some pretty cool Japanese movies like "Lai Wong", and "Versus" was really good, though not as gross as "DA". Of course, if you really need to see something off the charts, watch "Urotsukidoji". It doesn't matter which one, I'm sure they're all nuts. Back to Dead Alive, at first the movie is really iffy, though the gore is still present, but then it just starts to roll. Greating acting by Timothy Balme as well! Just watch it, and love it! Just make sure you're a horror fan.

Braindead is a true cult classic. I'd go so far as to say it's probably one of the best zombie movies ever. It's also probably one of the goriest and bloodiest movies ever made, which of course makes it even better.

Braindead / Dead Alive is the story of Lionel Cosgrove, a total mommy's boy. I'd go so far to say he's probably a virgin too at the start of the movie he's so far under his mothers control I don't think she'd let any woman get near him. When Lionel finds love with the girl who works in her father's store his mother jealous nature leads her to spy on them on a trip to the zoo. While on this trip she gets bitten by a "Sumatran rat-monkey" which leads her to turn into a zombie. From that moment on chaos of course reigns. This includes zombie babies, kung fu priest zombies and of zombie massacre that includes a lawn mower. Friggin Lawnmower, man!

This movie has it all, what happens if you feed zombies stimulants? You'll see in this movie. What happens if two zombies have sex? You'll see in this movie. In fact it's quite a surprise that zombies can be quite so horny corny.

Above all this is a comedy movie, as long as you have a strong stomach. I'll also give you a warning, after you see this movie I doubt you will ever want to eat any custard ever again. Yes, a zombifying mother trying to eat custard will never be a success, especially when parts of her body are falling off. You have to see that scene to believe it.

Braindead is a very good movie, as long as you can take the gore. I know that's not everybody's thing but it's fun, and yes this movie is fun. It's bloody, it's gory and it's got a zombie lawn mower massacre scene, so watch it! You won't regret it.

I have to say that the Gore effects in this are top-notch. The effects are spectacular. However, the movie does drag a little at times, but that does not stop from this movie is awesome.

If you are into GRINDHOUSE films with loads of Gore and stuff like The Thing or Re-Animator the crazy human transformation films you must check this crazy film out. I only do not understand one thing: Why did Lionel keep all those corpses in his house? Is it because his mother kept the Fathers corpse in the house? When the corpses tried to kill him x amount of times, why did he repeat bringing them back?? I really do not understand that part completely...

Other than that the movie is great. The acting was awesome, all our characters are likable, however, all of them have kinda minimal depth but that doesn't stop the movie from being awesome. The scene when the rat bites Lionel's mother and when Lionel takes care of the baby at the park were the funniest scenes to me I don't know why, but that was funny as heck to me.

Braindead a.k.a. Dead Alive is a slapstick comedy with excessive amounts of blood & guts & gore. It starts out slow but then gets really heavy later into the movie. If you like that sort of thing, this will be a classic for you for years & years.

For a movie made in the 90's it appears a little more old-school than that. If you like ridiculous amounts of gore combined with that really old-school slapstick comedy then this movie is for you. If you're idea of a decent zombie movie is something like Day of the Dead, or Resident Evil, then this might be one to avoid. It just depends on your preference.

This is NOT a zombie movie to be taken seriously by any means. If you like your horror gore-fest movies to still try to cling to at least an ounce of realism, this is NOT for you. This is a COMEDY.

And by realism I don't mean how the dead act, because that would be absurd, but instead, just how the living react to seeing the dead (especially the leading actor.) Who is going to take a baby zombie to the park or try to constantly tranquilize them? You either kill the things or you run for your life, you don't lock them in the basement, go to bed, & then invite them up for a tranquilizer family breakfast.

But that's just a comedy being a comedy. The acting, though outdated, fits for the time. There are some inconsistencies, such as super strong zombies becoming gentle when they get their hands on our main hero, & our hero trying to bury zombies multiple times even though they already jumped out of the ground before.

Resident Evil: Degeneration is my kind of zombie flick. I like a zombie film built upon action, horror & then touches of other elements: romance, comedic moments etc., not as a full-on comedy.

Braindead a.k.a. Dead Alive is a slapstick comedy with excessive amounts of blood & guts & gore though not the most real-looking of such. It starts out slow but then gets really heavy later into the movie.

If you like that sort of thing, this will be a classic for you for years & years. If not... lock it in the basement, & go to bed.