Dead Alive (Braindead) Review by Samantha Mauney

Standing outside a Richmond Jersey Mike's after having just seen the newest X-men movie, my friend recommends the movie Dead Alive to me. The film, long-touted as being one of the goriest ever made, is a blood-covered gem of a flick.

After I expressed my interest, my friend then procceeded to tell me about some of the films most disturbing scenes, as if determined to convince me that it deserved the title (trust me, it does). So, a few days later I found Dead Alive on Netflix and managed to sit through it. Now, I'm not really squeemish when it comes to gore (this is the girl who sat through Hostel while eating a steak), but I will say that the film definitely delivers in the blood and guts department.

Made in the '90's but set in '50's New Zealand, Dead Alive is a splatstick horror flick that has the feel of a late Ozploitation film (for more on Ozploitation, I eagerly suggest watching the documentary Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation). The movie is the story of Lionel Cosgrove, a thirty-something year old man who lives with his mother and is used to doing everything she says... Even after she becomes a mindless zombie. Soon mum is turning half the town into zombies, all of whom Lionel takes care of in his huge house. Hilarity ensues as, under a vast amount of supressants, he has all of them sitting around the family dinner table feeding them some kind of porridge (who feeds zombies, anyway?) and arranges play dates for them all in the basement.

Love also blooms-- albeit in a very disturbing way-- between two of the zombies (one of which is a former priest), and an adorably disgusting zombie baby is born. That same baby is later put into a blender.

Some of the gore can feel quite cartoonish at times, but overall it is very real. The zombies themselves are an interesting mix of slow-moving, moaning ones remniscent of early movies like in Night of the Living Dead, running at 40 miles an hour Dawn of the Dead-esque ones, and Godzilla.

The film has all of the loveability of a low budget, independent, zombie flick, (despite the fact that it cost about $3,000,000 to make) which is due to most of the over-the-top humor scattered throughout. You can't come to be called "one of the goriest films of all time" without either making  people laugh or have a heart-attack. This film really delivers on the former. Apparently, the full length NZ version of the movie is even more violent than the one available in the US. I can't really fathom how anyone could make this film any more of a bloodbath than it already is.

Concerning plot, the entire story line of the film is very simple and recognizable, so as not to impose on any of the action. There is an original incubator for the disease, in the form of a Sumatran rat-monkey. There is a Zombie number one, a catalyst for a wide-spread outbreak, and the film ends with an ever-so-climactic full-on zombie massacre. In the end, the movie attempts to be academic with a reference to Freud. I'm no student of psycology, so I cannot comment on how well placed the allusion was.The acting is so-so (not that it takes away from the story. After all, this is a splatstick), but the comedic timing is spot-on. Cinematically speaking, the directors do a decent job of making this feel like the movie was shot decades earlier than it actually was, giving it a more authentic Ozploitation feel.

Historically and economically, this film was considered a flop. It only made back two thirds of its original three million dollar budget at the box office (which, for a film that underwent an unbelievable amount of censorship, is still not terrible). But thus is the way for most films that become cult classics. I seriously encourage you to see this movie. If you think your stomach is strong enough.