Far from Brain Dead

Dead Alive, Braindead(UK)(1992)

This is the movie that made me fall in love with Peter Jackson. It was love at first sight as I rented the video to tide me over a damp, cold, early Christmas holiday in my deserted student house. I got this and Map of the Human Heart(1993), simply on the strength of good reviews, I hadn’t seen Bad Taste(1987) or Meet the Feebles(1990) yet, so had no idea of the anarchy to expect. Five minutes in, I was smitten, by the end I was ready to search out or go and see any film Jackson had made. Some people are snooty that Braindead is played more for laughs and gore than genuine horror, but even they have to respect the sheer invention on display here. Jackson, armed with a love of slapstick and horror movies, unleashes his imagination on a mock-up 50s New Zealand- Brits in particular will love the references, to The Archers, the Queen and custard- “no pudding,” as Lionel and his mother try to keep up appearances while literally falling apart, and being attacked by zombies. Like Monsters, which I saw the same weekend, both contain love stories at their centers, although while Monsters is awkwardly realistic, Braindead is the usual cheesy Hollywood romance, sweetly innocent when not hacking up bodies. Also, it has a Freudian angle second only to Pink Floyd’s The Wall when it comes to suffocating and literally monstrous mothers. Very quotable, very funny and I would guess still unsurpassed in the amount of body limbs and blood used. 10/10