Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
When a Sumatran rat-monkey bites Lionel Cosgrove's mother, she's transformed into a zombie and begins killing (and transforming) the entire town while Lionel races to keep things under control.
Peter Jackson's Braindead (aka Dead Alive) is a landmark of splatter-comedy horror that pushes practical gore effects and anarchic black comedy to genuinely unprecedented extremes. Its Novelty is exceptional — no film before or since has executed this particular brand of Kiwi suburban gothic meets gleeful ultraviolence with such singular commitment. The lawnmower climax is one of the most audaciously inventive set-pieces in horror history, earning a strong Ending score. Plot and Acting are competent genre fare rather than exceptional — the mother-son psychological dynamic adds texture but the screenplay is ultimately a delivery mechanism for mayhem. Cinematography is serviceable with energetic low-budget ingenuity but not especially distinguished beyond the practical effects work.