Braindead (released Dead Alive in North America) is a 1992 New Zealand horror zombie comedy gore film directed by Peter Jackson. The film is widely regarded as being one of the goriest films of all time.
Plot[]
The first scene sets up danger of the "Sumatran Rat-Monkey" a hybrid creature that according to legend resulted from the rape of tree monkeys on Skull Island by plague-carrying rats. Stewart an explorer returning from the depths of the Island with his guide and team is carrying a rat-monkey in a cage and is stopped by fierce warrior natives that demand the return of the monkey Stewart escapes with the cage to the rest of his team and a waiting Jeep leaving his guide behind and the natives in hot pursuit. As the jeep takes off Stewart's guide catches up and jumps on board In the ensuing melee Stewart gets bitten by the Rat-Monkey Seeing the mark of the monkey's bite right hand Stewart's men immediately hold down the infected explorer and amputate the appendage. A bite mark is then seen on his left arm which swiftly results in the removal of that limb Finally they see a set of bloody scratches on Stewart's forehead and kill him. The title screen follows the man's dying scream and as the opening credits roll the captured rat-monkey is shipped to Wellington Zoo in New Zealand.
Wellington 1957 Lionel Cosgrove lives with his domineering mother, Vera. To his mother's dismay Lionel falls in Love with a local shopkeeper's daughter Paquita and while snooping on the two during a visit to the zoo Vera is bitten by the Sumatran Rat-Monkey she subsequently crushes its head The animal's bite slowly turns her into a ravenous zombie Lionel if horrified but ever the dedicated son is determined to care for her. Despite his efforts to keep her placated with periodic doses of anesthetic Vera starts murdering other townspeople turning them into zombies He tries to keep them locked away in the basement while simultaneously trying to maintain his relationship with the completely oblivious Paquita. Vera escapes however and is hit by a tram.
As the townspeople assume she is dead Lionel tranquilizes the still-kicking zombie for her funeral After she is buried he returns to the graveyard to administer more anesthetic but is accosted by a gang of hoodlums Vera bursts from her grave resulting in more deaths and zombies As their numbers grow Lionel manages to keep the zombies under relative control with repeated injections and tries to keep them concealed in his home. However, Lionel's uncle Les arrives to try to wrangle with Lionel over his mother's estate. Uncle Les discovers the corpses and blackmails his nephew into giving up his inheritance in return for his silence.
Lionel reluctantly administers poison to the zombies ("killing" them) and buries them just as Uncle Les and a crowd of his friends arrive for a housewarming party. The "poison" turns out to be an animal stimulant and since the zombies come from the bite of the animal (the Rat-Monkey) it only gives them even energy. The zombies burst from the ground to attack and infect the party guests in a gory finale.
Some of the guests are running and some are being eaten by the zombies Lionel goes into a room where he saw Paquita fighting with Uncle Les and informs them of the zombie outbreak. Uncle Les manages to get out through the window while Lionel pulls out a large hanger with clothes which distracts the zombies and gives Paquita a chance to escape. He later kills the zombie Void by splitting his body in half but his intestines come to life and try to kill him. Lionel escapes into the attic where he finds a vault containing a corpse. He notices that it is his real father. He stumbles down from the attic upside down while a rope hangs on his feet. Paquita, Rita, and Mandy barricade themselves in a room. A man was being eaten on the window and they try to help him but when they pull inside his body is half eaten Mandy screams and zombie knocks her down and crushes his hands on her mouth killing her. Paquita hides in a cabinet where she finds Rita, they go to the kitchen and barricade themselves there but zombie Mandy is there with the baby. The baby bites Rita's neck and the two see Uncle Les screaming for help. They save him by pulling him inside but the room was damaged so the zombies were able to get in. As the girls run upstairs Uncle Les is bullied by the baby zombie. He goes into the basement where he sees Lionel's mother who has turned into a giant zombie She pulls him up and separates his spinal cord and head from his body.
As Paquita and Rita are chased by the zombies Lionel appears and holds a running lawn mower bottom outwards with which he kills some of the zombies The group are now fighting with hundreds of zombies animated intestines and disembodied legs. As Paquita fights some of the zombies she notices something is wrong with Rita and as she talks to her a baby's hands appeared on her ears and split her head in half revealing the baby had killed Rita. Just as it attacks Paquita Mandy's head (impaled on a bulb) ignites and manages to blow a gas pipe which sets the house ablaze and zombie Rita is killed in the fire. Lionel manages to kill all of the zombies until his mother who (we assume because she was the one originally bitten) has become a gargantuan monster pursues Lionel and Paquita to the rooftop. Paquita almost falls and hangs onto the edge of the roof while Lionel finally confronts his mother about the truth regarding his father's demise and his real mother It is revealed that she's only his stepmother She picks him up and stuffs him into her womb as Paquita screams in terror. Lionel's mother now tries to kill Paquita by removing her hands from the pole she's holding and in an over-the-top "rebirth" Lionel cuts his way out of her grotesquely changed body using the lawnmower and she fall into the fiery house below Lionel and Paquita escape the building and walk away arm-in-arm covered in gore as the local fire department arrives on the scene to put out the flames.
List of deaths[]
List of deaths in the film, Braindead.
| Name | Cause of Death | Killer | On Screen | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stewart McAlden | Hacked/hand cut off/arm cut off/killed with axe cleaver | Stewart's Men | No | |
| Monkey | Arm ripped off | Rat Monkey | Yes | |
| Rat Monkey | Stomp | Vera Cosgrove | Yes | |
| Dog | Eaten | Vera Cosgrove | No | |
| Nurse McTavish | Head broken off | Vera Cosgrove | Yes | Return is zombie |
| Void | Chest prosthetic | Vera Cosgrove | Yes | Return is zombie, torn of half in pieces, hacked in pieces |
| Vet | Neck bitten | Vera Cosgrove | Yes | Return is zombie, dismembered in pieces |
| Father McGruder | Thrown/statue through back | Zombie Void | Yes | Return is zombie, teeth cut off in pieces |
| 25 People | Killed | Zombies | Yes | Return is zombies, killed in pieces |
| Zombie | Beaten with mattack | Lionel Cosgrove | Yes | |
| Cowboy | Torn in half | Zombies | Yes | Return is zombie, head hacked in pieces |
| Woman | Hands through back is mouth | Zombie Void | Yes | Return is zombie, stabbed,pinned/burned alive in pieces |
| Man | Gutted | Zombies | Yes | Return is zombie, hacked in pieces |
| Man | Neck bitten | Zombie | Yes | Return is zombie, head cut off, chopped in pieces |
| Zombies | Body cut off with knife and cleaver | Uncle Les | Yes | |
| Zombie | Head exploded off | Lionel Cosgrove | Yes | Fell off |
| Zombie | Thrown/exploded | Lionel Cosgrove | Yes | Fell off |
| Uncle Les | Blood loss/head ripped off | Vera Cosgrove | Yes | Return is zombie, head ripped off/crushed in pieces |
| Zombie | Arm ripped off | Paquita Maria Sanchez | No | |
| Rita | Neck bitten, hands through lars/head/nose/forehead two off | Zombies Baby | Yes | |
| Gut Monsters | Chopped in lawnmower | Lionel Cosgrove | Yes | |
| Vera Cosgrove | Anchor through back/gutted, knocked off/burned alive | Lionel Cosgrove | Yes |
Cast[]
- Timothy Balme as Lionel Cosgrove
- Diana Peñalver as Paquita Maria Sanchez
- Elizabeth Moody as Vera Cosgrove Lionel's mother
- Ian Watkin as Uncle Les Kalkon Vera's brother
- Brenda Kendall as Nurse Emma Mc Tavish
- Stuart Devenie as Father Jon McGruder (The Kung-Fu Priest)
- Jed Brophy as Thomas Jacob "Void" Randell
- Stephen Pappd as Zombie Jon McGruder
- Murray Keane as Pete "Scroat" Otis
- Glenis Levestam as Mrs. Nora Matheson
- Lewis Rowe as Mr. Albert Matheson
- Elizabeth Mulfaxe as Rita Bridell
- Harry Sinclair as Roger Tryton
- Davina Whitehouse as Mary Sanchez Paquita's grandmother
- Silvio Famularo as Slaver Don Sanchez Paquita's father
- Daniel Sabic as Baby Zombie Selwyn Matheson
- Tommy Dee Jacy as Sumatrn Rat-Monkey/Various Zombies (voice; uncredited)
- Bill Ralston as Zoo official Stewart McAlden
- Forrest J. Ackerman as Forry (Touist at Zoo with Monsters of Filmland magazine)
Production[]
Filming[]
Principal photography took place over eleven weeks on location in and around Wellington, New Zealand on a reputed budget of around $3 million. The nighttime cemetery scene was filmed at the Karori Cemetery in the Karori neighbourhood of Wellington.
The first scene to be shot and the opening scene, filmed on "Skull Island", was filmed at Putangirua Pinnacles, the same location he would later use for the Paths of the Dead in the film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
The final scene to be shot was the section in the park with Lionel and the zombie baby Selwyn. The film was finished one week ahead of schedule and with NZ$45,000 remaining, so Jackson used all this remaining budget to film the park scene over the course of two days. He has gone on to say that this is his favorite scene and the funniest in the whole film.
Music[]
Jackson reused the song played on the organ as the mourners wait to enter the church prior to the embalming scene. It is Sodomy from his previous film Meet the Feebles (1989).
Special effects[]
Bob McCarron, recently known for his on-screen appearances as Dr Bob from the UK television show I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! and its German version Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus!, designed the special prosthetic makeup. He was awarded at Sitges - Catalan International Film Festival and nominated for Saturn Award (see below for all awards).
Reception[]
Box office[]
Braindead was released on 13 August 1992 in New Zealand. It was subsequently released in the United States on 12 February 1993 under the title Dead Alive and grossed $23,765 in its opening weekend. It eventually grossed $242,623 in the country.
Critical reception[]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 88% based on 40 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 7.44/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The delightfully gonzo tale of a lovestruck teen and his zombified mother, Dead Alive is extremely gory and exceedingly good fun, thanks to Peter Jackson's affection for the tastelessly sublime." Metacritic rated it 54 out of 100 based on 7 reviews.
At the time of its release, David Stratton, writing for Variety, gave a positive review, calling it "Jackson's best film to date" and praising its humour, acting, and technical qualities (gore effects, makeup). He stated "Kiwi gore specialist Peter Jackson, who goes for broke with an orgy of bad taste and splatter humor. Some will recoil from the gore, but Braindead wasn't made for them." Peter Rainer of the Los Angeles Times enjoyed the film, stating that it "is the most hilariously disgusting movie ever made. It makes something like Re-Animator seem like a UNESCO documentary about Mother Teresa." The film received a negative review from The Independent writer Quentin Curtis, who complained that "it never decides whether to make you tremble with laughter or fear, and has outstayed its welcome long before the last limb has been severed and entrail spilled." Braindead placed at number 91 in a top 100 list produced by Time Out after conducting a poll with several authors, directors, actors and critics who have worked within the horror genre.
Alternate versions[]
The film was released in a number of different versions. In some nations, such as the United Kingdom and Australia, the 104-minute film was shown in full. In fact, the UK's classification board the BBFC found the film's gory content so light-hearted and comical that there was consideration on giving the film a 15 certificate, which would have granted it to be seen by a much younger audience. They ultimately decided to give the film an 18 rating because the amount of gore confounded the expectations of a 15 rating.
In countries where the censors balked at the extreme gore, the film was initially banned or left unrated before being heavily cut. In Germany, a 94-minute version was seen with major cuts to some of the film's grislier scenes but was widely ignored. A FSK 16 rated version was released in Germany under the American title Dead Alive, omitting almost the entirety of the violence. The uncut version, as well as several cut versions, are banned in Germany. It is also illegal to publicly exhibit the film in Germany. The gory violence has also caused the film to be banned in South Korea, Singapore and Finland. However, the film was unbanned and released uncut in the latter country in 2001.
In the United States, where the film was released as Dead Alive (because of another film with rights to the practically identical title Brain Dead), the R-rated version is only 85 minutes with most of the gore scenes removed, while the unrated cut is 97 minutes with the gore scenes mostly intact.
Gallery[]
External links[]
Braindead (1992) at the Internet Movie Database- Braindead (1992) at Wikipedia
- Braindead (1992) at Rotten Tomatoes
- Braindead (1992) at AllMovie
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