Braindead (1992)

 

This is one of the funniest films I have ever seen.

It is also - bar none - the goriest by far. 

Who knew director Peter Jackson was capable of such wonderful art, especially if you only know him from 'The Lord of the Rings'.

Yes, that was a joke of sorts.

But it's true: this, one of Jackson's early works, is brilliant in its own right. Heck, this film is so memorable for all the right reasons: indelible images burned on your retina, slapstick comedy, an array of quotes... And all that done with a comparatively low budget and a metric shit ton of imagination.

Welcome to 1957. On Skull Island (yes, reference) explorers want to bring a Sumatran rat-monkey to the Wellington Zoo. But not everything goes according to plan. But the creature is eventually shipped to the zoo and that is when we meet Paquita, a young woman who hungers for a man in her life. Thanks to her grandmother's reading of tarot cards, she falls in love with the least plausible candidate: Lionel. Lionel is a bit of a stumbling fool who has a ridiculously overbearing mother who pretty much uses him as a personal slave. But when Lionel feels that there are more women in the world and that Paquita might show him some genuine love, they head to the zoo for a date. Mum is not having it, and spies on them, when she is bitten by the rat-monkey.

And then the gorefest commences. Mum is slowly degenerating and even turns into a pustule riddled zombie who also infects the nurse. Things get worse when she is buried and some thugs at the graveyard become her next victims, as well as the priest. Meanwhile Lionel is trying to keep his decomposing mum out of trouble and keeps the zombies in his basement, but when his greedy uncle Les appears and cons Lionel out of the estate (money and house), Lionel really hits rock bottom. When uncle Les is having a party, things come to a bowel-exploding conclusion when the zombies escape and wreak havoc. 

Can Lionel save his love? Can he escape the clutches of his mum? Will he have to wade through literal gallons of blood, guts and gore to get it done?

Hell to the yeah.

Because 'Braindead' is so incredibly funny, it's easy to make a comparison to Monty Python's Black Knight-sketch, but on steroids. Everything here is amped to the max and especially the gore is so incredibly over the top and brutal, this will not be for those faint of heart or weak of stomach. 

No really: maybe you shouldn't be eating snacks while watching this.

But that doesn't take away from the inventive camerawork, excellent pacing, fun story, great laughs and pretty impressive special effects. Did I mention that everything here is done practically? That just makes it all the more excellent.Heck, the most hilarious scene is when Lionel takes the zombie baby (yes, that is a thing here) for a walk and shenanigans ensue. Even better when you know they only filmed this because they had a little money left after wrapping principal photography. 

The finale is probably the most over the top you will ever see, and it involves hordes of zombies and a lawnmower. Yes, really. 

And how about the actors, who are clearly enjoying themselves? Special shoutout to Lionel's mum and uncle, who relish in portraying absolute arsehats with such gleeful abandon. It's really great. Timothy Balme as Lionel feels a little like Buster Keaton at times, with that slapstick timing and dedication and trust me: he does take a beating in this film. But when he gets that iconic "Party's over." line in, you know it was all worth it. 

Or what about the priest who suddenly is able to do pretty impressive feats of martial artistry after exclaiming: "I kick ass for the Lord!"? Good times.

According to some sources, this film made Lucio Fulci, director of some of the most memorable splatterfilms ever, a little queasy. If you can make Fulci gag, you know this is some pretty brutal stuff. But it is so much fun, you'll be laughing and gagging in equal measure and in the end, this is a must see if you like anything zombie related. In all its gory glory, this is a work of art.