261 Days of Horror, Day 55: Dead Alive
Mar. 16th, 2007 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiDead Alive. 1992, Directed by Peter Jackson. Written by Stephen Sinclair, Fran Walsh, and Jackson. Released by Trimark.
Let me tell you about the Sumatran Rat Monkey. See, one day, a bunch of nasty, plague-ridden rats escaped from a ship, found a bunch of tree monkeys, and raped 'em. The resulting cross-species creature somehow transformed the plague into a venom that, in turn, turns any human it bites into a nasty zombie.
The Rat Monkey was all I saw of Dead Alive (or Braindead, as it was known outside of North America) the first time I saw the movie. I caught the opening scene at a DragonCon film room, then had to leave. But what an opener: A zoo official of some sort has captured the creature (although it's inside a crate), and he has to threaten the poor, ignorant natives in order to get it off the island. But when he accidentally gets bitten by the creature, his guides shout "Zingaya*" and chop off the infected body parts. Which include his head.
Because they still recognize that getting the creature off the island is A) good for their chances of surviving, and B) a way to get back at the oppressive and arrogant colonists who insist on dropping Coke bottles from the sky, the guides still deliver the creature to the zoo.
Cut to a few years in the future. We meet a nice mama's boy named Lionel, and the object of his affections, Paquita. Thanks to a Tarot reading, Paquita believes that Lionel is destined to be her true love, and therefore is willing to go on a date with him in spite of his issues. Alas, Lionel's mum, whose relationship with her son would make Jocasta seem like Mother of the Year, follows them on their date to the zoo, and wanders too close to the cage of the Rat Monkey, getting bitten.
Of course, you might be wondering how come no one at the zoo knows that the creature is dangerous. Or why it's allowed to be so close to the public that it could bit them (venom aside), or kill creatures in nearby cages. You're probably watching he wrong kind of movie if you spend too much time on this, however. And you don't need to worry about it anymore, because Lionel's mum crushes the simian/rodent half-breed under her heel. Fortunately, New Zealand zoos in the '60s were used to having patrons kill exhibits, so no one seems to mind.
Over the next day or so, Lionel's mum starts getting sicker, with a classic moment in which her ear falls into her porridge, and she gobbles it up unknowingly. Later, Paquita's dog gets into the house, and the near-zombie disposes of it as well. This leads to one of the greatest exchanges of dialogue in movie history:
Paquita: Your mum ate my dog!
Lionel (holding up some remains): Not all of it.
When Lionel's mum finally succumbs to the bite, the real fun begins. I won't go into a scene-by-scene, as there's not a second of screentime that isn't worth watching here. But here are the highlights:
● The over-embalming of Lionel's mum, leading to nasty fluid popping out her eyeballs.
● The punk who's dumb enough to piss on her grave, and gets grabbed in a very uncomfortable place** by a super-strong zombie.
● Father McGruder, who yells, "I kick ass for the Lord!" Alas, he doesn't kick enough ass to avoid getting bitten.
● The undead baby, the result of postmortem copulation between McGruder and a zombified nurse. The conception and the birth are both ludicrous. But neither of those compares to the scene in which Lionel, for some reason, decides to take the baby out for a stroll. We get scenes in which the baby flies through the air and others in which Lionel is forced to whack it to keep it under control and prevent the creation of more zombies. It's sick, twisted, and hysterical, not least because of how completely fake the "baby" looks. If they'd only managed to find a way to incorporate a scene like this into SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2, that movie could have been redeemed as well.
● The Zombie Clusterfuck! After Lionel, attempting to kill the zombies once and for all, accidentally uses "animal stimulant" instead of poison, they break free of the basement and attack the guests at Lionel's uncle's party. We see all sorts of fun stuff, including a zombie punching his fist through the back of a woman's head (exiting through her mouth), a great visual.
● The zombie intestines. Seriously.They wander around with a mind of their own.They even have something resembling a face.
● The fighting against the zombies, including Uncle Les taking one out with a garden gnome, and then a whole bunch with assorted kitchen implements. We also see a zombie somehow impaled on a lightbulb (which doesn't break).
● The lawnmower scene. Just as things seem hopeless for Paquita and one other survivor, in comes Lionel with a rusty old lawnmower, telling the zombies, "party's over." He then wields it like a chainsaw, eventually eviscerating all of the zombies in the room. We see limbs, guts, and blood everywhere.
● And then there's the finale, in which Lionel is literally sucked into his super-sized zombie mom's womb, and fights his way out from the inside. It defies all description.
I love this movie. And so do many of you. So why isn't Dead Alive one of the twelve I'm spotlighting at the beginning of each month? First, the ludicrous amounts of gore make it tough to pitch as mainstream -- I can argue that my Mom should see Alien or Halloween, but I don't think I could convince her to watch this one. Second, much as I love the movie, it isn't nearly as well crafted as The Frighteners, which is easily the best actual horror flick Jackson has done. And third, for shock value alone, this actually pales in comparison to Jackson's other early works (which will be reviewed here later this year), even as it fails to really innovate in any other way.
That said, this is a modern classic, the closest thing any post-1990 film has come to capturing the magic that Sam Raimi found with Evil Dead 2. It's got great one-liners, classic B-movie bad acting, and the most fucked-up Oedipal complex I've ever seen on the big screen. As long as you have a strong stomach, Dead Alive belongs in your collection.
*Native for, "you're fucked, dude."
**Like the back of a Volkswagen.
Let me tell you about the Sumatran Rat Monkey. See, one day, a bunch of nasty, plague-ridden rats escaped from a ship, found a bunch of tree monkeys, and raped 'em. The resulting cross-species creature somehow transformed the plague into a venom that, in turn, turns any human it bites into a nasty zombie.
The Rat Monkey was all I saw of Dead Alive (or Braindead, as it was known outside of North America) the first time I saw the movie. I caught the opening scene at a DragonCon film room, then had to leave. But what an opener: A zoo official of some sort has captured the creature (although it's inside a crate), and he has to threaten the poor, ignorant natives in order to get it off the island. But when he accidentally gets bitten by the creature, his guides shout "Zingaya*" and chop off the infected body parts. Which include his head.
Because they still recognize that getting the creature off the island is A) good for their chances of surviving, and B) a way to get back at the oppressive and arrogant colonists who insist on dropping Coke bottles from the sky, the guides still deliver the creature to the zoo.
Cut to a few years in the future. We meet a nice mama's boy named Lionel, and the object of his affections, Paquita. Thanks to a Tarot reading, Paquita believes that Lionel is destined to be her true love, and therefore is willing to go on a date with him in spite of his issues. Alas, Lionel's mum, whose relationship with her son would make Jocasta seem like Mother of the Year, follows them on their date to the zoo, and wanders too close to the cage of the Rat Monkey, getting bitten.
Of course, you might be wondering how come no one at the zoo knows that the creature is dangerous. Or why it's allowed to be so close to the public that it could bit them (venom aside), or kill creatures in nearby cages. You're probably watching he wrong kind of movie if you spend too much time on this, however. And you don't need to worry about it anymore, because Lionel's mum crushes the simian/rodent half-breed under her heel. Fortunately, New Zealand zoos in the '60s were used to having patrons kill exhibits, so no one seems to mind.
Over the next day or so, Lionel's mum starts getting sicker, with a classic moment in which her ear falls into her porridge, and she gobbles it up unknowingly. Later, Paquita's dog gets into the house, and the near-zombie disposes of it as well. This leads to one of the greatest exchanges of dialogue in movie history:
Paquita: Your mum ate my dog!
Lionel (holding up some remains): Not all of it.
When Lionel's mum finally succumbs to the bite, the real fun begins. I won't go into a scene-by-scene, as there's not a second of screentime that isn't worth watching here. But here are the highlights:
● The over-embalming of Lionel's mum, leading to nasty fluid popping out her eyeballs.
● The punk who's dumb enough to piss on her grave, and gets grabbed in a very uncomfortable place** by a super-strong zombie.
● Father McGruder, who yells, "I kick ass for the Lord!" Alas, he doesn't kick enough ass to avoid getting bitten.
● The undead baby, the result of postmortem copulation between McGruder and a zombified nurse. The conception and the birth are both ludicrous. But neither of those compares to the scene in which Lionel, for some reason, decides to take the baby out for a stroll. We get scenes in which the baby flies through the air and others in which Lionel is forced to whack it to keep it under control and prevent the creation of more zombies. It's sick, twisted, and hysterical, not least because of how completely fake the "baby" looks. If they'd only managed to find a way to incorporate a scene like this into SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2, that movie could have been redeemed as well.
● The Zombie Clusterfuck! After Lionel, attempting to kill the zombies once and for all, accidentally uses "animal stimulant" instead of poison, they break free of the basement and attack the guests at Lionel's uncle's party. We see all sorts of fun stuff, including a zombie punching his fist through the back of a woman's head (exiting through her mouth), a great visual.
● The zombie intestines. Seriously.They wander around with a mind of their own.They even have something resembling a face.
● The fighting against the zombies, including Uncle Les taking one out with a garden gnome, and then a whole bunch with assorted kitchen implements. We also see a zombie somehow impaled on a lightbulb (which doesn't break).
● The lawnmower scene. Just as things seem hopeless for Paquita and one other survivor, in comes Lionel with a rusty old lawnmower, telling the zombies, "party's over." He then wields it like a chainsaw, eventually eviscerating all of the zombies in the room. We see limbs, guts, and blood everywhere.
● And then there's the finale, in which Lionel is literally sucked into his super-sized zombie mom's womb, and fights his way out from the inside. It defies all description.
I love this movie. And so do many of you. So why isn't Dead Alive one of the twelve I'm spotlighting at the beginning of each month? First, the ludicrous amounts of gore make it tough to pitch as mainstream -- I can argue that my Mom should see Alien or Halloween, but I don't think I could convince her to watch this one. Second, much as I love the movie, it isn't nearly as well crafted as The Frighteners, which is easily the best actual horror flick Jackson has done. And third, for shock value alone, this actually pales in comparison to Jackson's other early works (which will be reviewed here later this year), even as it fails to really innovate in any other way.
That said, this is a modern classic, the closest thing any post-1990 film has come to capturing the magic that Sam Raimi found with Evil Dead 2. It's got great one-liners, classic B-movie bad acting, and the most fucked-up Oedipal complex I've ever seen on the big screen. As long as you have a strong stomach, Dead Alive belongs in your collection.
*Native for, "you're fucked, dude."
**Like the back of a Volkswagen.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-17 02:08 am (UTC)*dies*
You are so awesome.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-21 05:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-17 02:29 am (UTC)Why? Because you live right next to one of the three towns in the state (http://www.behindthemaskthemovie.com/theaterlistings.html) that are playing Behind the Mask (http://www.behindthemaskthemovie.com/) this weekend.
SEED PACKET SEED PACKET
*flails*
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-17 02:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-17 04:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-17 05:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-17 03:13 pm (UTC)You're going to do Reanimator at some point, aren't you?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-21 05:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-17 04:26 pm (UTC)What am I forgetting?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-21 05:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-17 05:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-18 01:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-18 09:17 pm (UTC)It's simultaneously hilarious and disgusting, and always makes me wonder "How the hell did they do that?"
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-19 02:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-21 05:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-18 12:06 am (UTC)